Autosport1:20pm 15 June 2014
Audi closed the gap to Toyota at the front of the Le Mans 24 Hours as the race reached its halfway stage.
The #2 Audi of Andre Lotterer brought the gap to the leading #7 Toyota back under two minutes in the 12th hour of the race, partly thanks to the Japanese car taking new tyres when Stephane Sarrazin took over from Alexander Wurz
Audi did not change tyres, but did make a small adjustment to the aero on the front of Lotterer’s car, meaning he did not gain as much time in the pits as would normally be the case when not taking new rubber.
Once the cars were back on track Lotterer was able to chip away at the Toyota’s lead despite being on older rubber, getting it down to around 1m55s at the turn of the hour.
The #1 Audi, which was running third, hit trouble right at the end of the hour. Tom Kristensen slowed on his outlap after a pitstop before coming to almost a halt with a total lack of power. He got going again, but could only tour round and crawl back to the pits.
In LMP2 the #35 OAK-run G-Drive Ligier continued to lead in the hands of Alex Brundle, who upped the pace along with second place runner Paul-Loup Chatin during a brief spell of personal best laptimes for both cars, which were separated by nearly a minute and a half.
Aston Martin edged away from the squabbling lead Corvette and Ferrari to strengthen its grip on both GTE classes.
Bruno Senna was never really challenged as the race edged towards the midway mark, and as Tommy Milner slipped back his Corvette came under increasing pressure from Tony Vilander’s AF Corse 458 Italia.
Vilander pressured the American a couple of times on the run down the Mulsanne straight, but was unable to depose the Corvette from second.
It means the GTE Pro class remains in situ from before, only Giancarlo Fisichella is now abord the Ferrari and Richard Westbrook has replaced Milner in the C7.R.
In GTE Am it is more of the same. David Heinemeier Hansson consistently increased the lead of the #95 Aston Martin as Alexsey Basov continued to run second for the SMP Ferrari squad. The erstwhile leadering outfit, the #98 Aston, returned to the fray after long-running issues, which lost it more than 10 laps.
POSITIONS AFTER 12 HOURS Pos Cl Car Drivers Laps Gap 1. LMP1 #7 Toyota Wurz/Sarrazin/Nakajima 187 2. LMP1 #2 Audi Fassler/Lotterer/Treluyer 186 + 1 Lap 3. LMP1 #1 Audi Di Grassi/Gene/Kristensen 185 + 2 Laps 4. LMP1 #20 Porsche Bernhard/Webber/Hartley 184 + 3 Laps 5. LMP1 #14 Porsche Dumas/Jani/Lieb 181 + 6 Laps 6. LMP1 #8 Toyota Davidson/Lapierre/Buemi 175 + 12 Laps 7. LMP2 #35 Ligier Brundle/Mardenborough/Shulzhitskiy 173 + 14 Laps 8. LMP2 #36 Alpine Chatin/Panciatici/Webb 172 + 15 Laps 9. LMP2 #46 Ligier Thiriet/Badey/Gommendy 172 + 1m58.804s 10. LMP2 #34 Oreca Frey/Mailleux/Lancaster 172 + 3m31.312s 11. LMP2 #38 Zytek Dolan/Tincknell/Turvey 171 + 16 Laps 12. LMP1 #12 Rebellion Prost/Heidfeld/Beche 170 + 17 Laps 13. LMP2 #43 Morgan Klien/Hirsch/Brandela 169 + 18 Laps 14. LMP2 #24 Oreca Rast/Charouz/Capillaire 169 + 1m29.577s 15. LMP2 #33 Ligier Cheng/Tung/Fong 168 + 19 Laps 16. GTEP #97 Aston Turner/Mucke/Senna 164 + 23 Laps 17. GTEP #51 Ferrari Bruni/Vilander/Fisichella 164 + 1m27.121s 18. GTEP #74 Chevrolet Gavin/Milner/Westbrook 164 + 1m43.643s 19. GTEP #92 Porsche Holzer/Makowiecki/Lietz 164 + 2m43.562s 20. LMP2 #42 Zytek Kimber-Smith/McMurry/Dyson 164 + 3m43.606s 21. LMP2 #29 Morgan Schell/Leutwiller/Roussel 163 + 24 Laps 22. GTEP #73 Chevrolet Magnussen/Garcia/Taylor 163 + 3m31.058s 23. GTEA #95 Aston Poulsen/Heinemeier-Hansson/Thiim 162 + 25 Laps 24. GTEA #72 Ferrari Bertolini/Shaitar/Basov 161 + 26 Laps 25. LMP2 #50 Morgan Ragues/Taylor/Ihara 161 + 1m20.121s 26. GTEA #88 Porsche Ried/Bachler/Al Qubaisi 161 + 3m32.086s 27. GTEA #61 Ferrari Perez-Companc/Cioci/Venturi 160 + 27 Laps 28. LMP2 #27 Oreca Zlobin/Salo/Ladygin 160 + 2m51.833s 29. GTEA #90 Ferrari Montecalvo/Roda/Ruberti 159 + 28 Laps 30. GTEA #57 Ferrari Krohn/Jonsson/Collins 159 + 49.279s 31. GTEA #77 Porsche Dempsey/Foster/Long 159 + 1m04.031s 32. GTEA #70 Ferrari Nakano/Ehret/Rich 158 + 29 Laps 33. GTEA #66 Ferrari Al Faisal/Neiman/Pumpelly 157 + 30 Laps 34. GTEA #76 Porsche Narac/Armindo/Hallyday 157 + 1m11.712s 35. GTEA #58 Ferrari Barthez/Pons/Ayari 157 + 1m53.262s 36. GTEA #67 Porsche Maris/Merlin/Helary 156 + 31 Laps 37. GTEA #98 Aston Dalla Lana/Lamy/Nygaard 154 + 33 Laps 38. GTEP #79 Porsche MacNeil/Curtis/Bleekemolen 152 + 35 Laps 39. GTEA #53 Ferrari Mowlem/Patterson/Hamilton 147 + 40 Laps 40. GTEA #75 Porsche Perrodo/Collard/Palttala 139 + 48 Laps 41. GTEA #62 Ferrari Mallegol/Bachelier/Blank 136 + 51 Laps 42. GTEP #91 Porsche Pilet/Bergmeister/Tandy 134 + 53 Laps 43. GTEP #52 Ferrari Griffin/Parente/Leo 125 + 62 Laps 44. LMP2 #26 Morgan Rusinov/Pla/Canal 120 Retired 45. GTEA #60 Ferrari Mann/Case/Giammaria 115 Retired 46. LMP2 #47 Oreca Howson/Bradley/Imperatori 87 Retired 47. LMP1 #13 Rebellion Kraihamer/Belicchi/Leimer 73 Retired 48. LMP2 #48 Oreca Berthon/Gonzalez/Chandhok 73 Retired 49. LMP2 #41 Zytek Munemman/Latif/Winslow 31 Retired 50. GTEP #71 Ferrari Rigon/Kaffer/Beretta 28 Retired 51. LMP1 #3 Audi Albuquerque/Bonanomi/Jarvis 25 Retired 52. GTEA #81 Ferrari Wyatt/Rugolo/Bird 22 Retired 53. LMP2 #37 Oreca Ladygin/Minassian/Mediani 9 Retired 54. CDNT #0 Nissan Ordonez/Reip/Motoyama 5 Retired
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C’mon Brendan……a Kiwi and an Ozzie, must be the perfect storm to win the 24 hour race.
Good Luck Guys
BuckyNZ