Le Mans 24 Hours - Hours 4-6

Jos Verstappen: "The car is fast, very fast.  My only problem is when I get caught before a corner behind an LMP1 car.  We are way faster through the turns than the P1s but we can't get by them on the straights.  I am really looking forward to the night running."

Frank Biela: "We are going well but were delayed when we had to fit a new nose section to the #1 car, we were getting a lot of understeer but there was rubber going down so things could have changed but the team made the call.

Mike Hezemans: "We had a delay of over two hours so we're way behind.  But, the sun is shining so hey things could be worse."

The #41 Trading Perfomance Zytek and #76 IMSA Performance Porsche are confirmed retirements - 52 runners remaining.

Jan Charouz on the incident for the #10 Lola Aston Martin: “I was overtaking one of the LMP2 cars and I got over on the left side of the track where there was no grip, and I lost downforce because there were two cars in front of me and I lost the rear of the car and just started spinning – there wasn’t much I could do. Fortunately there were some marshals that took off the front bodywork so I could keep going. The car is fixable, but obviously there is a lot of work to be done.”

Seth Neiman, #80 Flying Lizards Porsche: "I probably know less than anybody about the accident, so you’d have to ask Patrick (Long). I was on my second lap out of the pits, my first reasonably fast lap on fairly cold tyres, coming into Indianapolis and not pushing too hard and suddenly, bang -  knocked into the guardrail by the #76 IMSA car. What I don’t know is what was happening with them, I understand there was another prototype involved. There’s some speculation as to whether Patrick got passed by a prototype or got hit by it.

"The car is repairable, but it will be here a long time. But you can’t write things off; remember in ’06 when the car would not re-start, we had to fix the electrical system and came back within a whisker of a podium, so you never know."

Chamberlain – Synergy: Amanda Stretton: "We’ve really only had a problem with a puncture in traffic that has put us out of sequence. Bob picked up some muck on the circuit, we don’t know where – there have been so many incidents out there, it’s just ridiculous”

Team Matmut Oreca - Words of wisdom and experience from Hugues De Chaunac:

“It’s looking good, but I think we have to be very careful, it’s a very long race. For the moment I asked my drivers really to be realistic with both cars. The first hour is always dangerous for the car and for the drivers because the track is not perfect. Secondly, all the drivers are a little excited and they sometimes forget that it’s a 24 hour race, so I am at least glad that the drivers have followed my instructions and we can see that now, after two or three hours, the traffic is very difficult as we have seen with the Porsche #76 and for the moment I am treading very carefully.

"My drivers confirmed to me that they were very concerned about some of the LMP1 cars; they think they are doing a 2 hour race. The cars are going everywhere and you have to be very careful, Le Mans is a special place. In terms of what we can achieve, every hour now is a new hour for our cars, so we will see."

Audi - Ralf Juttner on Allan McNish’s quadruple stint: "We try to keep him fresh so he can do these things – he is the best guy for it!

"It’s early days, but we are looking at our lap time potential against Peugeot and we have to try to put them under pressure in the hope they may make some mistakes, but from what we can see they seem to be doing this anyway.

The aforementioned Amanda Stretton has a drama on her out lap, just before Tertre Rouge, she spins, clatters the guard rail and attempts to continue, the left rear suspension is badly damaged and the car is pouring smoke from the rear.  The #19 is in big trouble.  Hugh Chamberlain confirms that it appears that something broke, causing the accident - The radiator is broken with limited steering, the car is six miles from the pits and the team is sending assistance out to Amanda.

The No. 16 Pescarolo ducked into the garage after its lurid excursion and ceded the PP1 lead to the white Dome. The DP1 class (sorry about that reference) continues to be led by the No. 2 Audi, with Dindo the Dingo Capello now driving. The No. 9 Peugeot is 35 seconds down, and another 5 to the second healthy Peugeot (No. 7).

Speaking of dingo dongo the GT1 battle is brilliant. The No. 009 Aston long held a narrow lead, before the No. 64 Corvette won a tactical battle with a quicker non-tire service stop. However, the gap remains close as Darren Turner (No. 009) is now clocking the fastest laps in the class. Ron Fellows, now in No. 63 is less than 10 seconds arrears.

No. 82 (Ferrari), 77 (Porsche), 97 (Ferrari) was briefly the GT2 order, until a shuffle of stops leaves Wolf Henzler in first with the No. 77 Proton Porsche. The works Spyker (No. 85) has been backed into the garage with electrical issues. The 3-wheeled No. 50 Saleen took nearly 15 minutes to return to the pits and then nearly two hours of repairs before returning to its race.

The GT2 battle again turned around with Bruni grabbing top spot with the remaining Risi Ferrari—simply amazingly fierce as the 4-hour mark approaches. Its close in most classes and we’ve gone nearly four Grands Prix in length and everyone is at 100% attack—clearly inferior to the almighty Bernie & Max Floor Show.

Van Merksteijn takes over his own Porsche and as a result the P2 class lead is soon taken over by the Great Dane, John Nielsen. The Lizard comes out of its long hibernation—ironically as the temperature cools a bit. Alas, the pre-race GT2 favorite is now out of the running. The No. 10 Lola czechs back into the race after its long repairs.

The No. 5 Oreca-Courage is now atop the petrol runners while the Peugeots continue to regain momentum, if not positions. Montagny (from 3rd place) and Lamy from somewhere south of Tours have swapped fast laps on several occasions.

The GT1 runners have had a habit of stopping nearly simultaneously, heightening the drama in that class. At one stage the No. 64 Chevrolet took the advantage by not taking on tires while the No. 009 Aston did. Then No. 63 had longish stop when Ron Fellows took over while Johnny O’Connell limped out. He had a bruised foot from slamming the pedal down so hard.

The Zytek, beached at the Ford chicane, and the No. 76 abandoned in the litter, have both officially withdrawn. We have some significant drama with the No. 19 Chamberlain Lola-AER. Amanda Stretton had a massive suspension failure on her out lap. She slammed the wall twice and tried desperately to crawl back along the grass.

There was an Euskadi moment. The “new” No. 21, which had been going reasonably well and better than its brother, went banging over the curbs and was brought into the garage for fairly light repairs.

The GT1 battle continues hot with Fellows completely erasing the lead of the No. 009 Aston. Both Fellows and Turner have left the No. 007 Aston in the dust. Imagine that, a pair of mere sports cars driver hunting down the exalted F1 man, Heinz-Harald Frentzen. Doe they have no respect for those from superior series?

Here are the gaps at the 4-hour mark:

GT1; No. 63 leads (Corvette)

No. 009 is 44 seconds back (now with Turner in the Aston Martin)

No. 63, now with Papis aboard, is another to pass Frentzen.

The GT2 contest, while still close, has eased a bit with Bruni (No. 82 Ferrari), about 50 seconds clear of Davison in the No. 77 Porsches. Toni Vilander is a lap behind in the No. 78 Ferrari.

Overall it is Minassian leading, nine seconds ahead of the Good Audi, No. 2. It is Peugeot—Audi—Peugeot, with No. 9 the last car on the lead lap. Earlier Minassian had put a lap on the next Audi, that of Alexandre Premat (faster of the R10s).

The Danish Porsche has taken a strong lead in LM P2, some 30 seconds clear of the other RS Spyder. The Speedy Lola is a lap down.

Johnny Mowlem has had a puncture in the No. 14 Creation. Meanwhile Stretton is the heroine of the moment. She’s disconnected the steering, leaving the front right corner off the ground. Then she waited for the water temperature to drop comfortably below boiling and started to head back at about 60 kph.

Alan Simonsen is getting well up to speed in the Kruse Schiller Motorsport Lola Mazda, improving the #44 cars fastest race laps lap after lap.

The #85 Spyker is an official retirement - engine failure

18:30

Of the petrol runners the order 6th to 9th overall is #5, #11, #17, #6 with Sascha Maassen currently 10th in the #31 Essex Racing Porsche andf the #16 Pescarolo just behind.

The #18 Rollcentre Pescarolo is having a quietly impresive run, 13th overall, Lamy is currently 14th in the delayed #8 Peugeot with the #20 Epsilon Euskadi 15th.

The #14 Creation is banished to the pit garage for the team to fix a broken wing support - Bob Berridge is very actively encouraging the Chamberlain Synergy crew to greater efforts to fix the #19 car.

Kataoka and Pagenaud are scrapping over 8th place, half a second or so the gap.

Joao Barbosa is making steady progress, the #18 Rollcentre Pescarolo is up to 12th with the Portugese steadily improving the car's best lap times.

Jean de Pourtales brings a rather smokey #44 KSM Lola Mazda back into the pits after his out lap.

The surviving Risi Ferrari now leads GT2, Bruni leads Henzler by 50 seconds.

The Dome / Oreca battle for eighth is well alight now, the French car trying to outdrag the Japanese coupe with lights flashing to unsettle the man in front - No chance!

The #90 Farnbacher Ferrari is running with a left hand door from the now retired Krohn Racing car, the #90 car having broken the wing mirror mounting.

19:00

The Team Bruichladdich Radical has stopped just after the Mulsanne Kink, Marc Rostan at the wheel.  The car is being pushed back to a place of safety.

Pedro Lamy's recovery drive in the #8 Peugeot, up to 12th place now.

The top three meanwhile are separated by barely 30 seconds after more than 5 hours.

Maassen pits from the P2 lead, 11th overall, Elgaard climbs aboard, the #31 rejoins immediately ahead of Bleekemolen aboard the second in class #34 car and the predictable battle ensues.

Frank Montagny has pulled up to the rear of the second placed #2 Audi, it makes its way by on lap 91, a Peugeot 1,2 once again. Villeneuve leads by just over 20 seconds so the top 3 are separated by around 25 seconds.

The #009 Aston Martin is gradually pulling away from the battling Corvettes - #64 leads #63 until Magnussen passes Papis at the second chicane and pulls away.

The French Prime Minister pops into the press room and pops upstairs to the Press bar - bet they don't charge him 6 Euros for a ham and cheese sandwich.

The Radical stops on the Mulsanne but restarts and runs slowly after a 10 minute gap.  The car eventually arrives back at the pit garage - Marc Rostan finding that the car would not run above 4000rpm, a broken ECU the initial diagnosis.

The GT1 contest continues to be the hot one. The pattern there has remained much the same—close racing, no quarter given, simultaneous stops, lead swapping. It does come a bit undone when the No. 64 loses a lap with a broken alternator.

Frank Montagny has reset the race’s fast lap several times, with it resting at 3:20.600 as the evening gets cooler. The No. 9 Peugeot now leads after a spell with No. 7 on top. It was Jacques Villeneuve at the wheel, marking the first time that Le Mans has been led by a former World Champion since Mario Andretti did so some years ago.

Ayari, in the No. 5 Courage continues to lead PP1 ahead of Treluyer (No. 17 Pescarolo), Ito in the Dome, and the other Courage-Oreca of Olivier Panis. But their overall spots are under threat as the delayed No. 8 Peugeot is back into the top ten.

The Embassy Racing WF01 loses time with a suspected ECU problem, the unit behaving itself when recycled in the pit - Warren Hughes reporting that the car had run faultlessly to that pouint - it drops the car from 4th to 6th but Jonny Kane is soon back up into fifth in class, 19th overall.

#19 Chamberlain Synergy Lola - Amanda Stretton: “ Something went on the car and we’re still looking at the data to try to find out what exactly. Fortunately the mechanics got out to me and I was able to adjust one of the springs to get the ride height adjusted so I could get the car home.”

“At the moment we don’t actually know what went wrong with the car – we’re still looking at the data to try to find out. The repairs are to the damage without actually fixing the cause. I was on an out lap and we think some oil from the stop might have got onto the cold tyres – that’s one theory, but we can’t be sure.”

#90 Farnbacher car is running OK with Pierre Ehret aboard. Happy with the pace, no particular problems.  The team are busily rebuilding the cars original door with a view to replacing the borrowed unit from Risi/ Krohn as soon as possible.

The #14 Creation AIM car is in the pits again after a heavy incident. A still slightly sore Stuart Hall explained, “Things could be a lot better. Johnny had a puncture on the run down to Indianapolis and it put us in the wall. We’ve damaged the side of the car and the front splitter. It’s another long job and the worry is that we’re running a bit thin on spares after the week we’ve had. We can only do the best we can to get back out again... we’re still here.”

#31 Essex Racing running well, just taken the lead in LMP2 after a pit stop.

Sascha Maassen: “We are trying to stay out of trouble and fight with the other Porsche. It’s a long way to go. Our strategy is to carry on double stinting for the moment. We may go to triple stints in the night.”

Pedro Lamy (on the #7 Peugeot's earlier problem) - "It was a gearbox problem, we were stuck in one gear but the car is running well now. The race is tough, and fast, as we thought it would be.  Can we make it back to the leading group? Well its a long way back but then it's a long, long race."

Still only 4 confirmed retirements as we hit the 6 hour mark - that's more cars still running than the race used to welcome as a starting grid until just two years ago.  It is still quite crowded out there at some points.