Le Mans Series - Second Practice Session
Mechanics Hurt in Pitlane Fire

The times in the second session became rather irrelevant late this afternoon because after around 40 minutes the #73 Luc Alphand Aventures Corvette C5-R pitted for a driver change and a fuel top-up. What exactly happened next is not entirely clear but suspicion seems to have fallen on a split refuelling hose. A major fire ignited almost instantly, with at least two of the Luc Alphand crew suffering burns that required their removal to hospital, and others suffering minor flash burns. The fire took several seconds to extinguish, with flames roaring around the car and the two adjacent fuel rigs: the rig itself for #73 was alight for a short time.

One mechanic was attended to immediately by the RML crew, as mechanics from other teams helped to fight the fire including men from Chamberlain-Synergy and Embassy Racing.

Dsc's David Lord was in pitlane right next to the #73 car as the incident occurred. The pictures he managed to shoot show the fuel hose broken, with a subsequent massive spillage igniting on the C5-R’s exhaust.

With two ambulances partially blocking the pitlane a red flag was quite correctly thrown, and the session was not restarted.

Luc Alphand later told dsc that whilst he did not want to talk in detail the initial indication was that one mechanic’s burns were more serious than the other’s.

We will bring any news of the condition of the two mechanics as soon as we receive it from the team.