By: Stella Maria Thomas
18:00 - 20:00
(this post has been delayed, due to the Mercedes #5 crash - see newsflash)
Jorg Muller, who was in the lead, slowed as a result of yellow flags from the Porsche 911, number 60, crashing out in the Porsche curves. Allan McNish was the only driver to not slow down significantly. His Toyota was causing a certain amount of panic because something was flapping. It turned out to be a number decal... McNish is expected in after 13 laps. Muller is back to doing 3.39s and the gap is down to 4 seconds as McNish is still lapping in the 3.38s. Weather is beginning to look increasingly threatening with more and more black clouds gathering. The safety car looked like it might need to come out for No. 60 but eventually they decided against it while the stricken Porsche was recovered. McNish is in the lead but due to pit very soon. He came in just behind the No.9 Audi.
The mechanics did a check and refuelled. Also they were standing by with new tyres but did not fit them. No driver change either although the car then left the pit lane quite slowly.
Muller was being badly held up by traffic, which was allowing McNish to claw back the time. The No. 12 Panoz was starting to catch the No. 15 BMW.
There are spots of rain falling in the pit lane and the sky is getting ever blacker but there are no umbrellas up in the stand. The delay to the Panoz was caused by a punctured radiator. Water temperatures started to rise and they had to effect repairs.
No. 18 Soper in for a change of driver after a triple stint. The rain is beginning to fall at Indianoplis too. But Muller is back in the lead and pulling out a gap which is now up to 40 seconds. The Mercedes are still running well under the circumstances but the drivers are more than a little nervous about it. Pedro Lamy expressed his reservations but it doesn't seem to be slowing him down.
The other Toyota came in too and was also a little slow away, possibly missing a gear.
Rain is now falling on the Mulsanne straight.
Pit stops are taking about 1 minute and the No. 17 BMW is now over a minute ahead but is due for a pitstop soon. In on lap 37, the team are staying on slicks. It's still warm and nowhere near wet enough to even justfy intermediates. Simply refuelled and made a very quick stop. Schnitzer of course have a very short distance to get out too so they have an advantage in that respect. They can accelerate very quickly and get away. They have managed to get out still in the lead. This probably won't surprise Lehto, who should get into the car at 8.00 pm, as he's convined that they can win. The BMW team are now running better distances although whether Muller and Lehto will be as economical as Kristensen, remains to be seen.There seem to be significant amounts of rain spotting the windscreens but it doesn't seem to have reached a problem level yet.
The No. 7 BMW is still ahead of the Toyota, with a lead of a little more than 13 seconds.
No. 24 Autoexe is returning to the race, with Freon at the wheel. As he crashed it on Thursday they may be a little worried about him.
Labre (65) Porsche in for some time too and has been pushed into the garage. It may have an engine problem. No. 15 BMW in on schedule after 13 laps and did an ordinary sort of pitstop for a team that just managed to gain 6 seconds on the No. 17 pit stop.
No. 57 Chamberlain Viper returns to the race after an hour and a half stop to change a sump after a little bump. Christian Vann is at the wheel.
Brundle: "We have a problem getting out of the pits just now. We are maybe running a little hot or something."
Collard is at the wheel of the No.1 car. They have fans in the pits to cool the carbon fibre brakes.
The No. 67 Larbre Porsche is now out again after a routine pit stop with Jean-Pierre Jarrer at the wheel. They've been running very strongly in French GTs this year so this won't be too much of a surprise.
McNish is closing on the BMW and the gap is down to 8 seconds. McNish is being absolutely merciless in his overtaking of backmarkers, though he may be wrecking the tyres with his style. There are 8 laps to go before he stops again.
James Weaver is standing by to take over the No. 10 Audi from Andy Wallace. This car is in 38th place at present after a gearbox change. They are making their first tyre changes.
As the grandstands begin to empty, it becomes clear that there are a number of ingenious souls who have brought in stepladders and are sitting on top of them. The Nissan fans are massing opposite their garage, and have massive Japanese style banners which they are waving wildly every time one of the their cars comes through. There are also a number of young Japanese women in gorgeous kimonos.
The Mercedes are still running well, though nowhere near as fast as Schneider was going. This is not really surprising but it does make you wonder whether he has no fear or no imagination. Meanwhile, Pierluigi Martini (No. 15 BMW) seems to be losing out to the No. 12 Panoz with Eric Bernard at the wheel; the Panoz is definitely catching it. In addition, the Toyota is now only 4 seconds behind Muller.
No. 56 (Chamberlain Viper) has just spun but seems to have avoided hitting anything.
The 3rd placed car is now 46 seconds behind the leader and the class of the field at present appears to be McNish and Muller.
No. 8 Audi is expected in and Theys is standing around with his seat in his hand... McNish seems to feel he has a point to prove where Porsches are concerned and is passing them in a very ruthless manner. He is now 1.5 seconds behind Muller and Muller isn't exactly slow. McNish did a 3.38.099 and is obviously not going to take no for an answer when he goes for the lead. He tries to pass at the end of the Muslanne straight and there is a puff of smoke possibly from him getting his wheels onto the kerb. but Muller defends his line. Tries again and still Muller won't have it. Into Indianapolis he backs off a little, perhaps deciding that discretion is the better part of valour and that 2.75 hours in you don't want to damage the car.
No. 24 is still in trouble, crawling round and has finally stopped.
The next lap McNish takes the lead back on the entrance to the Mulsanne straight.
The other BMW is being menaced by the Panoz which is still about half a second behind.
No. 8 is returning after refuelling, tyres and a driver change. Theys is now out there.
No. 11 Panoz (after overheating and a nudge early on) is back into the running with Magnussen at the wheel.
No. 3 Toyota is still coming in early to be got out of the way.
It is no longer raining anywhere.
There is a slow moving Porsche out on the circuit (No. 65) but it was a very long way back.
Nissan (No. 22) has just changed drivers (possibly to Krumm).
No. 5 in for a driver change too, and we were expecting Peter Dumbreck to take over. A general run of pitstops is beginning and the Mercedes have come in separately for the first time. The car is now taken over by Bouchut who stalls trying to leave the pits. Noone seems to know why Dumbo isn't going out yet. Schneider is standing by to go back out again in the other car.
The No. 15 BMW is beginning to get away from the Panoz again and the Panoz has now stopped.\tab \tab
19:00
2, 17, 1, 5, 6, 15, 12, 7, 3, 22, 21, 8, 18, 13, 25, 19, 27, 14, 9, 11, 51, 52, 53, 32, 81, 56, 80, 67, 61, 54, 55, 50, 26, 64, 84, 63, 10, 66, 24, 65, 29, 31, 60, 57, 62
No. 3 driver change and new tyres.
McNish is pulling away from Muller but not by so much as we might have expected.
No. 6 is now in and Schneider is in in place of Franck Lagorce.
Weaver: "We lost second gear then a couple of the others till we only had 4th. I was too slow on the straights with only 4th so I thought I'd better come in!"
No. 9 in.
Viper in its natural habitat, gravel...
No. 2 in.
The Soper car in again.
Kelleners taking over the lead Toyota and they manage to get out again without any trouble.\tab
Dumbreck is scheduled to take over the No. 5 Mercedes at next round of stops.
McNish: "We had to push quite a bit. I managed to overtake and it was Jorg so I knew what he was going to do and not going to. He wouldn't do anything stupid... The car got better as the run went on and I got more into it. I'd only done 4 laps in qualifying and I feel more comfortable with it now."
The No. 17 BMW is now in the lead again.
Vincenzo Sospiri is standing by to take over the No. 1 car. He's only done 8 laps in total in the car this week so he hasn't had a lot of practise. The number is coming off as well and they will have to stick it back on properly. The driver's drink bottle has been changed too and it exits cleanly.
No. 17 in for a pit stop very soon.
No. 7 in for an unscheduled stop after 1 lap. Its been pushed into the garage to be worked on. After all the stops, the No. 15 car is now in 5th place but is over 3 minutes back from the lead car with the Schneider Mercedes right on its rear. There's a Viper in the way and Lehto is ready to take over a little earlier than originally scheduled. Muller is out before the thing has been raised on its stands. Refuelling and new tyres. Comes out of the pits and is side by side with the Toyota; Kelleners just gets ahead.
Pescarolo now running in his 33rd Le Mans race.
TK: "It was great. I took the start nice and easy and tried to find a good rhythm. The Merc in front of me drove like crazy. I don't think he understood this is a 24-hour race."
Lehto is 0.5 seconds behind at the end of his out lap while the Toyota was at full racing speed.
No. 5 Mercedes has now moved up to 3rd.
No. 15 in for a pitstop. Tyre change and fuel. Piero at the wheel and swaps with Smoking Jo. Tyre changes seem to go with the driver changes and drivers are doing two stints.
No. 11 has called into the pit garage - there was a lot of movement at the front of the car through the steering and he brought it back in to have it checked over. They obviously wanted to get more than the regulation 4 people working on it. There was a slow puncture in the left rear and nothing at all wrong with the steering.
No. 7 back on the pit apron. Gearbox has been replaced after the mechanism ceased to function. They have had two new gearboxes in the Audis so far.
The gap at the front is 2.5 seconds, he and Kelleners running at the same pace.
Roock Porsche No. 63 in for a stop.
Audi No. 10 in for a routine stop.
No. 80 is leading the LM GT category and is in front of all the GT Porsches, possibly with Bob Wollek at the wheel. It's running in 27th at present.
Magnussen is back out in the Panoz.
No. 21 goes back out with Cottaz at the wheel.
No. 67 de Thoisy at the wheel after Jarrier's stint.
There is a gentle cloud of barbecue smoke floating over the campsite at Maison Blanche and the Japanese are still waving their banners at every Nissan that passes. A cool night is forecast with the possibility of rain tomorrow but at present it is cloudy at 23 degrees.
No. 8 in, goes out again with Theys still at the wheel and without a tyre change. No. 5 Mercedes expected in soon too and "Drumbrake" is standing ready but doesn't get in. Refuelled... and windscreen is cleaned. Loses two places as a result of the stop. No. 1 Toyota is now OK having been very slow at one point and is ahead as is Schneider.
No. 15 has just done its fastest lap with Smoking Jo at the wheel.
It's possible that the No. 12 Panoz has a cracked exhaust. It doesn't appear to be going slower but it doesn't sound right.
Lagorce is standing by to take over the Mercedes but they just refuel and send it out again.
No. 12 comes in for a routine stop with Butch Leitzinger at the wheel but there is no reported problem. Maybe he's been deafened by the engine and can't hear anything anyway.
Chamberlain Viper (56) in again. It is reported as sounding rough.
Riley and Scott No. 31 is reported as having has stopped out on the circuit at post 9 and seems to be out of the race. However, it also seems to be in the pits so there is some confusion. It doesn't seem to be car 32 either.
No. 3 in for a stop with Suzuki on board. They refuel and don't make a driver change.
No. 2 expected in soon as we come up to the end of the 4th hour. Lehto is holding position at about 7 seconds back from this car. Comes in and refuels. Again they get a clean getaway with Martin Brundle supervising (or interfering perhaps?). No. 17 is now back in the lead but will have to come in soon.
In competition with the flag waving Japanese, a bunch of Brits have started doing the same thing but they don't seem to have the technique yet.
No. 17 now steaming round with his headlights on and is in the lead by 59.775 seconds at present which may be enough for a pit stop if all they have to do is refuel.
No. 1 in for refuelling and a new number having lost one altogether.
20:00 :
17, 2, 1, 5, 6, 15, 22, 12, 3, 21, 8, 18, 13, 19, 7, 27, 14, 11, 51, 52, 53, 32, 9, 56, 25, 61, 55, 81, 80, 54, 67, 26, 50, 64, 10, 84, 63, 66, 29, 57, 24, 62, 65, 31,60
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