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LMS – Nurburgring – Sunday – Race – Hour 5 16:33 Enge pits – unscheduled. It’s a routine stop, so it may be that they are now looking to the timing to the end of the race. 16:36 Janis
has closed the gap to Ehret back down to 5 seconds. Porsche, Ferrari and
Spyker all on the podium? Mansell now 12.7 seconds down on the lead
Porsche, which barring problems in the last 2 hours should prove
victorious. 16:44 The WR Salini has a problem with the front-right wheel, where the tyre is fouling the front bodywork. The incident appeared to arise as he came through the final chicane, and smoke erupted from the wheelarch as passed the pitlane entry. He'll have to complete a full lap before he can have the issue addressed. It appears to be a collapsed front suspension. Salini struggles back to the pits. 16:46 Kutemann turns his JMB Ferrari in onto the Risi car in the final corner, spinning himself out and causing Narac (sixth in class) to sit and wait for him to finally to come to a halt. Narac is having a lonely race though, a lap down on Simonsen and a lap ahead of #88. 16:53 Big accident for Watts in the Strakka Zytek around turn 4. Coming through traffic the car spat right off the track, spinning then into the barriers with the front right, back across the track and then hard into the barrier on the other side with the right front and right rear. The impacts were not enormous, but the suspension on all four corners is likely to be seriously deranged. Watts climbs out and Strakka’s good run is over. The car is recovered under yellows. 17:00 With the demise of the Strakka Ginetta-Zytek, Olivier Pla moves through to 5th overall, having also passed Mailleux in the Signature Plus Oreca. The Piccini brothers remain second and third for Racing Box, with the driverless #35 Oak Racing Pescarolo fourth, tenth overall. Two more LMP2 cars have run largely trouble-free races; the #24 Oak, 64 seconds behind its twin, and the #41 GAC Zytek in a class sixth and 12th overall. With a couple of notable exceptions, it's been a generally strong showing from LMP2. 17:01 The Saleen is back out, but is 9 laps down on the Corvette. Ehret has done a fine job of keeping Janis back. Simonsen, in 5th, he has been beavering away and is just 44 seconds behind the Spyker now. 17:03 Janis is in. This pitstop could determine the final podium place in GT2. 1’27 and Coronel takes over. The Ferrari pits next lap, taking 12 seconds longer to install Beltoise. Advantage Spyker to the tune of 11 seconds. Bruni is back into the top 10 in GT2. At the back of P1 Prost has been putting some great times in but is still down in 31st place.
Corvette is in the garage, bonnet off, undertray off, bodies everywhere! 17:08 Leader in, tyres and Primat to drive to the end. His lead was over a minute but surely for the championship they will cede to the #007 car at some point? Mansell closes the door fairly on Mailleux in the Signature Oreca at the Dunlop curve and the Ferrari is pitched into a half spin and beached in the gravel. It takes some time to get it cleared and the marshalls do not seem keen to allow him back onto the track once recovered, then Mansell has to creep back to the pits with a rear right puncture at best, a puncture and suspension damage at worst. A stop and go penalty for Signature would be no consolation at all for Modena who would be lucky to finish now, let alone score any points. P2 update, Pla leads by more or less 2 laps from Piccini brothers in #29 and #30 respectively, a lap between the siblings. The #35 and #24 Pescarolos are waiting in the wings but trouble would have to hit those ahead for them to feature on the podium.
Zwolsman is in the Audi, 37 seconds down on Buncombe and Kaffer is now in the Hankook car, Mansell’s downfall promoting the Korean-tyred Ferrari up to 4th and just 50 seconds or so away from the podium.
17:20 Pla makes what is likely to be his final stop. As does Lietz. It looks like #77 will make it through the race with a stop less than some, possibly all, of his close competitors, the Porsche being very frugal here. Beltoise is closing on the Spyker for second in GT2.
17:26 Saleen passes Corvette. The Corvette looks dead in the pits, no more bodies around the car. With an hour to go on the clock, we still have 32 laps to go, so if there is no safety car then we should actually have about 45 minutes left. Maybe the other GT2s can make it to the end without more fuel, it will be touch and go... PS/MP Positions After Five Hours 1 007 "LM"P1 Aston
Martin Racing Lola Aston Martin ENGE Tomas - 163 laps 5 stops |
