24h Le Mans
It was a very wet track which greeted the 56 entrants for the 80th running of the 24 hours of le mans, and there were numerous incidents of cars leaving the track because of the conditions.
These included Tréluyer (No.1 Audi R18), Charouz (No.25 ADR-Delta Oreca) and Rostan (No.29 Gulf Racing Middle East Lola) and a red flag was shown for several minutes to clear them from the gravel traps.
At the re-start, a small fire on the No.16 Pescarolo forced Collard to stop between the two Hunaudières chicanes. On track, the remainder of the field carried on for the 45 minute warm up. It was Loic Duval who set the best time (4:03.933) in the No.3 R18 ultra ahead of Dindo Capello and André Lotterer.
According to the forecast, rain could disrupt the start of the 24 Hours of Le Mans which is due to take place at 1500 hours.
08:35:58 The warm up starts at 9.00
09:00:12 Green Flag on wet track- temp 17C
09:06:39 Very wet track - a number of cars having minor off track excursions
09:08:32 no 29 Lola spins
#29 LOLA B12/80 COUPE - NISSAN (Marc ROSTAN)
09:10:21 No 25 Oreca Nissan into gravel after Dunlop Bridge
#25 ORECA 03-NISSAN (Jan CHAROUZ)
#29 LOLA B12/80 COUPE - NISSAN
09:10:33 Red Flag
09:13:46 All cars seen briefly except No 15 Oak Pescarolo
#15 OAK PESCAROLO - JUDD
09:15:20 No 29 Lola may have gearbox trouble
#29 LOLA B12/80 COUPE - NISSAN (Marc ROSTAN)
09:18:30 No 21 HPD Strakka say "Very wet will do minimum running to bed in new brakes"
#21 HPD ARX 03A - HONDA (Jonny KANE)
09:20:09 No 25 Oreca Nissan rejoins from gravel trap
#25 ORECA 03-NISSAN (Jan CHAROUZ)
09:20:23 Green Flag
09:23:59 No 29 Lola could not be restarted but no other problem
#29 LOLA B12/80 COUPE - NISSAN (Marc ROSTAN)
09:25:32 No 13 Lola stopped at Mulsanne
#13 LOLA B12/60 COUPE - TOYOTA (Andrea BELICCHI)
09:26:50 No 16 Pescarolo stopped on Mulsanne straight
#16 PESCAROLO 03 - JUDD (Emmanuel COLLARD)
09:30:25 Fastest time so far Audi No 1 with 4:10.737
#1 AUDI R18 E-TRON QUATTRO (Marcel FÄSSLER)
09:35:07 Fastest GTE time No 99 Aston Martin 4:41.016
#99 ASTON MARTIN VANTAGE V8 (Allan SIMONSEN)
09:38:42 New fastest time in GTE by No 97 Aston 4:40.513
#97 ASTON MARTIN VANTAGE V8 (Stefan MÜCKE)
09:44:01 Audi e-tron No 2 now fastest 4:05.176 indicating its stopped raining
#2 AUDI R18 E-TRON QUATTRO (Dindo CAPELLO)
09:45:23 Chequered Flag
