By: Stella Maria Thomas
Peter Kox never seems to leave the pits. He's down there now, worrying and studying the time sheets. Quite clearly he doesn't much care for what he's reading which is hardly surprising as they are 10th but the best part of 10 laps down. No. 17 is due in any time now for a driver change, Kristensen taking over from Lehto.
No. 7 in. Aiello took over and went back with new tyres.
The slower cars are beginning to get better laps times as the air temperature has dropped to 14 degrees.
The new lights at Arnage are causing a certain amount of disturbance and comment. Lehto: "You think, what's that. It looks like the space shuttle coming down or something..."
No. 62 Porsche is off at the first corner after the pits with Claudia Hurtgen at the wheel. It's stuck in the gravel so will have to be pulled out. And this after a gearbox change too.
No. 10 is back out again after a long stop.
Henri Pescarolo (team manager and driver in No. 14) on being asked "why?": "Just for fun... I still enjoy it. We've just stopped with a transmission problem. We had to change a rear upright and now we've stopped because we forgot to switch on the rear light."
The leading duo are now two laps ahead of their closest opposition and Kelleners is trying to catch up to the No. 17 BMW.
No. 51 Viper is in for a driver change (Oliver Beretta takes over) and to ditch a lot of gravel. Dominique Dupuy says he tried to let another car through but it didn't go through and he was squeezed out onto the rough stuff with no place left to go. It has now lost it's GTS lead to No. 52, these team mates still sticking together. Maybe they're afraid to go out alone...
No. 15 in. Winkelhock is replaced by Yannick Dalmas. The ususal tyre change and refuelling are done and they go back out still in 3rd place.
Jo Winkelhock: "So far it's not so bad. During the night it's quite tough. The car's really reliable and I'm quite confident..." and off he went to smoke a cigarette.
No. 27 is in and steaming and looks like it is about to require large amounts of work.
Panoz has made it back into the top though it is now 13 laps back.
Hurtgen is back in the pits and the car is being checked for damage.
No. 10 is back in yet again, the Audi having a seriously troubled run so far.
Nos. 52 and 53 are both in for a scheduled stop.
No. 18 in again as is No. 12.
No. 2 is back for a changeover with Boutsen taking over after refuelling and a tyre change, the gap extending again though it is still not very big.
Ralf Kelleners: "I don't know where we are. I think we might be second but I don't know how far behind we are. We could probably go 1-1.5 seconds quicker but we are pacing ourselves right now."
No. 66 is being pushed into its garage.
The three Vipers are running in a cluster which seems like a rather dangerous way of going about night running at Le Mans. And as they are all in the same team this might become embarassing.
No. 64 is off but has managed to get back on again. It seems likley that they will want to come in and get everything checked. And they do just that...
No. 8 Audi is in for refuelling then goes out again after a certain amount of difficulties with the dashboard.
No. 51 Viper is now up a place into 11th place and back ahead of No. 52.
No. 18 is being caught by No. 21 (with Marc Goossens at the wheel)
No. 17 in for a pit stop for fuel. Stalled and thus failed to get away cleanly. The No. 2 Toyota was briefly back on the same lap having been well over a lap down.
No. 11 in for fuel and a driver change, Magnussen going back out after refuelling and a tyre change. Bodywork is now being taken off though as a wheel is not properly attached.
Andy Wallace (No. 10): "It's not going exactly to plan. We've got some more parts back here so we'll just keep bolting them on if we need them." They are now on their third gearbox.
Finally Magnussen (No. 11) got to go back out after a very long stop which won't have made the Dane at all happy.
No. 3 in for a routine stop to refuel.
No. 15 BMW has just done this cars fastest lap in the race so far.
17, 2, 15, 3, 8, 18, 21, 7, 12, 13, 51, 52, 53, 14, 19, 61, 55, 81, 56, 27, 50, 64, 26, 54, 63, 67, 11, 84, 80, 10, 66, 62, 22, 57, 1, 25, 6, 5, 24, 65, 29, 32, 9, 31, 60As we move towards the mid-point of the race, the No. 17 BMW (Lehto, Muller, Kristensen) is still in the lead by one lap, with the No. 2 Toyota (McNish, Boutsen, Kelleners) chasing it every inch of the way. The sister BMW (No. 15 - Winkelhock, Dalmas, Martini) is in 3rd, two laps down on 2nd, and another lap behind it is the No. 3 Toyota (Katayama, Suzuki, Tsuchiya). The No. 8 Audi (Pirro, Biela, Theys) is being very closely shadowed by the No. 18 BMW (Bscher, Auberlen, Soper); these two are about 7 seconds apart at present.
No. 56 in. No. 21 also in.
51, 52 and 53 are now 11th, 12th and 13th as they have been almost all day.
No. 21 has just had its brakepads changed, with Fred Ekblom staying in control at the wheel.
No. 26 in again.
No. 2 is off in the tyre wall at the Dunlop Curve (at 3:09 this morning) with Thierry Boutsen at the wheel. This leaves the BMWs in 1st and 2nd and moves the supposedly slower Japanese-piloted Toyota into 3rd place.
No. 54 in for a pitstop and a brake pad change.
No. 13 off somewhere too although from the monitor pictures it's very difficult to tell where or why.
No. 15 in for a routine stop for fuel.
No. 66 on its way in with a puncture. They've not been having a good time in this race.
03:15 - The Safety Cars are coming out as a result of the No. 2 Toyota off. The front end is heavily damaged as is the tyre wall and Boutsen is still trapped in the car. He seems to be OK but obviously needs to be extracted carefully.
It seems likely that those teams that can will make a pitstop now to take advantage of the safety car period.
No. 3 is in as is No. 18 which stayed for a long time. No. 3 has just pulled into the pit garage to be examined after two seemingly inexplicable failures. They are changing the brake discs and also looking at the undertray closely.
No. 13 is in and seems to only have one fully working headlight.
According to the Toyota people, the reason for Brundle's retirement was a hole in the tyre possibly caused by gravel dumped by the No. 15 BMW.
10, 12, 52, 62, 66, 65 and 53 have all come in while the Safety Cars are out. No. 17 in for Muller to take over from Kristensen again. Pirro has just taken over the No. 8 Audi and the marshals are still working to extract Boutsen. According to Didier Theys there is oil over a good three quarters of the track after a Porsche blew an engine.
Nos. 51, 11 and 14 just came in too.
03:29 - Boutsen is finally freed from the wreckage and reports are filtering through that suggest that the No. 66 Porsche driver didn't see the Toyota and turned in on Boutsen, sending him off.
No. 17 came in earlier than intended to take advantage of the situation, and to change the pads.
Aparently Boutsen was complaining of lower back pain and pains in his shoulder so he preferred not to move and waited for the medical personnel to appear which is why it took so long to extract him. He is now being stretchered away by the extraction crew and placed in ambulance. No doubt he will be thoroughly checked over before he can go anywhere. The ambulance is leaving very slowly too.
No. 7 Audi and No. 26 Lola are now in, the Dutch car seeming to live in the pits. It certainly seems to be in more than any of the other cars.
It is estimated that the Safety Car period will end at around 3:45 as the tyre barrier needs to be repaired.
No. 56 in with a left rear puncture after covering almost a whole lap like that; it was certainly spotted at Arnage with a flat. Ni Amorim is at the wheel at present.
Tom Kristensen (No. 17): "It's going well for us. Not so good for Toyota. I'm sorry because they gave us a good chase. For us it makes life a bit easier but there's still a long, long, long, long way to go..."
As a result of all of this, the No. 51 Oreca Viper is now in 10th place overall.
No. 64 is back in again with the Safety Cars still out there. As the lights are still on and it is now 03.50 it seems unlikely that the cars will return to a racing situation before 04:00.
No. 27 is now in for a stop and is being pushed into the garage and the crew are making a serious pig's ear of trying to get it through the door.
No. 14 in for a routine stop for fuel.
No. 81 is also in for a stop and has been shuffled into the garage - this car was in 15th and was the leading Porsche before this stop.
No. 15 in again for fuel but no other changes.
Positions at 04:00 (halfway mark)
17, 15, 8, 3, 18, 7, 21, 2, 12, 13, 52, 51, 53, 14, 81, 55, 50, 56, 64, 26, 61, 54, 19, 63, 27, 11, 84, 10, 80, 67, 62, 66, 57, 22, 1, 65, 25, 6, 5, 24, 29, 32, 9, 31, 60.