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Hour Four Halfway through this race and its as dramatic as we could hope for. The fourth hour opens in hugely satisfying fashion for Oreca-Matmut, as Bruno Senna first takes Bakkerud for seventh, and then Olivier Panis pulls off a great overtaking manoeuvre to snatch second from Tomas Enge's Lola Aston Martin. Panis' pace is better than leader Tinseau at this point, but his momentum is retarded by having to make his fourth stop just a couple of minutes later....but this turns out to be no routine stop, as the LC70 is put on the jacks and backed into the garage for urgent attention. This leave Enge to concentrate once more on chasing the leader, but he too makes his scheduled stop soon after. He joins Miguel Amaral's Aston briefly, before both return to the race. Senna pits soon after. But it is not just in LMP1 where the batlke for the lead is intense; Richard Lietz is unrelenting in applying pressure to Gimmi Bruni in GT2, but the JMW Ferrari remains a few tenths ahead of the Felbermayr Porsche. In LMP2, Bobbi's lead in the #30 Racing Box Lola is still more than a lap, but Miguel Amaral seems to comfortably have the measure of Claude-Yves Gosselin, as the Quifel Ginetta-Zytek moves away from the GAC car for second. Things are even more comfortable for the GT1 leaders, with Roman Rusinov's cushion over the Corvette now being two laps. After an excellent stint, Tinseau pits and hands over to Jean-Christophe Boullion. A faultless stop from the Oreca team sees the #16 resume with its lead intact and still at five seconds. Four of the top six cars have changed drivers at the recent stops, with Darren Turner, Pierre Ragues, and Marcel Fassler now ensconced in their vehicles. Danny Watts has also climbed behind the wheel of the Strakka Ginetta-Zytek for the first time. The #28 Ibanez Courage seems to be in trouble again, the cameras showing the car stopping out on the unused part of the track before refiring and rejoining. The Pegasus Courage slows in sympathy and pits also. Alas for Oreca, the fourth hour wasn't a good one after all - the #11 now an official retirement with gearbox trouble. Also hitting trouble after a fine run is the WR Salini Judd. Ignition problems saw the car taken into the garage three times before it fired up, losing a lot of time and leaving the team the French equivalent of "gutted!" 40 minutes into the hour, Gosselin and Sean Edwards have a disagreement at the chicane that leaves the #41 GAC Ginetta-Zytek much the worse off. Both cars get back to the pits, but the prototype only had the use of three wheels; the front right not pointing in the optimal direction. An angry Gosselin exits the car and his frustration is plain to see. Now it is Quifel ASM's turn to encounter problems. The louvres above the front left wheel are damaged and the team is ordered to replace it. In P1 the battle for fourth is heating up in a big way. Marcel Fassler , as expected, is hustling the Speedy Sebah Lola and catching Senna rapidly. Behind him, Ragues is also closing in the Signature Oreca Judd. The GT2 lead changes hands when Bruni hands over to Rob Bell. That is unlikely to be the end of things in that class. Paul Drayson is back in the Vantage GT2 for the second time having just taken over from Jonny Cocker. The big green machine is currently ninth in class, with the immediate priority being to defend the position from Michael Vergers, who has similarly just taken back posession of the Virgo Ferrari after the completion of Sean McInerney's stint. Things are now happening nearer the front of GT2. The fourth place IMSA Matmut RSR is off the track from fourth place, Patrick Pilet at the wheel, while Leo Mansell has had an off in the Team Modena 430 and resumed. Meanwhile, the class lead has now gone back to JMW after Richard Lietz pits the #77 Felbermayr Porsche. Now the focus switches back to P2, with first the #29 Racing Box Lola taking an excusion through the gravel, and then the leader pitting. Moments later, the Pegasus Courage crawls slowly along the pit straight before stopping and being pushed into retirement by the marshals. With the lead at eleven seconds, Enge concludes a dramatic hour by spinning the #007 Aston unaided and losing 15 seconds to Boullion as he spin-turns himself back into the race. The #13 Speedy Sebah Lola Aston has been struggling with a persistent and worsening clutch problem – The car is really struggling to restart after pitstops. Olivier Panis: “There was no warning, just a big noise from the gearbox, probably the diff. “We struggled on a green track but I the race we found we could take the fight to the Pescas. “The new aero will be another step forward.” Antonio Garcia: “It’s very encouraging to have led for so long in our first race in GT2. We were able to double stint the rubber with no real problems and of course the Safety car really helped us early on. We are looking now at when I can get back in to the finish. David Richards: “It’s a very encouraging start – We definitely have some work to do on driver comfort in the #009 car to accommodate three such different sized drivers.” When asked if Thomas Enge was having some trouble in traffic? “I don’t think so – We had a chat earlier with him about that sort of thing!” Peter Kox “The early double stop was because the side window blew out – I saw it shaking and then it went with a hell of a bang. I had to stop because we then risked losing the windscreen. We lost another chunk of time when Phillip Peter hit me. Kariim Ojjeh “Phillip did a great job and so did our race engineer. All the calls were right, we gained nearly a whole lap (and then Gosselin tangled with Edwards)
Positions after four hours: |
