FIA WEC/ALMS, 12 Hours of Sebring - Hour Six

The #66 TRG Porsche crawls down the pitlane before coming to a stop close to the start/ finish line.

The #1 Audi has had a delay, now 2 laps down, Fassler at the wheel and in 6th spot

The Strakka HPD is set to take a penalty for speeding in pit lane

The GT lead battle meanwhile is fabulous at present, Magnussen leads from Beretta, Lietz and Gavin, all four separated by less than 3 seconds.

The Dyson Lola and Muscle Milk HPD both pit from 8th and 3rd respectively

Beretta now leads, he's gone from fourth to the class lead inn a single lap as Gavin forces Lietz into an error and goes third. 

A very disappointed Dominik Farnbacher told the DSC Ed that "It was exactly the same as Le Castellet last year, we were getting ready for the race start, bunching up, and someone braked - It was a mistake and I am very sorry that it cost us, and the Flying Lizards, a chance."

The JRM HPD pits from 4th as the other two 03as are dicing on track, albeit laps apart.  The Muscle Milk car is back uo in 4th, behind an Audi 1,2,3.

5th at present is Nick Heidfeld in the #12 Rebellion.

LMP2 at present has Sarrazin leading for Starworks from Barbosa in the #055 Level 5 car, an HPD 1,2.  Pierre Kaffer is third for Pecom and then Matthieu Lahaye in the Oak Racing Morgan Judd.

The #97 AMR Vantage is still running very strongly - 5th at present and ready to tske advantage of any fumbling during the fun and gsames ahead.

Jonny Kane is back aboard the Strakka HPD after his earlier discomfort and is putting in some very quick laps as he looks to put the #21 car back into contention.

The #1 Audi is running off the pace again, it looks set to pit again (from third) with what looks to be a continuing ECU issue.  The car goes by though and is being passed by GT cars - Perhaps the team are still prepping spares? Heidfeld is up to third as a result in the #12 Rebellion Lola Toyota.

Corvette are now a 1-2 with Milner closing on Garcia.

Fassler is now tumbling down the order, down to seventh with Chris Dyson the latest to profit from the Audi's current misfortune, the Lola Mazda now 6th.

Heidfeld is matching current Audi pace but he's being reeled in by a charging Simon Pagenaud, a full seven seconds faster on lap 160, 38 seconds back from the Lola - a 1:48.054 from Pagenaud compares very favourably with the fastest pace that Audi have so far produced (a 1:47.4 from the #3 car!)     

The #71 Ferrari has another off but rejoins (Bertolini) - Marc Lieb meanwhile has split the Corvettes, the #77 Porsche up to second.

The #1 Audi is still on pitlane and tumbling down the order now - dropping to the lower end of the top 20 and amongst the leading PC Orecas as we approach the halfway mark.

Trouble for the #37 Conquest Morgan Judd - its running slowly on the pit straight, no drive apparent, the car has been pushed behind the wall on the outside of the pit straight, no full course caution required.

Hour 6 Summary - Chinks in the Armour

At halftime, here are the retirements:

58, Luxury Ferrari
8, Merchant Sevices,Oreca
59, Luxury Ferrari
23, Signatech Oreca-Nissan
95, Level Five HPD

Apart from the Level Five entry (dropped oil cooler), all of the others stopped because of accident damage.

Not a retirement by a long shot, but a significant delay beset one of the Audis. The already electronically challenged No. 1 came back with a balky gear selector. It would go on to lose several laps later in the hour. This elevated the best of the petrols into an overall podium spot which for the moment belonged to the ever more muscular No. 6 HPD.

There was equal drama, but in a lesser class when the long-time leader of PC, No. 9, went behind the wall. This left the No. 06 Oreca of Core at front. The cars behind seemed to hold station, waiting for time to evolve before attacking.

The period ended with a proper halftime yellow when the No. 37 Conquest P2 class Morgan-Judd-BMW badge as you would like it car stopped at Turn 1.

JW