Le Mans Hour Fifteen:
Nakajima was down to fourth, and it seemed that we wouldn’t be seeing it anytime soon. The #74 Corvette of Ollie Gavin was having a door change, and it seemed as though the leading ‘Vette was falling back from the GTE PRO leaders. The #12 Rebellion, currently with Nicolas Prost at the wheel, sits 7th in LMP1 and 11th overall.
Elsewhere, just a half hour after the car vanished off the radar, the #7 Toyota had been retired. Even though the #8 Toyota is still racing, it is surely out of contention for the win? Logically, yes, it is. However, Le Mans defies logic, and anything could happen in the next nine hours…
The drama continued, this time in GTP PRO, with the #92 Porsche apparently slowing around the Porsche Curves. However, the car was only given a routine pitstop upon arrival, and carried on as normal, so perhaps the issue was not as severe as initially thought. Toyota, through their official Twitter, announced that the #7 had an electrical loom issue, which caused the retirement of the car driven by Sarrazin, Nakajima and Wurz.
The Aston Martin #97, leading GTE PRO, came into the pits, but was wheeled into the garage. After a routine brake change, the car re-joined in second behind the #51 of Bruni. A code 60 ‘slow zone’ was enforced at the approach to the Porsche Curves with twenty minutes of the hour remaining. The #14 Porsche of Marc Lieb lost fourth as it pitted, but the Toyota of Davidson, which took the position, soon pitted and allowed the Porsche back through.
The #74 Corvette came back into the pitlane and stayed there, with mechanics checking out the back end of the car trying to fix what was later confirmed as an alternator issue. This meant the car began to drop through the order, and also allowed the #73 ‘Vette of Jan Magnussen to become the leading Chevy before the #74 re-joined. After over fifteen minutes, the Safety Zone was lifted and full green resumed once more.
However, as soon as green resumed the #14 Porsche ended up in the gravel, taking too much speed on the approach to Indianapolis. This allowed Anthony Davidson through into fourth, and after around two minutes Marc Lieb re-joined the track. Meanwhile, the #1 Audi of Lucas Di Grassi was now in second, overtaking the #20 Porsche in the pits. The #20 is now being driven by Mark Webber.
So the #2 Audi of Benoit Treluyer was leading in LMP1, while Alex Brundle led LMP2 in the OAK Racing Ligier. Gianmaria Bruni still led GTE PRO in the Ferrari, while the Aston Martin of Nicki Thiim leads GTE AM.
On a last note, Neville Haye announced on Eurosport that this will be his last Le Mans. I’d like to personally thank him for guiding me through the long Le Mans nights for many years.
, anyone had a different theory and the camera missed all the action.
![TEK9[R]](/forum/data/avatars/m/126/126900.jpg?1257751549){kind=avatar}
