Le Mans Series, Algarve - Friday Evening

90 minutes into darkness saw 31 of the 32 cars out and running, the absentee was the #24 Oak Racing Pescarolo which was in the midst of an engine change after stopping at the end of the afternoon session.

Also doing very little running in the session was the Spyker, the team changing a gearbox and then struggling to get the car running - just three laps completed by Dumbreck during the session with Bleekemolen getting out for just a couple of laps at the very end of the night's running.

The early running saw the timesheets headed by first the Peugeot, then the Lola Aston Martin and finally the #12 Rebellion Lola before Oreca pushed the 'try harder' button and the 908 showed more of what it was capable of.

Nicolas lapierre was the man on the mission, putting the #4 car back to the top of the timesheets before stretching its legs for lap after lap.  He tried a little too hard with 30 minutes remaining, a spin in the dark leaving the Peugeot stranded and forcing a red flag to allow the car to be recovered, the Peugeot coming back under its own steam for a replacement set of Michelins and the start of something of a masterclass from Lapierre which saw tenth after tenth shaved off the time, finally finishing the session with a 1:32.235, a full 1.674 seconds clear of the #12 Rebellion Lola with the #008 Lola Aston a further 4 hundredths back.

The 4th LMP1 car meanwhile had suffered a delay, the #13 Rebellion Lola suffering another sensor failure and losing a chunk of running time mid session. That left the car ninth fastest and behind the 5 fastest LMP2 cars.

The LMP2 order was headed for much of the session by the Strakka HPD, Jonny Kane posting a 1:35.274 which was eventually bettered late in the session by a storming Olivier Pla in the #40 Quifel ASM Ginetta Zytek, a string of quick laps eventually bettering the HPD's time by around a tenth 1:35.227 good enough for fourth fastest time overall.

Ben Collins started the session for RML but pitted early on with a power steering problem.  The in-out session start meant that the team new boy had lost the best of his tyres but still picked up reasonable pace.  Thomas Erdos would bring the car up to 4th in class by the end, just shy of the time set early on by Guillaume Moreau in the #35 Oak Pescarolo, this car too had a minor wobble with a fuel injection issue mid session.

The FLM boys had another interesting tussle, the top 5 cars ending the session separated by just 1.2 seconds and Damien Toulemonde eventually winning the battle for overnight bragging rights aboard the #49 Applewood Seven car 1:41.224) 10th fastest overall, fending off the efforts of both Nico Verdonck and Dominik Kraihamer.

Jaime Melo popped in a stunning early lap in GT2, effectively settling the top slot in class almost at the start - 1:44.456 in the #96 AF Corse car.

Jean Alesi made it an AF Corse Ferrari 1,2 but was more than seven tenths astray with Rob Bell again popping in an impressive series of times in the JMW Aston Martin, third fastest.  The Felbermayr Proton Porsches, #77 and #88, and the #90 CRS Ferrari all popped under the 1:46s

In GT1 neither Saleen could break the 1:47 barrier!