Le Mans Series, Algarve - Hour 2 & 3 Watts and Lahaye pit from second and third overall – Watts stays aboard (right on the hour) and Lahaye hands over #24 to Jacques Nicolet.
As we had the #008 going by to lap the #13 Rebellion Lola Belicchi brushes the Larbre Saleen (oddly as it passes the #66 Saleen past the pits – All seem to survive though.
The LMP2 battle is well alight – Watts comes out just ahead of Pla with Erdos 10 seconds behind.
There’s a 30 second stop-go for the second placed Lola Aston Martin, speeding in pit lane – that will gift second place to Jani in the #12 Lola.
Disaster for Ragues as the car fails to fire after the stop-go, it fires eventually but further time is lost. He rejoins fifth.
Turner is now aboard the JMW Aston, he goes by Martin Ragginger for fourth and is catching Holzer ahead.
Pla is not letting Watts get away at all – the gap still less than a second.
Kirkaldy suffers a second front left puncture in the #91 CRS Ferrari, the car gets back to the pits but is delayed again of course.
Turner had been drawing ever closer to Holzer but the Prospeed Porsche stops on circuit – Turners target then becomes second placed Toni Vilander 7 seconds ahead.
Ragues goes by Pla for 4th overall on lap 45 and is closing in fast on Danny Watts. He takes the position as the ars complete Lap 47.
Belicchi passes Erdos for 6th as we get close to 90 minutes.
The Bruichladdich Ginetta Zytek pits and is into the garage, attention to the front right hand corner.
The leader is about to put a second lap on the second placed #12 Lola.
Turner is right with Vilander and grabs second place in class on their lap 50 – The Aston now sets off in pursuit of the class leader as Dumbreck looks to get by Farnbacher for 6th in class.
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Jani pits at the 100 minute mark, Ragues goes up to second but had lost time at some point and now has Watts right back with him.
Nicolas Prost leaves aboard the #12 car, Belicchi pits, JCB climbs aboard – Tyres fitted to both Rebellions.
Ragues now pits - Mailleux. It’s not a routine stop, a new steering wheel is proffered.
There’s been an issue somewhere for Jaime Melo because all of a sudden the lead gap is down to under 5 seconds.
The leader pits, Sarrazin climbs aboard.
Russo has closed in on and passed Dumbreck. he goes by Farnbacher too and, courtesy of some elbows, Dumbreck follows through and goes up to seventh in class.
Miguel Amaral spins and damages the front end of the #40 Quifel ASM Ginetta Zytek from 5th position, front right wing and front underfloor, the car has the front floor wedged underneath, restarts, dumps the broken piece on the infield and gets back to the pits.
Leventis cedes 3rd, then 4th to Ragues and JCB and Newton is also looking to grab back a lap from the Strakka HPD.
The GT2 battle post pitstops is down to 6 seconds but Bruni in the Ferrari draws away from Bell in the Aston.
JCB is right with Ragues and the pair tussle for more than a lap with the Rebellion man looking for a way through, JCB does it with a ballsy outbraking manoeuvre into turn 7, Ragues though isn’t done yet and the battle continues, albeit reversed, Rebellion now running 2,3.
The 8th placed #24 Oak Pescarolo gets a 30 second stop-go for pitlane speeding, it class and overall position though will be unaffected.
Mike Newton spins out as he tried to unlap himself from Leventis, it takes a lot of time for the RML man to get himself back on track and also loses second in class to Guillaume Moreau. The gap around a lap and 20 seconds between #42 and #35.
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Bruni continues to pull away from bell with Lietz making minor inroads into the Astons advantage before pitting, seemingly a routine stop but out of sequence.
Behind this pair Alesi leads Henzler by just a second too as we get to the 2.5 hour mark.
Ragues pits from 4th after a fine triple stint, Vanina Ixckx climbs aboard and the car rejoins after a suspension adjustment.
That allows Leventis up to 4th as Moreau pits from 6th, second in LMP2 and it seems like a less than routine stop. It is a long stop and #35 starts a tumble down the order as we see a TV shot of the #40 car seemingly about to rejoin, Amaral still at the wheel.
The Pescarolo’s problem is gearbox internals – no rapid work underway on the car and the recovering #41 Bruichladdich car up to 4th in class.
The leader pits after lap 101, no real drama
Bell pits, Turner takes over and the Aston rejoins, but behind the #77 Porsche.
Amaral tips Bouillon into a spin, the #13 car recovers, rejoins and then a fired up JCB outbrakes himself and spins again in an attempt to get back past the delayed #40 car.  |
JCB pits soon afterwards, is out of the car and the #13 car is wheeled back into the garage from 3rd with the right rear corner being examined. |
