Ten hours into the race, Peugeot kept its grip on the top two spots, followed by three Audis. The Audis showed no sign of having enough speed to catch the Peugeots, and with the #1 Peugeot running sixth, even Audi’s possible podium was in doubt.
At the same time, Peugeot had had one mechanical failure and one retirement, while the Audis had run well.
Marc Gene, driver of the #2 Peugeot, told SPEED-TV, “This year I really thought we were winning it. We had the pace today, but we had a mechanical problem, and now we are fighting to get on the podium. That’s Le Mans.”
As Audi driver Allan McNish said, “I just looked at the clock and it’s only 1 a.m. There’s another fourteen hours left. It’s not over until the fat lady sings, and she doesn’t sing until 3 p.m.”
McNish almost prompted some singing half past midnight when he rammed Stefan Mucke’s 007 Lola Aston Martin going through the first chicane. Luckily both cars were able to continue.
An hour later, Anthony Davidson in the #1 Peugeot had a similar incident with the AF Corse GT2 Ferrari of Jean Alesi. Both cars were able to continue, but enough incidents of this sort, and the luck will run out.
Marco Andretti, coming off a third-place finish in the Indy 500, was driving at Le Mans for the first time with the ill-fated LMP1 Rebellion Lola.
“We had a broken wing the whole first stint,” Andretti told SPEED-TV. “I was asking on the radio if they saw anything weird but they didn’t Fortunately they found it, because it was really on edge the first stint.”
Andretti spent a lot of time waiting for the mechanics to get the car running before he got a chance to drive, but he kept his spirits up.
“I‘m trying the best I can to really enjoy myself. The car on the track is good fun, but as a competitor it’s killing me. We have over an hour in the pit box so we‘re out of it. We’re just trying to get what we can right now.
“It’d be nice to come back and have a shot at the victory.”
In GT1 the Larbe Competition Saleen SR7 held the class lead—behind the top six GT2 cars. The #60 Matech Ford GT was still being repaired after a nasty shunt with the #24 Oak Racing Pescarolo, which apparently rammed the Matech Ford, tearing off about a quarter of each car.
In LMP2, Danny Watts had the Strakka Racing ARX-01c three-and-a-half minutes ahead of the similar Highcroft car. Strakka, after running the low-downforce bodywork in several Le Mans series races, knew their car better than Highcroft, who had never tested with the Le Mans bodywork.
“We seem to have found a good balance a good balance with the car which lets us triple-stint the tires. Highcroft seems to be struggling with that, so it’s given us a bit of advantage. We’ll keep attacking and see where the position is in the morning.” said Strakka driver Nick Leventis.
Highcroft was taking an Audi-like philosophy: drive the fastest safe pace, make no mistakes, and be there at the end.
GT2 was firmly in the hands of the Corvettes. The Risi Ferrari was in and out and back into the garages, losing 45 laps.
Team owner Giuseppe Risi told SPEED-TV that his team’s race was, for all intents and purposes, done.
“Basically, we came here to win. Just to repair [the car] and see if it worked has no interest for me at this stage.
“It was a good fight with the Corvettes … as long as you can compete … but with a problem like this, where we don’t know exactly what the problem is, we don’t want to risk our driver or anyone else.”
Risi Competizione is used to winning endurance races. Since 2008, the team has won Sebring twice, Petit Le Mans three times, and Le Mans twice.
The nearest competition to the Corvettes was the #77 Felbermeyer Porsche, a lap back. The battle for third in class promised to be intense, but barring the kind of errors the Corvettes made at Sebring, the team had a good chance of winning the class.
Wolf Henzler, driver of the Felbermeyer Porsche, spoke with a SPEED-TV reporter when he got out of the car..
“I am very tired,” he said. “I did a double stint, a little over two hours, and now I think it’s time to go to bed and take a nap.”
“I think we are running on a good third or fourth place now. We cannot do the speed fop the two Corvettes, so we try just we do our race and see where we will be tomorrow morning.”
Henzler is an experienced endurance racer and Porsche driver, but he insisted he had no particular secret strategy for the rest of the race.
“It’s nothing special—just cruising around and trying to keep us in the race. Everything is fine with the car—The gear box is fine, the brakes fine, the car car is really running good. So—we cruise around and hopefully, no mistakes.”
At the same time, Peugeot had had one mechanical failure and one retirement, while the Audis had run well.
Marc Gene, driver of the #2 Peugeot, told SPEED-TV, “This year I really thought we were winning it. We had the pace today, but we had a mechanical problem, and now we are fighting to get on the podium. That’s Le Mans.”
As Audi driver Allan McNish said, “I just looked at the clock and it’s only 1 a.m. There’s another fourteen hours left. It’s not over until the fat lady sings, and she doesn’t sing until 3 p.m.”
McNish almost prompted some singing half past midnight when he rammed Stefan Mucke’s 007 Lola Aston Martin going through the first chicane. Luckily both cars were able to continue.
An hour later, Anthony Davidson in the #1 Peugeot had a similar incident with the AF Corse GT2 Ferrari of Jean Alesi. Both cars were able to continue, but enough incidents of this sort, and the luck will run out.
Marco Andretti, coming off a third-place finish in the Indy 500, was driving at Le Mans for the first time with the ill-fated LMP1 Rebellion Lola.
“We had a broken wing the whole first stint,” Andretti told SPEED-TV. “I was asking on the radio if they saw anything weird but they didn’t Fortunately they found it, because it was really on edge the first stint.”
Andretti spent a lot of time waiting for the mechanics to get the car running before he got a chance to drive, but he kept his spirits up.
“I‘m trying the best I can to really enjoy myself. The car on the track is good fun, but as a competitor it’s killing me. We have over an hour in the pit box so we‘re out of it. We’re just trying to get what we can right now.
“It’d be nice to come back and have a shot at the victory.”
In GT1 the Larbe Competition Saleen SR7 held the class lead—behind the top six GT2 cars. The #60 Matech Ford GT was still being repaired after a nasty shunt with the #24 Oak Racing Pescarolo, which apparently rammed the Matech Ford, tearing off about a quarter of each car.
In LMP2, Danny Watts had the Strakka Racing ARX-01c three-and-a-half minutes ahead of the similar Highcroft car. Strakka, after running the low-downforce bodywork in several Le Mans series races, knew their car better than Highcroft, who had never tested with the Le Mans bodywork.
“We seem to have found a good balance a good balance with the car which lets us triple-stint the tires. Highcroft seems to be struggling with that, so it’s given us a bit of advantage. We’ll keep attacking and see where the position is in the morning.” said Strakka driver Nick Leventis.
Highcroft was taking an Audi-like philosophy: drive the fastest safe pace, make no mistakes, and be there at the end.
GT2 was firmly in the hands of the Corvettes. The Risi Ferrari was in and out and back into the garages, losing 45 laps.
Team owner Giuseppe Risi told SPEED-TV that his team’s race was, for all intents and purposes, done.
“Basically, we came here to win. Just to repair [the car] and see if it worked has no interest for me at this stage.
“It was a good fight with the Corvettes … as long as you can compete … but with a problem like this, where we don’t know exactly what the problem is, we don’t want to risk our driver or anyone else.”
Risi Competizione is used to winning endurance races. Since 2008, the team has won Sebring twice, Petit Le Mans three times, and Le Mans twice.
The nearest competition to the Corvettes was the #77 Felbermeyer Porsche, a lap back. The battle for third in class promised to be intense, but barring the kind of errors the Corvettes made at Sebring, the team had a good chance of winning the class.
Wolf Henzler, driver of the Felbermeyer Porsche, spoke with a SPEED-TV reporter when he got out of the car..
“I am very tired,” he said. “I did a double stint, a little over two hours, and now I think it’s time to go to bed and take a nap.”
“I think we are running on a good third or fourth place now. We cannot do the speed fop the two Corvettes, so we try just we do our race and see where we will be tomorrow morning.”
Henzler is an experienced endurance racer and Porsche driver, but he insisted he had no particular secret strategy for the rest of the race.
“It’s nothing special—just cruising around and trying to keep us in the race. Everything is fine with the car—The gear box is fine, the brakes fine, the car car is really running good. So—we cruise around and hopefully, no mistakes.”
