Le Mans 24 Hours - Hours 7-9
Settling Down A Little - But Only A Little Michel Barge: “It’s really good for the sport that we have some fight here. We thought that Audi would bring a race to us and we are getting that. They are fast and their drivers are doing a good job and it’s not finished. "We are very pleased with the job our drivers are doing. Franck has just done four stints and has made a lot of time for that car. Also, the number 8 car is coming back; first of all Alexander, then Pedro and now Stephane, they did fast laps to get past the Porsches. But we will see. We have our challenge and we must see how the night continues.” Martin Short, caught scrolling through dailysportscar at the back of the Rollcentre garage: "We are having a quietly impressive run. It’s the same old story: no mistakes, keep it going. The car was difficult to drive in the first couple of hours with tyre temperature making the car oversteer in the fast corners. Now the temperature’s come down everybody’s happy. Joao did his usual excellent performance, Stephan is coming in very impressively, and also we’re delighted with Vanina – they’re all improving. It’s also nice to be mixing it with the Porsches – they’re very impressive. It’s just a case of hanging in there. I am waiting for victims" The darkness is coming a bit more rapidly than usual thanks to the thicker than usual clouds. Typically at 22:00 there is enough light that headlights, while mandatory, may not physically be necessary. Now they are definitely needed. Last hour we had a shuffle of the GT1 leaders thanks to the delay of the No. 64 Corvette. Now we’ve had a similar minor problem in LM P2. It affected the No. 31 class leading Porsche which a puncture. Fortunately for them it occurred late in the lap and thus a quick duck into the box took care of it. However, a lap was lost and Verstappen placed the Dutch Spyder into first. The Vitaphone non-Maserati, the No. 53 Aston Martin, stopped briefly on course. Further up in GT1, Jan Magnussen was catching David Brabham, the Corvette running nearly 4 seconds per lap faster than the Aston Martin. The situation later stabilized when Garcia moved into the class leading No. 009 and O’Connell into No. 63. Other incidents during the hour included Michael Vergers going off at the Porsche Curves with the Barazi Zytek. Then came perhaps the most dramatic excursion of the day. It wasn’t serious, but it changed the lead. Richard Klien, apparently unassisted, went off at the Ford Chicane. He came to rest about two meters past the pit entrance and after being pushed out of the gravel had to drive around the long lap—and another long lap. Although the No. 9 Peugeot was clearly shaking all over, Klien remained out and whatever problems had occurred were deemed too minor to bother with. Klien did drop to third, with Kristensen placing the perennially fast No. 2 Audi into second. The GT2 category has now taken on similar characteristics to that of GT1, insofar as the pattern of stops has changed the top positions. The No. 82 Ferrari (now with Melo) has generally been on top, but the Proton Porsche moved back to the top when the Risi car stopped. Horst Felbermayr, Senior has yet to drive this car. He’s the only assigned driver for any of the non-retirees to have not driven thus far. Andrea Piccini has set the fastest GT1 race lap so far, a 3:50.004 as he closes in on the #63 Corvette, currently (at 22:30) 48 seconds behind. He follows that up with a 3:49.820. Rain in the next hour say Aston Martin! Mike Newton has had a sizeable 'off at the Porsche curves in the RML MG Lola that has been fighting back after its earlier nerf from the #12 Lola. At the moment he is telling the team it is unlikely he can bring the car back. The #94 Spyker is a confirmed retirement, both of the Dutch Coupes have suffered engine failure. The Embassy Racing WF01 is in the midst of a lengthy pit stop - Martin little is on the case - a replacement starter motor is the cause. The #8 Peugeot has now climbed up to sixth, the top six are nopw all diesels once again. The #78 Ferrari is stationary under the Dunlop bridge, currently the third place in GT2 but they will lose that place to Virgo Motorsport, Rob Bell having just replaced Tim Sugden at the wheel. Mike Newton has managed to bring the rather battered #25 MG Lola back to the pit garage - Lola Composites man Paul Rennie witnessed the initial incident which he described as having launched the car a couple of feet up into the air sideways as it hit the gravel trap. Juan Barazi meanwhile has ground to a halt at the pit entry and is being pushed down the pit lane by marshals. It too makes it back to the pit box. Fuel pressure problem is the official line - The car running dry of go juice seems the likely reason! Paul Truswell on Radio Le Mans points out that at the present pace with a dry track and no Safety cars the current distance record of 392 laps looks set to be shattered - 405 laps the current potential total. The lead car (#7 Peugeot) in the hands of Mark Gene has a moment at the pit lane entry across the grass but makes it in for a routine service. Driver error is the team's explanantion. Wolf Henzler brings the second in GT2 Felbermayr Proton Porsche into the pits and the car has been pushed into the garage. The #78 car meanwhile has retired despite some shouted instructions to the driver from team mechanics. Gearbox woes apparently the root cause. All of this puts the Virgo Ferrari into second place in GT2 , albeit a lap down to the class leading #82 Risi Competizione Ferrari. Peter Kox has had some contact in the #55 lamborghini, the team will bring the car in for a check-over. Another team having a quietly effective run is the Speedy garage / Sebah Racing #33 Lola Coupe outfit, currently 15th overall and third in LMP2. Embassy Racing Jonathan France, Team Owner: “We spent 21 minutes changing a starter motor, which has dropped us a couple of places that will be hard to get back at the moment. This is the longest the car has ever run so we’re just staying out there and we’re waiting to see if other people fall off.” The car has now pitted once again." Vitaphone Racing Aston Martin: A number of problems for the car in the past hour. Not easy to identify and waiting to download data to get to the bottom of things, but trying to keep Nick Leventis out on track in the meantime. However, as we write the car has just retired with a blown engine... Audi #1 Marco Werner: “It’s going well, we’re trying hard. I did my four stints and the times were OK, we used the medium tyres and the times are consistent now. But we are giving as much as we can. My lap times are as I expected, a little faster than Frank’s and we have to remember this is a very long race. It’s still open, which is good. We try hard to put Peugeot under pressure but we have to maintain the lap times we can do. We know they had some troubles, particularly with the gearbox – and that can happen to any of them. "The key for Audi for this race is consistency. It’s a little bit like 2005, where the Pescarolos were 4 or 5 seconds a lap quicker than us because of the difference with air restrictors and everything; it was a hard fight but in the end we had the victory.” GT2 is currently a Ferrari 1,2,3,4,5 with last year's first and second placed teams both having already retired (the third placed 2007 Autorlando squad aren't here this season). The Embassy Racing WF01 has rejoined the fray, now down in 35th position, a lap ahead of the refuelled #32 Barazi Epsilon Zytek. The latest delay was caused by a repair which required a replacement sidepod after the car picked up debris on the circuit. In the petrol-fuelled battle positions 7 through to 10 are filled thus: #5, #17,#11, #6, all four are still on the same lap. The ex-second place in GT2 #77 Porsche is plummeting down the order, the car is now 6th in class, still in the garage for the team to fix a broken gearbox, it will be some time before the car is further demoted, the next closest car is the much delayed #80 Flying Lizards Porsche, currently some 30 laps adrift. Assuming the #77 car rejoins that leaves just 7 remaining GT2s. Radio Le Mans report that they have already had more than a million web hits since 5am this morning. The #64 Corvette suffers a pit stop error when the car is dropped from the jacks before the left rear Michelin is fitted. The #78 AF Corse Ferrari retirement was not gearbox but rather a driveshaft failure. The #8 Peugeot, currently in sixth place pits with the windscreen plastered with oil (no clear indication where from), the #11 Dome meanwhile is reported running slowly on course, it makes it back as the Peugeot leaves, the #11 car appears to be the source of the oil that found its way onto the Peugeots screen. Amanda Stretton appears to be struggling at the moment too, the #19 Lola running lap times over 4 minutes. She pits as the clock ticks close to Midnight and the car is pushed into the pit garage. Bob Berridge confirms that the #19 car is a retirement, engine issues the final straw after a very tough run. Retirements so far confirmed therefore are #19, #53, #76, #78, #83. #85, and #94 It's midnight | 
