Le Mans Series, 6 Hours of Le Castellet - Hours 2 & 3 Harold Primat is now aboard the #009 car after a routine stop, the car running 10th - third in LMP1. Overall the Pescarolo, Tinseau still aboard after his routine stop has a 30 second lead over the #45 Boutsen Energy Oreca of Dominik Kraihamer, this car having leapfrogged the #46 and #41 cars. #13 is in again from second in LMP1 - and the Norma has a quick spin at the final turn. All in all thus far this has been a less than inspiring start to the 2011 Le Mans Series. A brief class rundown after an hour and 20 mins. LMP1 - #16 leads #13 by the best part of 2 laps with the Aston now in the pits and being pushed back into the box! LMP2 - Its a Nissan powered 1,2,3 - Boutsen Energy from TDS and Greaves with Russo closing in on Ojjeh in a fight for third.
GTE Pro - Farnbacher has been harrying Bruni who pits to hand over to Fisichella, Bell in third has handed over to Walker. GTE Am - Cioci pits in the leading #61 430 so Christodoulou now leads the class for CRS with Christian Ried 20 seconds back. FLM - Phil Keen leads for Neil Garner Engineering (9th overall) ahead of Patrick Simon for Pegasus and Shan Qi for Hope. 1:23 Russo grabs third in LMP2 - 4th overall - for Pecom racing in the new Lola Judd (BMW). Sam Hancock "The lights went green and we all started the race, I was coming over the start/finish line, maybe a bit after, all side by side and I was tucked to the right between the Felbermayr car and the pitwall with Enge in front. Everyone slammed on their brakes, the two cars in front collided and the Felbermayr car to my left t-boned me and pushed me into the wall and then I think I hit some others that had stopped in front. About that time I heard that the pace car was still on the track. They should have shown flashing yellows, not a green." Sam Hignett said that "nothing at all came over the safety radio, despite that being exactly what it was for. We have a lot of front damage, front and rear suspension but should be out again soon." Neel Jani "I was stuck in 5th gear, I couldn't go up or down or into any of the emergency modes so I couldn't do anything. The hydraulic compressor failed. We have lost 12 laps but are catching the Zytek so hopefully we can pass that." Mixed fortunes for the Vantage pair - Muller leads GTE for Young Driver but the Jota car pits after a single lap and is back in the box. The LMP2 lead battle is very close - Beche grabs it but is retaken by the Boutsen Energy man - Beche goes by again though and pulls away. The recovering #12 Rebellion Lola posts the fastest lap of the race in the hands of Nicolas Prost - 1:48.455 - Pla almost matches that, around a lap ahead next time around. Prost improves again to a 1:47.878. Walker is up to second in GTE Pro as Muller pits again - he pitted under the Safety car earlier. Farnbacher is back to third - Fisichella leads. Enge rejoins in the Aston. 1:32 The GTE Am IMSA car rejoined a little while ago and the sister Pro car, #76 is about to rejoin. We believe the #77 car is a retirement - the #79 Aston is back out and running again. Patrick Simon is stationary in the Pegasus FLM car - He had been running second in class. 1:36 - Tinseau's lead is over a minute with Kraihamer back up to second overall, Beche close behind and this pair a minute clear of Russo. Farnbacher is right with Walker for second in GTE Pro but the JMW new boy is resisting well - It might be a 458 1,2,3 but its Michelin, Dunlop, Hankook at present! Farnbacher though gets by along the Mistral. 1:43 Karim Ojjeh retakes third in LMP2 from Russo's Pecom Lola. Philipp Peter is up to third in GTE Am for Kessel racing. 1:46 Beche leads LMP2 again as Tinseau pits and Jousse climbs aboard the #16 Pescarolo. The leading LMP2 cars are pitting too - Kraihamer leads the race as Jousse rejoins - He's now on the same lap as the recovering Bouillon. Thiriet replaces Beche in #46 but the car is wheeled into the box! Perez Companc is in for Russo in #39. Jonny Kane has driven a very controlled first stint for Strakka and is keeping in touch (though in no way able to challenge the leading group!) 1:51 Kraihamer pits from the race lead - Jousse now leads from Kane (we're expecting the HPD in very soon) as Bouillon pits for a routine stop - Actually not so routine - There's still more work underway on the door! Paul Truswell believes the team are not doing full stints at present - #13 rejoins in 5th place, Belicchi now aboard. John Hartshorne takes over in the Neil Garner car - Hope racing take the FLM lead. The Jota Aston is in the pit box again after a very unhappy introduction to the LMS. The #76 IMSA Performance Porsche only managed a couple of laps before pitting again - It's in the box too. 1:58 - Kane pits from second overall - Danny Watts climbs aboard the #42 Strakka HPD. Mathias Beche reports a steering problem for TDS - The once class, and indeed race, leading Oreca is still in the box. The race leading Pesca has lapped the field - from a back row start - inside 2 hours! It has to be said that, at present, this is a long way from a classic - The guts of the GTE battle were ripped out within yards of the start line and reliability woes have hit both LMP1 and LMP2. 2:15 - Fisichella has been losing ground to Dominik Farnbacher - we think he may have had a spin - the Hankook car is right with the class leader now - just a couple of tenths behind the #51 AF Corse car - he takes the lead on their lap 63. Belicchi is closing in on Karim Ojjeh's third place overall, the LMP1 Lola Toyota passes the LMP2 Zytek Nissan on lap 69. Fisichella pits and Walker takes second in GTE - Bruni rejoins in #51. The #77 Felbermayer car is a confirmed retirement. Farnbacher pits, Simonsen in for the #89 car and is passed by Bruni for the lead on his out lap - Walker and Enge pit from third and fourth respectively - Bell into the JMW 458 - Nygaard into the Aston. Belicchi is flying, consistent sub-1:50 laps are going to put him back into second place in a lap or two. The #46 TDS car has rejoined - Pierre Thiriet aboard now but the car is 9 laps down after its steering issue. 2:37 Its Simonsen ahead of Bruni now - The battle of the 458s fully joined - Rob Bell is a further 24 seconds back in the third placed JMW 458. Jota's second pit box sojourn was to fix a broken alternator cable, presumed to be as a result of the earlier incident - The car now back out and running once again. The #009 car is going into the box - The lap count though is going up - the team should be pleased with progress so far. Gary Chalandon has climbed aboard the Greaves Zytek - That allows Watts up to second in class, fourth overall. 2:45 - Belicchi is second overall. Jody Firth "something broke in the steering, it locked out on Pierre so he couldn't steer properly. It's our first real issue this weekend and we've also had lots of pick-up on the front left at the end of Mathias's stint, so he was struggling to turn in. We have had to switch to a harder compound to stop it doing that." Mathias Beche "I saw the green lights and started passing the P1 cars, it was great fun! Then I was a bit worried about passing before the line, so I braked and accelerated again, then I saw the safety car down the straight. I didn't know what was going on!" Patrick Pilet "We went back out but after a few corners the steering was totally out and something else had broken in the suspension. We were going to be out of the 70% distance so we parked it rather than risking something else breaking. We got no message on the safety radio, I only heard that we were going to get another safety car lap because my team said it appeared on the bottom of the timing screens. The Ferraris got away with it because they started behind the prototypes so there was a bit of a gap in front of them for them to see and brake into, but we were right behind and had nowhere to go, like a motorway pile-up. It is really bad for Porsche because we can't say this was a racing accident, this was caused by a mistake at the start." The GTE leading #89 Hankook Farnbacher Ferrari gets a 1 minute stop go penalty for too many people working on the tyre stop! Simonsen takes the penalty straight away. Watts pits from 4th overall - Chalandon back up to 4th. Bell is up to second in GTE - 23 seconds behind Bruni. | 
