Le Mans 24 Hours, Hour 13

Bart Hayden:

Our race pace is proving effective and the engine is working well. We’re quadruple stinting the tyres and pushing hard to catch the Pescarolo.

We had a puncture on both cars, which is something that has put us slightly on the back foot. I’m slightly aggrieved that the 16 car is circulating without any number illumination, which is part of the rules. I’m sure if that had been us we would have been pulled in for it.

Nicolas Lapierre (prior to the excursion):

It’s going quite well I would say. We expect to be slower than the factory team, but I’ve been trying to improve our times and Loic will do the same. We had a slow puncture on the last stint so we lost a little bit. I’ve been quadruple stinting tyres with Loic but will probably drop this to double stints because of the puncture.

Dominik Kraihamer:

I have a good feeling at the moment. We are half way through the race and the car feels strong. The Nissan engine is pushing well and I am confident this can continue. This is a long term development for the team – Nissan want to do well and are looking for a strong partnership which I think we have created. The only small problem we had was with the carbon cover on some of the electrical system which had come loose and was affecting the contacts. We lost a position while we fixed that unfortunately.

Personally I am learning as much as I can in this situation. Alex is friendly and very helpful, as is the whole team. It’s a good family atmosphere and an easy place for me to learn. Information is exchanged between the two sides of the garage. It’s a big help, everyone pulls together for the best result.

Lucas Luhr:

We did what we could early on, but as in qualifying we really can’t match the ‘Vettes or the Ferraris. A couple of guys out there are doing 4:02’s, we are just hanging in there on 4:05’s and hoping they’ll have a problem.

3:05 After a long stop the Hankook Team Farnbacher Ferrari is back on the track - meanwhile the #40 Race Performance is in the pit with the front bodywork off.

3:13 Slow stop at the AF Corse #51 pit, dropped from second to fourth in GTE Pro.

Second, third and fourth placed LMP2 cars come in at the same time. Ojjeh still far ahead of Oreca and Level 5.

3:18 Bryce Miller returns the #88 Felbermayr-Proton Porsche to the pit with damage to the right front. Puncture knocked out the front right panel and the mirror.

Peugeot #8 has pitted and the #7 has gone back into third place overall.

Corvettes leading GTE Pro at the moment, followed by two Ferrari 458 Italias. Makowiecki just seven tenths behind Milner, but the Ferrari has only been in nine times compared to 11 times for the Corvette.

Pit stops causing lead changes. Audi #2 pits and drops to second place in LMP1, Cioci dropped from first to fourth in GTE Am.

Westbrook has taken over the wheel of the leading GTE Pro Corvette.

3:36 Lotus Jetalliance #64 reported slow on track - stopped at Mulsanne Corner.

Garcia has taken over from Milner, 3 minutes and 12 seconds for the pit stop including changing the front brakes. #73 drops to fifth in class though.

Dominik Kraihamer just took 11 seconds out of the lead of Karim Ojjeh and that was on the lap before Ojjeh pits.

Ayari moved up into third in class after passing Barbosa.

3:40 Spin for the #60 Gulf AMR Middle East Vantage. Wainwright loses control and spins into the wall.

Ojjeh rapidly losing ground to the Team Oreca Matmut Oreca 03 Nissan of Dominik Kraihamer. Gap only 12 seconds.

Peugeot pit stops. #7 Peugeot back in third as the #9 passes again and then pits.

Gianmaria Bruni lapping fast, 21 seconds behind Makowiecki and six seconds quicker on the last lap.

In fact Bruni has just put in the fastest GTE Pro lap time of the race 3:59.760.

3:50 Lead change in LM P2 as Dominik Kraihamer passes Karim Ojjeh. Soheil Ayari closing in rapidly on the Greaves Zytek as well

Van Lagen up into third place in GTE Pro as Makowiecki pits. Quite a hot Ferrari on pit row.

Ayari and Barbosa closing in on Ojjeh. He's currently around ten seconds a lap slower than the two drivers chasing him.

Belloc passes Pumpelly for the lead in GTE Am.

Kraihamer pits, handing back the LMP2 lead to Ojjeh. Barbosa and Ayari also pit.

As we reach the end of the 13th hour Audi #2 leads the race. Peugeot #9 is second at 37 seconds.