So much for some of the podiums being set—more on that later. The very front is as unsettled as possible. The fast laps in the morning light came and went with little appreciable difference between the top three, at least as a result of fast lappery. Neither the two Mercs nor the BMW played any of their Joker cards, which made it all that much more strategic. Edward Sandström and later Claudia Hürtgen worked their magic to gradually hound the Benz of Thomas Jäger and later Sean Edwards without dipping under the Z4’s reference time. Max Buhk and then Max Nilsson kept station with the #6 Heico Benz. It became ever tighter as the other Heico entry, #16, came within three laps of the leaders.
The #63 Holden had spent much of the period in the paddock with several mechanics down under the car repairing the hub. The biggest change, and the one that upset the “set” podiums was in A2 where the Mini had a more than mini bang and lost the class lead to the Honda of the Lap 57 team. Both of the SP classes have closed up considerably, largely through various travails. The #116 Ginetta still leads SP3 over the Black Falcon BMW. Although the Ginetta has been running faster it is close. SP2 has been back and forth between two Silhouettes, the Renault on steroids two laps ahead of the recovering pretend BMW Gomez.
There was drama when Hürtgen reeled in Edwards and made a bona fide challenge for the lead. It came very late in her stint but nonetheless it was fierce with Edwards even briefly taking to the sand. The battle was interrupted by the race’s fourth Code 60. The ten-minute interruption effectively gave the BMW a free stop as they were about to make one anyway. Hürtgen handed over to Al Faisal. The Saudi driver ended the period with an excellent charge back to regain the lost lap. One effect of the Code 60 was to put the three leaders nearly equally in their stint times although the BMW still had one stop more than either Mercedes.
