ELMS, 6 Hours of Le Castellet - Hours 4 and 5

15:06
Lucas Ordonez continues to get to grips with the Greaves Zytek, and has just turned in the car's quickest lap of the race so far. In doing so, he closes the gap to Thiriet to just 14 seconds, shaving almost three seconds off the leader's advantage in that last lap alone.

Pierre Thiriet has pitted from the lead, allowing Lucas Ordonez an uncontested passage through to first position. The TDS Racing Oreca was the first to make its fourth pitstop, among the leading group at least.

15:19
Nicolas Marroc steers the Sebastien Loeb Racing Oreca through to second, passing the TDS car in the pitlane, as Mathias Beche returns to the car he set on pole. Marroc then heads for the pitlane and a waiting Nic Minassian, who clambers into the Oreca's cockpit and heads away.

15:21
The race leader is into the pits. Ordonez has completed an impressive stint in the Greaves Zytek, and is given the chance of repeating it by being sent out for another stint.

The Status GP Lola is in for fuel, with Dean Stirling still performing driving duties.

15:23
A 1:49.369 from Mathias Beche is a new fastest lap of the race for the TDS Racing Oreca. Combined with the last pitstop, which was efficiently done, the gap to Ordonex is down to four seconds . . . but Beche is now being held up by Nicolet in the Oak Morgan - quick on the straights, but lying seventh in the race.

The last pitstop for Curtis Racing was enough to allow the GT leader, Jaime Melo, through to 9th position overall. There's 25 seconds between the two, but the GT cars are able to go so much further between fuel stops. Jonathan Cocker is in GT second, pedalling the JMW Ferrari at a steady two-minute rate.

After being clobbered by the Pecom Oreca, the AF Corse Ferrari is still pitbound, the team struggling to repair the car.

15:32
The GT race leader pits, allowing Jonny Cocker to move through to regain the lead. The Curtis Racing #42 is also into the pits, with John Hartshorne handing over to Alex Kapadia.

Despite some impressively quick lappery, Beche has so far failed to dent the lead currently enjoyed by Lucas Ordonez, and the margin stands at a fraction under three seconds.

Beche has come up to lap Jonathan Hirschi in the #11 Race Performance Oreca and found the Swiss lacking in manners. Once again we see a lead contender being baulked by someone several laps behind in the race. Admittedly, the performance of all the P2 cars is fairly close, but once a driver or a car has been lapped then it is wrong that they "race" a lead car and hold them back. In this instance, the delay has cost Beche nearly three seconds. These are the only two cars left on the lead lap.

15:44
Oak Morgan into the pitlane from 7th for a regular pitstop. Nicolet stays in the cockpit.

After his sojourn with Hirschi, Beche has made good the lost ground and is now back in the chase, the margin to Greaves around a second as we begin the 120th lap. By the time they reach the back straight, the gap is just a few tenths.

15:49
Status GP Lola into the pitlane for a fifth pitstop of the race, and as Dean Stirling pulls up to a halt, the leaders hammer by down the straight, Beche having the cheek to flash his headlights at Ordonez as they thunder by.

15:52
Battle has been well and truly resumed, and we have the spectacle of the two cars nose-to-tail around the track, the negligible margin between them oscillating as they work their way through traffic. Beche has the pace now, but not yet the opportunity, but he's working at it.

15:56
The inevitable finally arrives, and after a side-by-side battle down the full length of the Mistral, the TDS Racing Oreca sweeps through on the inside line into Signes, and we have another change of lead.

Positions At End of Fourth Hour (PDF)

Two hours to go, and we have Mathias Beche back into the lead again - exactly where he started. Now that he's got through ahead of Ordonez, he seems to have managed to stretch the advantage fairly swiftly. Between the two we have Sarrazin, looking to unlap himself . . . which happens almost instantly as Beche comes into the pitlane for fuel. Looking at the timing, it seems unlikely they can get away with less than two more stops.

16:02
The AF Corse Ferrari finally rejoins after a lengthy stop to repair the damage sustained in the coming-together with the Pecom Oreca, almost an hour and a half ago.

Ordonez is visibly struggling with the Greaves, suggesting that the tyres are near their limits, but Alex Brundle is stepping forwards in the Greaves garage and is eager and willing to take over. Sarrazin, meanwhile, has been pushing hard in the third-placed Seb Loeb Oreca, and was a full two seconds quicker than Beche on the last lap. He's still almost a full lap behind, but with two hours yet to run, must still have his eyes on something better than third.

16:10
Having written that, Sarrazin pits, so he'll lose the lead lap again. He stays in the car.

16:12
Ordonez pits from the lead, and the team complete a full pitstop for tyres, fuel and driver, with Alex Brundle strapped securely into the cockpit.

In the battle for GT honours, just 22 seconds now stands between James Walker (JMW Ferrari) and the leader, Marco Frezza in the JMB Ferrari.

16:15
Contact between the Jota Zytek and the Gulf Racing Aston Martin Vantage. Both cars are damaged. Sam Hancock gets the #38 going again, but the car's sustaioned left rear damage, so the car's crabbing back to the pits.

16:16
Drama for Alex Brundle in the Greaves Zytek, which has sustained damage (unrelated to the above) and lost the whole of the front left bodywork. His aero will be totally unbalanced, so he'll have to head back to the garage to have the bodywork replaced. The errant panel is picked up by one of the trackside marshals.

16:17
Brundle pits to have a new wing fitted. This is helping TDS, and also Seb Loeb's Oreca, with Sarrazin pushing to regain the lead lap. Sarrazin moves through into second.

16:20
Sarrazin regains the lead lap.

16:23
Nicolet pits the Oak Racing Morgan after completing his second stint. After his contact with the Aston, Hancock has slipped down several slots, and the Oak was running 6th.

16:25
A sixth pitstop for Curtis Racing Technologies, the LMPC leader (and sole survivor, as it happens) running just outside the top ten, but with an economy disadvantage over those immediately adjacent. the top three GT cars are all ahead of the stock prototype now, with Marcos Frezza leading by 18 seconds from James Walker, with the #75 Prospeed Porsche third, and leading GT 'Am'..

16:30
Four and a half hours of racing ticked off, and yet we still have a serious and entertaining race on our hands here. Alex Brundle was unfortunate to lose so much ground after that mysterious loss of bodywork, but he's still well set for a podium and a mere 15 seconds now behind Stéphane Sarrazin, and matching the Frenchman's pace.

16:34
Pitstop for the Status GP Lola - Alexander Sims at the wheel and running fourth. Meanwhile, down at the bottom end of the track, the Kessel Racing F458 has spun.

16:35
Apologies to the Boutsen squad, but the previous post suggesting they were already out of the race was premature. A lengthy pitstop just came to an end, with the car heading back out onto the track again, but only completing about half a lap before pulling over behind the barriers.

16:37
The #69 Aston returns to the track after a lengthy pitstop for repairs, following that incident with Sam Hancock. Roald Goethe is signed as being in the car, but spins off at Turn 1.

16:38
There's a very out-of-sequence pitstop for the Oak Racing Morgan Judd, #24. Guillaume Moreau stays in the cockpit while the crew work on the front-left corner. He'd just set a quick lap, and was running sixth. A team representatiove refers to liquid in the wheelarch, and the possibility of a brake fluid leak, which they were checking for.

16:41
On-screen announcement states that there's a two-minute stop-go for the Greaves Motorsport Zytek. The message cites several breaches in the regulations, and this will effectively rule them off the podium. Further clarification if, or when, we get it.

The next round of pitstops is beginning in GT, and JMB have pitted Melo from the lead, with Walker still out there and yet to stop, so the JMW 458 is running first in 'Pro'.

16:45
Undeterred by the impending penalty, Brundle is really pushing hard in the Greaves Zytek. He's consistently lapping in the low 1:51s, and that's top pace for the race at present.

16:47
Brundle pits to complete the penalty. Two minutes will seem like a lifetime for Brundle, sitting there with the seconds ticking away. It seems likely that the infringement involved the number of people working on the car when the Zytek came in last tikme for repairs.

16:49
Alex Brundle resumes his race, slotting in somewhere not too distantly behind the Status GP Lola.

16:53
Both leaders are in for pitstops together, and with over an hour to run, there's no question that they'll both need to stop again before the finish.

Jonny Cocker has pitted from the lead GT Ferrari, allowing Melo back through into the top slot. Alex Kapadia, enmeshed in the midst of the battle for the race in GT, has moved through into 8th; the highest position so far for the Curtis Racing Oreca. Go Danny, Go! (That's Danny Bear, by the way.)

Positions At End of Fifth Hour (PDF)