Le Mans Series - 8 Hours of Le Castellet - Race Hours 6 & 7

CRS update.  Initially Andrew Kirkaldy didn't know why his Ferrari was stationary on the track because the radio wasn't working but he went out on a paddock bike to pick up Tim Mullen who reported that "the driveshaft broke on the back straight and I coasted as far as the long horseshoe but it's a bit uphill from there so that's as far as I got." 

This pair, in fact the whole team, were delighted with their performance up to that point especially as they were about to start double-stinting the tyres.  "I was due to come in just after the driveshaft broke and I'd just set my fastest lap so we were really confident about a second stint on them which would have gained us time on the Porsches. 

Meanwhile Phil Quaife was thrilled with his second stint in the other CRS Ferrari, at times fastest in GT2.  Quaife caught and passed Martin Ragginger in the #88 Felbermayr Porsche but the Ferrari man didn't actually know who he'd passed.  "I was still learning about how the prototypes overtake GTs in the first stint and I maybe overworked the tyres which went off but the second stint I thoroughly enjoyed and the car was perfect."

It is believed that the early Melo/Bruni stop was not to get the car out of sequence at all, but was due to a puncture.  This car, and the sister #95 car in the hands of Vilander, had been into the 59s and are now putting Lietz and Lieb under pressure.  Except now they are not - Fisichella is back in #95 and Melo is parked at the side of the circuit by the barrier.  Their race looks to be run so Kaffer has been promoted to third.  Russo is perhaps the 'true' third as he is a stop ahead of both Kaffer and Long who are just ahead of him.  When asked if Fisichella was surprised by the combination of the pace of the Porsche and its fuel economy, he told us that only "Mr Amato Ferrari can answer that, but he is very busy."  Are modern F1 drivers really incapable of independent thought?

In P2 Moreau continues to eke away from Wallace and Lahaye.  Greaves is falling back away in fourth and Danny Watts should be claiming that from him in four or five laps.

2:27 to go and McNish hands over to Capello for the last time.  Panis is ahead of Mansell(s) now too and up to sixth overall.  #009, #13, #6 and #008 are all having good clean runs at the moment and it will take an incident to shake up that running order now.

Moreau does the quickest lap of the car for the race so far, 1:49.859, nearly five seconds quicker than Wallace's corresponding lap.  Watts takes fourth from Greaves with all four on the same lap so Moreau leads Wallace by 32.3 seconds, Lahaye 23 seconds back and then Watts 32 seconds back, already five seconds ahead of Greaves.  Wallace then pitted for fuel, Greaves for Ebbesvik so now Watts was third and chasing down the OAK cars, Moreau was quick but Watts was even quicker.

A puncture for Ehret in the #90 CRS Ferrari sees it into the pits, Quaife takes over, presumably to the finish now.  He's back to fifth, with Ragginger ahead again. 

#40 stops for Pla to take over sixth in class, he is pushing hard and soon posts the car's best lap of 1:48.834.  Moreau is down to 49.4s now, but Watts is still a second or so faster each lap and honing in on third with 48 after 48 after 48, even the odd 47.

Lieb takes over the lead car in GT2.   Allowing for the additional stop, the Felbermayr gap is 35 seconds ahead of #9, 5 but that seems like a comfortable enough cushion with two hours to go. 

Russo pits from third in GT2 but spins on his outlap at the first chicane, seemingly losing the back end (on cold tyres?)  This promotes Ragginger to third. 

In FLM 48 leads 49 and 43, Only 14.5 seconds covering this trio (Beche, Zollinger and Barlesi), they are 16th to 18th overall.  Cicognani takes over from Barlesi.

1:45 to go and Watts passes Wallace easily through the tight right hander before the start of the Mistral straight.

The wind has dropped recently and rain seems to have mostly passed the circuit by, though it has been visible in the sky nearby.  A few spits of rain have been noticed in the last few minutes though and a few cars are cropping up with fastest laps, suggesting their is a colder air mass moving through.  Will it bring a final flourish of rain?

It's nearly the final roll of the dice in GT2 now as Fisichella hands over to Vilander.  Ragginger inherits second place by 20 seconds but seems to owe us one more stop than the lead AF Corse car by the end. 

Dindo stops with 90 minutes to go for fuel and tyres and it's all routine.  #5's is not a routine stop though, back into the box.  They have a 4 lap cushion over the recovering #12 Rebellion to avoid being last in class.

A terrifying moment for Pla in the Quifel ASM Ginetta Zytek as the steering fails, the car going straight across the racing line in traffic, everyone missing him but clearly the car completely undriveable now.  So a P2 favourite sidelined, even if a victory was not on the cards today.

A 1:42.5 for Dindo at the front despite a 4 lap lead - is it just about pushing things for the sake of data now? 

Bruichladdich's handover to Ebbesvik is a reasonably lengthy one but he rejoins fifth.  Watts is really fired up, as ever, for Strakka and he takes chunks out of Hein to take the lead with 75 minutes to go into the first corner.  But the rear legality panel that has already been patched up is going to need further work at their last stop by the look of things.  Have Strakka done enough?  Not yet.

The Mansells are back on track but 3 laps behind the second Rebellion car now.  Vilander had been reeling in Ragginger but passed him in the pits anyway.  #88 makes what should be its final stop handing over to Pat Long.  #88 rejoins 20 seconds ahead of Perez-Companc but shouldn't need to stop again.  #77 has still only made 5 pitstops, nearly 7 hours in and with 200 laps completed.  This is a vital ingredient to their success today.

Just before the final hour and Watts makes his stop.  Fuel and tyres first, as ever, in fact he's back out again quite quickly, so anything they may have done to that legality panel must have been very quick (if at all).  Hein is 86 seconds back ahead.

Final stop for Quaife, handing over to Kaffer for a good fifth place.  Audi are reporting a little bit of rain on the track.

Lieb and Sarrazin make their last stops too.  Lietz will take the flag.

Zollinger is still only 6.5 seconds behind Beche leading FLM.