Petit Le Mans - Hours 5-7
Very Close In All Classes

Hour 5

The GT1 Corvettes have engaged in another round of pit exit tag. This episode is a bit more benign than the Mid-Ohio variant. This time there is only a light tap with no reciprocation.

On the latest restart Marco Werner had the lead, but not for long. Klien simply powered past and steadily opened up a lead of about 5 seconds before the positions stabilized. At least for the moment Werner either won’t or can’t answer.

In GT2 the increasingly trouble No. 87 Porsche has now developed a vibration, directly attributable to its early contact with the Ginetta-Zytek. Werner tried to run a stint with the wounded car but then it sprouted a massive front left puncture, dropping the Farnbacher-Loles entry down to 6th in class after making a long slow return to the pits.

Interestingly, it’s been an uneventful hour, but also devoid of much tight racing. The most important developments have been the continuing recovery of the No. 1 Audi, now in third overall, and also the No. 62 Ferrari, now second in GT2.

The hour ends with the race at about halfway on both time and distance. In its 11-year history the Petit Le Mans has always made it to the 1000-mile distance target versus the 10-hour time limit.

Hour 6

The first 30 minutes of this period was the first truly uneventful half-hour of the day. All of the key positions, as well as the relative margins remained quite steady.

Then at about 5-1/2 hours we had a change of the lead, entirely routine as it involved a pit call by the No. 07 Peugeot. Nicolas Minassian took over the wheel again of the 908 and returned to the race at the tail of the lead lap.

The Peugeot’s stop elevated Romain Dumas to first overall, with the Audi of Marco Werner next, and first in LM P1. It did not take long for the diesel coupe to regain a couple of spots—slotting back into third overall about 17 seconds behind the two in front of him, the No. 7 Porsche and the No. 2 Audi.

A few minutes later Dumas stopped, promoting Werner to the lead and Minassian to second. There were problems further back when Chris Dyson braked for a turn and was tagged hard by the No. 3 Corvette of Jan Magnussen. The sturdy Chevrolet was undamaged but bits and scraps of the blue Porsche was flung about. Dyson returned to the pits and there was extensive work done to the rear body and ancillaries.

There was yet more damage as Oliver Gavin came almost to a halt at Turn 9. Gavin managed to come back, but a bare crawl. Work is being done to one bank of the V8 engine and to the associated induction system. The car returned to the fray but this has allowed the No. 3 GT1 a largely unfettered run to the class flag.

Minassian’s chase back to the front endured a mysterious slow lap but returned to speed next time around—traffic? The third place No. 1 Audi didn’t gain much from this as it made a routine stop a lap or two later.

Despite all of the safety car interventions, the attrition rate has been rather low. There are still 31 of the 37 starters still circulating.

Creation Autosportif's day came to a premature close when Jamie Campbell-Walter brought the #88 CA 07 into the pitlane shortly after the demise of the #888. The problem was a major gearbox issue that was not fixable in the time remaining and the decision was taken to pull the plug, rather than drive round on the remaining gears (second was already gone) and be a non-classified finisher - resources being more profitably targeted on readying the cars for Laguna. The team member who passed on this information pointed out four Clemson University students who were working on the car for this race; "They were buzzing at the start," he said. "Now they've found out that the reality is that it's mostly shit!"

All was well at Drayson Barwell, with the only issue so far being that the air con had failed in the #007 Vantage and that the drivers were getting rather warm. Other than that, the car was circulating reliably and consistently.  

Hour 7

The No. 4 Corvette is five laps behind the lone other car in the class. The overall / LM P1 contest has stabilized to the Audi having a good margin over the Peugeot.

The most noteworthy development of the hour has been the inexorable march back to the GT2 lead by Mike Salo. The No. 62 Ferrari and the No. 45 Lizard fought closely through the hour with the lead changing hands twice during stops.

The Risi entry came into the pits first, then a short time later it was followed by the Porsche. This ever-increasing speed of the Ferrari and a good exchange of stops left the Risi team in command of the class. It was a fine turnaround from their earlier delays and a return to the form that they showed early in the race.

Good things don’t last forever and the No. 73 Ferrari had another right-angle spin and stall (Pierre Ehret this time) and brought out a full-course caution. Although the car resumed quickly, the officials are taking this opportunity to do some house cleaning around the circuit. It coincides with the sun edging towards the horizon.

The inside right rear of Dindo Capello’s Audi had gone down earlier, causing the No. 1 car to make an extra stop and drop deeper into third place. The relatively tough day at Audi continued when Sarrazin (back in No. 07) retook the lead after the restart. He easily blew past the No. 2 Audi on the fast back stretch.

The restart also witnessed yet another incident. On cold tires Luis Diaz slammed into the wall at the chicane, badly deranging the right rear. He managed to return to the pits but the damage is extensive. The No. 87 Porsche continues to have problems from its earlier accident, with damage to the suspension on the side opposite from the one that was hit.

The hour ends with a hot three-way battle for 4th overall between Ryan Briscoe (No. 5 Penske Porsche), Timo Bernhard (No. 7 Penske Porsche), and Franck Montagny (No. 26 Andretti-Green Acura). This has championship implications.