Le Mans Series, 6 Hours Of Le Castellet - Hour 1

Bright sunshine is greeting a reasonable crowd at Le Castellet as the 34 runners all line up on the grid, the Pescarolo and RML HPD forming the back row as we count down to a midday start.  

The CRS GTE Am 430s has a quick spin on the green flag lap but rejoins the train  - Michel Frey also has a problem in the #40 Race Performance Oreca but rejoins too.

Utter disaster as the cars enter the start finish straight - The yellow flags are waving and the pace car stays out - But the lights go green and the GT Cars can't see that, they go for it and there's mayhem in the GTE pack involving contact between all three GTE Pro Porsches and The Jota Vantage!  The #67 IMSA Performance GTE Am car is involved too - and both it and the sister car are crawling back.

The field are led through the pit lane as the mess on the pit straight is cleared up - Disaster for Porsche and Aston Martin - Both IMSA cars make it back but with heavy damage - Only the #88 Porsche is still running at present from the 997 pack - Questions galore here about how that start was (mis) handled!!

Bouillon spins off in the #13 Rebellion Lola Toyota, no contact that we could see but the door had snapped open on the car, he pits and the door is slammed shut before he roars away again.

Jani leads Pla with a rather ill-mannered intra Oreca LMP2 battle underway, Tom Kimber Smith taking advantage of that to close in in the #41 Zytek.

In GTE Its Bruni from Vilander in an all AF Corse 458 1-2 then Alex Mueller in the Young Driver Aston and Rob bell in the JMW Ferrari fending off Simonsen in the Hankook car.

Both the Genoa and JMB FLM Orecas are early pit callers too, we'll find out whether they too were caught up in that disaster! - Hope racing lead FLM at the moment with Phil Keen in the Neil Garner car and Patrick Simon in close contention.

The #009 Aston is up to 8th, but not for long as Tinseau is right behind after his last row start, the RLM HPD is up to 15thm, Erdos doing a fine job too from the back. 

Zugel rejoins in the Genoa car.

There's trouble for Pla, a right rear puncture in the - up to then second placed Quifel ASM Zytek.

He's passed by the Pescarolo as he makes his way back to the pits - Tinseau up to 6th after 20 minutes.

The Safety Car is scrambled but with a message immediately that it will pit this lap! That message is withdrawn though (it might not be a pleasant place to be just now in Race Control!)

The Quifel car is held at Pit exit awaiting the passage of the second safety car - we believe the Safety car was called for recovery of the tyre debris on the Mistral and bits of carbon bodywork dotted around the circuit.

28 minutes The Safety Car will be in this lap the running order currently #12, 46, 45, 41, 39, 16, 42, 009, 40, 92.

The leader was at the back of the first Safety Car train and is thus a full half lap ahead of the pursuing LMP2s - The Quifel car meanwhile has pitted again and is in the box.

Now the leader seems to have a problem - The #12 car posting a 2:04 and seemingly unable to shake off a pursuing pack of Ferrari 430s!!

The Young driver Aston has dropped back but Simonsen has powered by Bell to lie third in GTE - Its a 458 1,2,3,4.

The #12 car pits and is in the garage!  TDS Racing lead the race with the Pescarolo up to second overall!

38 minutes and Pescarolo lead the race with their nearest class opposition the seventh placed #009 Aston Martin with the recovering Bouillon just behind and both the #20 and #12 cars in the box.

Kimber Smith is up to second in LMP2, third overall and right with Beche.

40 minutes - Simonsen is up to second in GTE Pro.

Bouillon is in again - LMP1 is looking very shaky indeed here - Shades of the Hungaroring! The car rejoins after a further short delay.

Paul Slinger has been out looking for Porsche people:

Patrick Pilet "I heard on the radio that there would be one more lap behind the safety car then I heard on the radio "Green, green, green!"  All the GTs accelerated and all the Ferraris spread out into a line, with all the Porsches in a line behind.  I braked and went left but so did everyone else and I was hit on the rear and that was it.  I have never seen anything like it.  It was a big hit and I tried to get the car back to see if we can fix it but the radiator had gone so the engine temperature was very high."  Narac was literally speechless and others in the IMSA garage were simmering.  The mechanics were working flat out on both cars. 

Likewise at Felbermayr, all four corners of the #77 car and more are being worked on, spokesman Willi Dinstl said they would see how bad the damage was but if they were still working on it and could not complete 70% of the distance and score points, they would stop work.

Marco Holzer (Prospeed) was in disbelief: "I saw nothing, just the cars in front and the green lights and green flags and then everyone stopped in the middle of the track.  I got hit from behind and it turned the car around and that was it."

Erdos is behind the Neil Garner FLM car on the Mistral in a battle for 9th but the HPD can't overtake on top speed!

Bell is with Vilander in a battle for third as the GTE leaders un-lap themselves from the sixth placed Strakka HPD on the straight!!

The #12 Rebellion Lola has a failed gearbox compressor - no gears!

48 minutes and the Quifel ASM car rejoins the race but 10 laps down - The car was hit during the lap one chaos and that is what the team believe eventually caused the puncture.  Miguel Amaral confirms that the teams were told there would be a restart and the mistake was clearly that the green lights were shown at the start.

The 8th placed Race Performance Oreca has a spin after contact with Marco Cioci's 430 but rejoins.  It looks clear that this was the Ferrari's fault.  

#75 is a confirmed retirement from the Lap one chaos.

As we get to the top of the first hour the LMP2 leaders are pitting - Ojjeh in for Kimber Smith, in the #41 - Beche stays aboard for TDS. 

The delayed #13 Lola is back up into the top 10.

The under investigation #61 AF Corse 430 takes the lead in GTE Am.

Rob Bell is up to third in GTE Pro as Vilander drops back before pitting just after the hour.