What about the grid ? After several traumatic flying lessons the #4 Mercedes is now safely back in its box and Mark Webber is back on a plane and going home, not a happy man.
Rumours have been rife that Mercedes might pull the other cars, mainly because nobody seems to know or maybe admit what the problem was. Remember that they flipped one in testing and two here this weekend, that really is bit worrying. Anyway it won’t be out and it looks as if the other cars will start.
Sadly Gerard MacQuillan’s battle to stay in GT has failed. For some reason, which is hard for this ‘Brit’ to fathom, the French Porsche 993 RSR has been allowed to start, despite being way off the qualifying pace. We have a fair bit of detail on this saga from the team and if time and space permits we will take you through it .. suffice to say that Gerard is not so much disgruntled about not being allowed to run but the way it has been handled, for example the ACO have offered no explanations.
So as the clock ticks or nowadays perhaps whirrs towards 16:00 hrs the tension mounts the huge crowd settles down for the 67th running of this great race.
We had action immediately as the Team Go BMW with Kato behind the wheel spun under pressure at the Dunlop chicane. It took a swipe at the #11 Panoz giving O’Connell a bit of a fright but no damage.
#19 car pits for new tyres and check over.
Up front it hard to believe this is a 24 hour race it looks more like a Touring Car race.. .. Schneider is having a crack at taking the #2 Toyota.. The Panoz is 6th ..
Boutsen in #2 and is being pushed by the #6 Mercedes. This isn’t a 24 hour endurance race it is a sprint ! We gather that they have dialled in 25% more front down force on Mercs, but this seems to be making the back end a bit wild.
#19 pits for a check over and new tyres and gets out again.
Next in is the slightly poorly #57 Chamberlain Viper with Erdos at the wheel.
The pit lane is rather busy at the moment because the #9 Audi is in with Ortelli, no messages why at the moment.
Audi #10 might be slowing, maybe gear selection problems. In GTS Vipers #52 Marc Duez leads.
Just a quick mention why the #57 started from the back of the grid it was because the car didn’t qualify properly. Chamberlain is a canny old bird and started the car from the pit lane to save a couple laps of fuel ... quite why it came in again has been mentioned.
#32 quick stop and away ..
Audi #10 pushed into pit garage probably to allow more than four people to work on the car, so it may be serious ... 24 minutes into the race and the front runners are into the slower cars, didn’t take long did it ! Great scrap for 4th place
Audi #10 problem with gear box, lost a couple of gears. Andy Wallace states it is a gear box problem so they will change it .. very frustrating since the car is handling beautifully.
#8 Audi in and out for fuel at 16:27 ... seems a bit early, maybe tactics to get the cars out
#22 off at Dunlop, #7 Audi was pushing hard , both cars continue.
#24 into pits refuelled and taking off the body work ...
Another Merc report suggests that the brake balance is going off.
In GTS Oreca are running #52,#51,#53,
#26 Driver change Lammers out Kox in and they are checking rear of the car
#3 Toyota will be in early to clear the decks for the leading cars to come in
After about three laps the field had divided up neatly between factory teams , prototypes and then the GTS.
The flag waving in the grandstands over the pits is a bit curious... we have got no Danish, Finnish or Swedish flags but we do have drivers and no English flag just a UK one, but the Norwegians are here cheering on a non existent driver !
Interesting anorak stuff ... Schumacher did a 3.35’s in the Mercedes 1991 .. we are now doing 3;37’s maybe Michael’s time may get beaten as fuel loads lighten or temperature goes down
#1 Toyota pits, no driver change, plenty of fuel went in but the Mercedes just got out ahead of the it.
Steve Soper had a little spin in #18 as he came into the pit.
Brundle in the pits ..# 17 BMW currently leading and will soon pit , no driver change, so Dalmas now leads the race, until that is he pits for fuel.
The all English Judd Lola #25 is doing steady laps but not making much progress.
#15 BMW pits fuel no driver change this time.
Ferrari is being pushed into the garage for more work.
#62 in and out normal pit stop and driver change.
During all this the #22 Nissan has moved up from 12th and is now 7th
The race is now nearly an hour old and the mad battle for media attention has now passed and the teams are moving into a sensible race pattern
In GTS the pit stops have not started yet but Oreca are 23rd/24th overall and leading GTs and have settled into regular pattern.
#32 pits for second stop. The Best Porsche #80 is 5th in GTS and lapping far slower than the lap as the Vipers at the moment.
#6 #2 #1 #17 #5 #15 #22 #12 #7 #8 #3 #21 #25 #27 #18 #11 #13 #31 #14 #32 #19 #24 #51 #52 #53 #56 #80 #81 #29 #61 #64 #54 #62 #55 #50 #65 #67 #60 #66 #9 #26 #57 #84 #63 #10At the end of the first hour we had a near accident when the leading Mercedes #6 with Schneider at the wheel and the chasing #1 Toyota both caught up with #24 Autoexe Ford LMP99 in a bit of a hurry and it got badly in the way. The Mercedes actually touched the #24 car and got a bit of a ‘tank slapper’ so the Toyota caught up. The leading group of those two and the other Toyota are now running nose to tail through the traffic about two seconds apart and overtaking things, not like a GP ! The BMW #17 is about 8 secs behind this group and eight seconds ahead of the #5 Mercedes.
The #6 Mercedes is being hurled around by Schneider in a most spectacular fashion, mind you he always drives like that !
#60 spins.
Thoughtfully the Oreca team have organised themselves and are running with #51 in the lead, followed by #52 and #53 ! No doubt to his great satisfaction Hugh Chamberlain has ruined this symmetry with his #56 car. The ‘other’ GTS race involving Porsches is currently led #61 car and it is still running 3 to 5 secs slower than the fastest Vipers.
Toyota has now got back into the lead without much trouble and Boutsen is in the lead. The BMW has taken three seconds out of the leading group and the #5 Mercedes is losing time to the BMW.
17:19hrs and the #3 starts the second round of pit stops , this you will recall is to keep it out of the way of the leading cars. Now the race has settled down we will begin to see how the fuel strategies are panning out.
#62 is back in its garage with oil problems .
BMW #17 is closing up again and lurking at the back of this group and looking nowhere near as ragged as Schneider !
Interesting to note that Martin Brundle was going to watch that BMW rather carefully, may be a wise move.
Boutsen and Mercedes pit together at 17;25 .. this maybe a bit tense ! Merc driver change
Toyota stop looking messy and lo and behold the Merc #6 is out first and into the lead.
The Toyota stop was seven seconds longer !
The BMW #17 is now leading with Brundle in second ... #1 has stalled and finally got away ... BMW 1st and 2nd but yet to pit .. who would have thought it ! Something odd happened to Brundle when the BMW got past he put in a slow lap, he later mentioned this was more to do with traffic and keeping out of trouble with the slower cars.
#17 comes in at 17:32 .. driver change - Jorg Muller is back in the race and leading. Their tactics are working well.
#15 pits 17:38 hrs and is out very quickly but in 2nd place behind his team mate who hasn’t come in yet.
#66 left rear wheel rubbing the body work and smoking happily.
It looks as if the BMW are on the pace and pretty economical with fuel and looking really quite strong. Nissan are going rather better in the race than practice and are currently in the top ten. Mercedes seem to be slipping away a bit but have just got back into third place behind the second place #2 Toyota. The Toyota is now eating into the lead of the #17 BMW.
The third place Mercedes #6 has been caught by the #1 Toyota and has settled down.
The Ferarri #29 is in bother still in the pits as is the Audi #10, the #57 Viper is still out of action as is the #62 Roock Porsche.
The #61 Freisinger Porsche has had a hefty thump at the flat out kink after the Porsche Curves, the right rear wheel is trashed and we may not see it again.
After Two Hours:
17,2,6,1,5,15,12,22,7,3,8,21,18,13,25, 27,19,14,11,9,51,52,53,32,56,80,81,67, 61,54,24,55,50,65,66,64,31,60,84,26,63, 10,62,57,29