Le Mans Series – Interlagos – Hours 2 & 3
© Janos Wimpffen

Marc Lieb is now aboard the No. 77 Porsche and is the quickest in the GT2 class. Indeed he takes the lead when Rob Barff stops the No. 92 Perspective Porsche, handing over to John Hartshorne. Earlier, Westbrook had relinquished top spot when he made his call in the JWA 997, and Allan Simonsen took his turn with the No. 95 Porsche. Dirk Werner is taking the second stint in the No. 90 Farnbacher Porsche and Matteo Bobbi is aboard the No. 97 GPC Ferrari.

Ex-sportscar champion Raul Boesel is taking his first turn in the No. 91 Porsche and quickly plants it into about 8th in class. His day job nowadays is the manager of the Brazilian GT3 Challenge. He has driven Brazilian stock cars sporadically over the years.

The works Spyker had been running well and moved up to third. But its stops are out-of-kilter and Kox makes the first regular call some time after the others. Mike Hezemans is next among the men of orange.

At the tail end, the Pilbeam is still running, now with local man Paulo Roberto Bonifacio driving. Horst Felbermayr, Sr. is driving the delayed No. 79 Porsche, while Rene Rasmussen is pedalling as fast as he can in the GT2 class Corvette.

The first half-hour of Hour 2 passed uneventfully for the Prototypes, but then at the 90-minute mark Boullion has problems. He seems to have punctures on the right side both in the front and rear, punctuated by a pirouette on the pavement. He comes back around and the blue car is pushed into the garage. There is clearly some damage all along that side, particularly near the front. Guido reports they have a broken wishbone and are replacing the left side one as a precaution. Harold Primat finally reemerged with the car now some 12 laps off the pace.

Lieb has opened up some 40 seconds over the second in GT2 car, the No. 75 JMB Ferrari, now with Alexandre Sarnes Negrao driving. The GPC Ferrari has made a second halt with Yves Lambert taking a turn. It came early as the onboard fire extinguisher came loose and was rattling around. The Creation is the first in LM P1 to make a second stop and Stuart Hall is now driving. The stop was elongated with some fraught looks at the back.

The No. 88 Felbermayr Porsche has had an off. Apart from some chunked rubber it seems ok Lamy made his second stop and handed off to Stephane Sarrazin. A short time later the leader does the same. The Minassian to Marc Gene changeover happened with no swap in position.

Chico Serra is now aboard the No. 74 Ferrari and has established himself as one of the quickest GT2 drivers. Warren Hughes ended a marathon stint, with Darren Manning heading back out in the 2nd in LM P2, 5th overall Radical. Vergers is the only starting driver still out there. Gerold Ried has had an off with No. 79 Porsche, not sure which came first, the puncture or the spin. This comes at exactly the two-hour mark.

The gaps now are;
No. 7, Peugeot 86 laps
No. 8, Peugeot -1 lap
No. 32, Zytek, -2 laps, then back fourth when Vergers stopped for Barazi, still 1st in LM P2
No. 9, Creation, about 35 seconds down
No. 45 Radical, tail of that lap

No. 72 Corvette, 79 laps, 1st GT1 (Goueslard having his first go)
No. 51 Aston Martin, -1 lap (Rees aboard)

No. 77, Porsche, 76 laps, 1st GT2
No. 75 Ferrari, -70 seconds
No. 95 Porsche, -15 seconds

GT soon changes as Lieb hands over to Basseng—the JWA Porsche (Simonsen) is back on top. The local Porsche (No. 91) has had some issues with the right rear corner, but it and all the other starters are still running.

Rob Bell is now aboard the No. 99 Ferrari. He’s quick and has taken two spots in the tight middle section of the GT2 class. He passed both Raul Boesel and Francisco Longo (No. 74 JMB Ferrari).

At the 2 1/2-hour mark Basseng puts the No. 77 Porsche back atop GT2 as Simonsen hands over to Bryce Washington in the No. 95 JWA entry. We also have a new wrinkle as it begins to rain lightly. However, it only last a few minutes and is of little consequence. Indeed, about 15 minutes later the sun made is first, albeit filtered, appearance of the day.

JCW is back aboard the third place Creation, while the Peugeots made stops in tandem, as did the last of the LM P1 cars, the Pescarolo. Emmanuel Collard is aboard that car for his first stint, while Gene and Sarrazin remain in the 908s.

Andreas Mattheis, No. 75 JMB Ferrari, has moved into second place in GT2, but quite some distance behind the untroubled No. 77 Porsche of Marc Basseng.

The No. 79 Porsche of Johannes Stuck has taken quite a lurid slide into the gravel, barely missing the tire wall and slowly clambering back to the pits. The taped up, patched up blue 997 has been pushed into the garage. The Radical has made a routine stop and maintains 5th place.

The third hour ends with each of the four class leaders at least a lap up on their nearest competitors.

Hour 3 Positions
1 7 Team Peugeot Total GENE MarcMINASSIAN Nicolas Peugeot 908 HDi FAP LMP1 ==126== 1:21.143 3 pit stops
2 8 Team Peugeot Total LAMY PedroSARRAZIN Stephane Peugeot 908 HDi FAPLMP1 ==125== 1:21.240 3
3 9 Creation Autosportif CAMPBELL WALTER JamieORTIZ FelipeHALL Stuart Creation CA07 Judd LMP1 ==121== 1:24.238 3
4 32 Barazi Epsilon BARAZI JuanVERGERS MichaelOJJEH Karim Zytek 07S ZytekLMP2 ==120== 1:25.635 2
5 45 Embassy Racing HUGHES WarrenMANNING DarrenHABERFELD Mario Radical SR9 Judd LMP2 ==119== 1:25.914 3
6 72 Alphand Aventures BERETTA OlivierGOUESLARD PatriceGAVIN Oliver Corvette C6.R LMGT1 ==116== 1:30.074 3
7 16 Pescarolo Sport COLLARD EmmanuelBOULLION Jean-ChristophePRIMAT Harold Pescarolo Judd LMP1 ==113== 1:24.191 3
8 51 AMR Larbre FISKEN GregorZACCHIA SteveBERVILLE RolandREES Fernando Aston Martin DBR9 LMGT1 ==112== 1:31.738 3
9 77 Felbermayr-Proton LIEB MarcPOMPIDOU XavierBASSENG Marc Porsche 997 GT3 RSR LMGT2 ==111== 1:35.066 2
10 75 JMB Racing NEGRAO XNEGRAO Alexandre SrMATTHEIS Andreas Ferrari F430 GT LMGT2 ==110== 1:35.413 2
11 99 JMB Racing AUCOTT BenPETER PhilipBELL Rob Ferrari F430 GT LMGT2 14.840 1:35.153 2
12 95 JWA DANIELS PaulWESTBROOK RichardSIMONSEN AllanWASHINGTON Bryce Porsche 997 GT3 RSR LMGT2 22.543 1:35.804 2
13 90 Farnbacher Racing WERNER DirckEHRET PierreNIELSEN Lars Erik Porsche 997 GT3 RSR LMGT2 ==109== 1:34.914 2
14 85 Spyker Squadron KOX PeterHEZEMANS MikeVAN SPLUNTEREN Paul Spyker C8 Spyder GT2R LMGT2 51.881 1:36.733 3
15 94 Speedy Racing Team BELICCHI AndreaCHIESA AndreaKANE Jonny Spyker C8 Spyder GT2R LMGT2 ==108== 1:36.781 2
16 74 JMB Racing LONGO FranciscoSERRA ChicoSERRA Daniel Ferrari F430 GT LMGT2 41.783 1:35.655 2
17 91 Dener Motorsport FIGUEIREDO FlavioBOESEL RaoulVISCONDE Marcel Porsche 997 GT3 RSR LMGT2 == 107 == 1:36.685 2
18 88 Felbermayr-Proton RIED ChristianFELBERMAYR Horst Jr Porsche 997 GT3 RSR LMGT2 ==105== 1:37.412 3
19 89 Markland Racing THIIM KurtRASMUSSEN Rene Corvette C6 Z06 LMGT2 ==104== 1:40.232 2
20 92 Thierry Perrier HESNAULT PhilippeBARFF RobHARTSHORNE JohnPERRIER Thierry Porsche 997 GT3 RSR LMGT2 ==102== 1:36.874 3
21 97 GPC Sport DE SIMONE FabrizioDRUDI LucaBOBBI MatteoLAMBERT Yves Ferrari F430 GT LMGT2 55.828 1:35.927 3
22 79 Felbermayr-Proton FELBERMAYR Horst SrRIED GeroldSTUCK Johannes Porsche 996 GT3 RSR LMGT2 ==89== 1:37.483 7
23 20 Pierre Bruneau ROSTAN MarcBRUNEAU PierreBONIFACIO Paulo Pilbeam MP93 Judd LMP2 ==88== 1:31.110 3