Le Mans 24 Hours - Hours 16-18

The LMP2 contest, for so long a close run series of on track battles has degenerated in the last hour or two into the, perhaps more traditional, survival of the fittest.  All but the Porsche RS Spyders are now in amongst the GT classes.

The #5 Courage is in the pit garage with starter problems.  Hugues de Chaunac reports that Marcel Fassler has been kept in hospital for observation after his late night accident.

The rain, after looking to ease off, is actually coming down much harder, in the pit area at least.

The Pescarolo Sport team are looking glumly at the #16 Pescarolo, engine cover off and not a lot of work going on at present.

Fabio Babini has a quick but harmless spin in the - third in GT2 - #97 BMS Ferrari.

Joey Foster has an accident in the Embassy Racing on the exit of the second chicane, there is heavy damage to the front left hand side of the car together with a deranged rear wing. The #23 Autocon Creation Judd has a right rear puncture on the Mulsanne, Chris McMurray is looking to bring the car to the pits at a sensible rate.

Peugeot are preparing a replacement rear wing for one of the 908s, no make that two rear wings.  Graham Tyler is surmising that the team is about to change the cars to a high downforce set-up.

Joey Foster is bringing the bent #45 WF01 home, he's at Arnage at present and moving reasonably quickly. He makes it back and the team immediately get to work. The left rear corner is very bent and there is body damage to the front of the car too.

Verstappen is up to eighth overall in the LMP2 leading #34 Porsche RS Spyder.

The weather is beginning to clear as we move closer to 7am.

The BMS Ferrari spins, harmlessly, again.

The #4 Saulnier Racing Pescarolo Judd spins on the run down to Tetre Rouge, the car suffers front end damage but Ricard Hein is struggling to get the car turned to go in the right direction, perhaps with damaged steering. He finally manages it and the car makes its slow way back.

Ron Fellows has a run straight on at Mulsanne Corner in the #63 Corvette but rejoins.

At 7am the top 20 numbers 10 LMP1s, 4 LMP2s and 6 GT1s

The #16 Pescarolo is a retirement with engine trouble

The #40 ASM Lola spins and spouts a plume of flame as it attempts to restart.  The #20 Epsilon Euskadi srtops on the Mulsanne and re-starts after a short delay.

Out on the Mulsanne the conditions are still as wet as ever.

The gap after the two leading cars have both pitted is 48 seconds.  Gene though seems to be regularly short cutting the Dunlop chicane.

The #8 Peugeot pits and is apparently the guinea pig for the high downforce set-up as the team change front and rear bodywork. 

The Essex Porsche is now down in third in LMP2 for the first time in the race. - The Radical meanwhile has a harmless straight on moment at Arnage.

A brief resume of the current retirements:

No. 83, Risi Ferrari, accident damage, 50 minutes

No. 41, Trading Performance Zytek, spin, 1 hour, 37 minutes

No. 76, IMSA Porsche, lost wheel, 1 hour, 47 minutes

No. 85, Spyker, engine, 3 hours, 3 minutes

No. 94, Spyker, engine and electrics, 5 hours, 37 minutes

No. 53, Vitaphone Aston Martin, engine, 6 hours, 12 minutes

No. 19, Chamberlain Lola-AER, engine, 8 hours, 53 minutes

No. 25, RML Lola MG, accident damage, 10 hours, 50 minutes

No. 78, AF Corse, driveshaft, Ferrari, 7 hours, 43 minutes

No. 6, Team Oreca, Courage-Judd, accident, 9 hours, 6 minutes

No. 12, Charouz Lola-Judd, engine, 9 hours, 49 minutes

No. 44, Kruse-Schiller, Lola-Mazda, accident, 11 hours, 29 minutes

No. 33, Speedy, Lola-Judd, accident,13 hours, 13 minutes

No. 16 Pescarolo Sport Pescarolo Judd, 14 hours

The high downforce set-up on #8 has resulted in a lap time for that car currently almost 10 seconds slower than its sister cars.The ECU on the transmission is being changed on the #10 Charouz Lola Aston Martin.The group of LMP2s circulating around 30th position has reshuffled in the last few minutes, the #32 Barazi Epsilon Zytek now leads this trio ahead of the Team Bruichladdich Radical and the still stationary WF01. 

The #24 Terramas Courage Mugen spins on the exit of the second Mulsanne chicane and rejoins.

To this point, at 8 am local, the leading Audi has spent 6 minutes less in the pits than the #7 Peugeot.

The #72 Luc Alphand corvette has a moment, ho harm done, at Arnage.

Embassy Racing have apparently retired the WF01 after 17 Hours

McNish has a moment getting by the 4th in GT2 Farnbacher Racing Ferrari.

The #17 Pescarolo and #24 Terramas Courage both have off-course moments but recover.

There's a moment to blow away the cobwebs as Stefan Mucke goes three wide with Minassian and the #22 Tokai Universirty Courage into the Ford Chicane.  the Lola Aston makes the pass and unlaps himself atr least once of  the 22 lap deficit he currently has to the second placed car.  The #10 car is currently 11th.

The high downforce on the #8 Peugeot is clearly not high enough - Lamy spins out of Arnage and rejoins.

The #7 Peugeot is losing great chunks of time to McNish's #2 Audi, the gap now almost 2 and a half minutes.

The #3 Audi has had a clash with the #77 Felbermayr Proton Porsche, Horst Felbermayr the Elder at the wheel, possibly for the first time.  The Audi continues as does the Porsche, Felbermayr though goes straight on at Arnage harmlessly.

Damage for both the #26 Radical and #73 Corvettes is being attended to.