24 Hours of Le Mans 2008 - Race part 05

Name: 24 Hours of Le Mans 2008 - Race part 05
Uploaded: 2025-09-16T17:14:59+00:00
Duration: 1 h 21 min 48 s
Channel: Racing History
Description: see more Racing on :<br />https://speedworld.sports-classics.stream

00:00:00We see one of the Audi's coming into the pits now.

00:00:02Yeah, that is Rockenfella that came in, the first of the two.

00:00:05Yeah, it's a very, very good point, isn't it?

00:00:07The three guys are the youngest combination of the Audi drives.

00:00:11We see the others are all about experience,

00:00:13they're all, you know, either winners or, you know,

00:00:16they've been there or thereabouts every year.

00:00:19But interestingly, Premat, who was in the car earlier,

00:00:21has set the fastest lap of the Audi's.

00:00:24323.9 is the quickest of the Audi's,

00:00:26the next quickest being 325 for the Christensen car.

00:00:30And also for the other of the Audi's,

00:00:33which is sitting there in the one car,

00:00:36which is the Vila car, 325 for them.

00:00:38In fact, they've set very similar times.

00:00:40325.155 for the number two car and 325.166 for the other car.

00:00:46So, you know, they're clearly running at a pace that they feel comfortable with.

00:00:49I think certainly there's no doubt of the level of talent in that car.

00:00:52And, you know, I don't think there's anything to worry about on that side of things.

00:00:57It's purely, I think, the experience of drivers who've been in the actual Audi prototypes at Le Mans for so many years.

00:01:03That's what you're seeing in the other cars.

00:01:05And I think it's just maybe a level of experience in this particular type of car around Le Mans.

00:01:09But certainly the level of talent in the car is not lacking at all.

00:01:13But if you sat down and you wrote a list of guys that you would pay attention to, one in a car,

00:01:17I mean, every team in the pit lane would have Tom Christensen on there somewhere.

00:01:21And you've seen it when there was a period when the factory R8 started to come to the fore.

00:01:27Well, every year we saw him being partnered with some great drivers.

00:01:31And, of course, when Bentley came in, they wanted him as well.

00:01:34And it just says it already about Tom K.

00:01:36A man that turned up in 1997 not even expecting to do the race was paired with Stefan Johansson and Michele Alboreto.

00:01:42A combination of a fantastic run from the team and three extremely talented drivers.

00:01:47Of course, sadly, Michele Alboreto no longer with us.

00:01:50But Johansson is here and has been running strong as well.

00:01:53He is, yeah. He's been in a lot of different cars each year.

00:01:55He seems to always find himself in some version of a very quick prototype.

00:01:59Certainly over in America, he's shined a lot in the Acura.

00:02:04And back here, nice to see him get the drive at the last minute in the car with Jean-Marc Goodenau.

00:02:09And even managed to go home recently back to Sweden,

00:02:13drive at Anderstorp in one of the historic Formula One races

00:02:17and one in an ex-Ronnie Peterson March in front of his home crowd,

00:02:21which is, that's what Stefan Johansson is at heart.

00:02:24A bit like Jan Lammers. They're just enthusiasts.

00:02:26They love it, absolutely love it.

00:02:27They're awesome in terms of their, not only their ability,

00:02:30but their ability to translate that passion to whatever project they take on board.

00:02:34You're right. Stefan Johansson makes his home these days in Los Angeles and California.

00:02:38And he was, yeah, he pretty much retired as a racing driver

00:02:42and then figured, this is not a good idea.

00:02:44I need to get back behind the wheel of something.

00:02:46And he's making himself a pretty handy career in sports cars.

00:02:49As you say, he's driven a bunch of different cars over the last few years.

00:02:53But any opportunity he gets to drive a racing car, he will be there.

00:02:57Well, this is what you should do.

00:02:59You know, if the opportunity is knocking, then take it.

00:03:01And certainly I would, you know.

00:03:02You don't say no to anything, really, if you're trying to expand your career.

00:03:05It just, you know, it can only improve your driving skill

00:03:07to drive anything that comes your way, I think.

00:03:09Now, Liz, I've got a question for you.

00:03:10I might be putting you on the spot here.

00:03:12When you came here to Lamar,

00:03:14obviously we knew you were going to be part of the Eurosport team,

00:03:16but have you got your kit and your license with you just in case?

00:03:19I didn't. I didn't bring it, actually,

00:03:21because I just thought now, you know, everything was a bit too set.

00:03:24I did think about it.

00:03:25I have to be honest.

00:03:26I thought, you know, I'm qualified.

00:03:28I could bring my suit and my kit.

00:03:30And then I thought, you know what, I've committed to Eurosport.

00:03:32Not going to do that.

00:03:33But it definitely went through my mind,

00:03:35so I have to say it was there.

00:03:37We're glad that you're with us this weekend, Liz.

00:03:39It's great to have inside some of such recent experience

00:03:42of running at the very front of the Le Mans 24 hours.

00:03:45And this is probably the downside of the Peugeot pit stop technique,

00:03:48is having to see a mechanic's backside being waved with your face

00:03:51whenever the stop comes along.

00:03:53But I think if that's the only real problem that they have over the whole 24 hours...

00:03:57It's looking pretty good.

00:03:58I think they'll live with that.

00:04:00I'm sure the level of enthusiasm in France as well was...

00:04:04We heard Henri Pescarola being interviewed earlier,

00:04:06and he was saying that, apart from his own team,

00:04:08his own team, rather, and the Courage team,

00:04:10that everybody in France really has got behind this project.

00:04:13They can see that the Gros de France, as they call it,

00:04:17is really a likely possibility, a likelihood, rather, for this weekend.

00:04:21So when we heard that the French national anthem being played before the race,

00:04:26that everyone was up and singing it,

00:04:28and there's such a lot of passionate enthusiasm for it,

00:04:31which is how it should be for your home country, for your home team.

00:04:34Well, certainly, you know, we've seen Audi dominate for so many years,

00:04:37and France is so passionate about this race,

00:04:39and it is, you know, a really big part of their country.

00:04:42And I'm sure they've been desperate to have, you know,

00:04:45a French team so far up in front again.

00:04:47So this is really, you know, all about, you know, the passion for France.

00:04:51Interesting why we've been concentrating on this scrap going on.

00:04:54There has been a change for the lead of LNP2.

00:04:57Jeroen Blakermolen is now ahead of Kasper Elgaard.

00:05:00Interesting, though, that Elgaard has made one more stop,

00:05:04and he's still only just under 20 seconds behind.

00:05:07So it would look, certainly on lap times,

00:05:09that, you know, the fastest lap for the Van Mierkstein portion

00:05:14was when Jos Verstappen was on board.

00:05:16But certainly the combination of those three guys is working well.

00:05:20Now, down in the pits, we've got Zéven-Villard.

00:05:22Really well, second for the moment.

00:05:24Everything's going well?

00:05:25Yeah, everything's going okay.

00:05:27Really didn't have a good time in the traffic there.

00:05:29I was always hitting it at the wrong spot and lost a lot of time there.

00:05:31Too bad because the race pace was good.

00:05:34You won almost everything except Le Mans.

00:05:38So still in your mind when you're driving?

00:05:41It would be great, but there's still a lot of time to go.

00:05:44Thanks.

00:05:46Well, interesting point there that was made there with Jacques Verstappen.

00:05:53You won pretty much everything you've done still to win Le Mans.

00:05:56And there was much made earlier this week, isn't it, of us Brits.

00:06:00And apologies for anyone that's watching Eurosport that isn't from Great Britain.

00:06:04But very, very proud of the fact that the late great Graham Hill is the only man ever to have done the ultimate triple crown, Jeremy.

00:06:11That's right, yes indeed, Indianapolis, Formula One Championship and Le Mans.

00:06:15So he's trying to emulate the great Graham Hill and he's got some big shoes to fill.

00:06:20Here's the other now leading car of Frank Montani on to pit and surely now he's going to give up the wheel of this car.

00:06:27We saw Jacques Villeneuve hand over to Marc Genet who sits back now on the track in second place.

00:06:33And here now comes Frank Montani and indeed he does get out.

00:06:36And just before his last lap was shown as a 3.30 but the lap before that was a 3.23.

00:06:42So he has been absolutely on it the whole way.

00:06:45He got that gap quite a long way up.

00:06:46But it's going to be interesting now to see the difference between these different drivers

00:06:50as we see Christian Klien getting on board.

00:06:53He was the fastest rookie and he's really loving this experience.

00:06:56But he's now going to be effectively scrapping with Marc Genet.

00:06:59So a little switch about in terms of Genet being very quick but a little bit more experience

00:07:03and Klien having that sort of young-up kind of approach.

00:07:07Tony's been doing a good job though in third place.

00:07:09Tom Christensen, it took him no time at all to get up to speed.

00:07:13We talked about it earlier on.

00:07:14He'd only just got in the car for the first time in a race with more than six hours gone already.

00:07:18He's turning, he too is super consistent.

00:07:22If you're watching his lap time, the best that car has done today is a 3.25.155

00:07:29and Christensen regularly has been in the mid to high 3.25 second range, 26 and 27.

00:07:36So again, he's just masterful through the traffic.

00:07:39And there he goes, a 3.24.152.

00:07:42So he takes a whole second of the previous best that that car has done.

00:07:47Christensen is absolutely flying right now in car number two.

00:07:50And on another note, it looks like we have a slow car on the circuit, number 53,

00:07:54which is the Vitaphone racing team of Alexander Negro and Peter Hardman and Nick Leventus.

00:08:00So we're not sure what's happened there yet, but hopefully it'll make it back.

00:08:05It says, yeah, it's now stopped.

00:08:07So there's obviously quite a big problem with that car and we'll let you know when we know more about that.

00:08:11Well, Post 96 seems to be seeing a lot of action this race so far.

00:08:15Amanda Stretton was stuck out there for a while.

00:08:17Then we saw the Pnatic Radical, which we were pleased to see it got going in.

00:08:21I wonder if Mark Rostan had got out of the car and maybe had kept his radio plugged in,

00:08:25was getting a bit of advice from the team on what to press or what to pull or what to wiggle or whatever it might have been.

00:08:31And that seemed to find a solution to the problem.

00:08:34But what we've been really impressed with so far this weekend has been the pace of all sorts of drivers.

00:08:40One man has been absolutely awesome in the last run that he did.

00:08:44And that was Frank Montaigne in the number nine Peugeot.

00:08:47In a moment, we're going to get a chance to find out from the man himself exactly his thoughts on how this race is unfolding.

00:08:53As we see the glory of Le Mans as we start to get edge ever closer to darkness,

00:08:57the point where we can see the race really started to come alive.

00:09:01Not that it's been boring, of course, guys, so far, but we're going to be hearing from Montaigne in a moment

00:09:05as we see the number two car of Tom Christensen having to deal with perhaps an even more difficult problem

00:09:12of one car that's only a bit slower and one car that's considerably slow this.

00:09:18Yeah, of course, this is a big problem at Le Mans.

00:09:20You've got to squeeze yourself through, a bit of a sandwich through the middle there.

00:09:23And certainly when it's a slower LMP1 car and you're in the LMP1 class or vice versa.

00:09:28But anyway, now we're going to go to an interview with Frank Montaigne after that spectacular stage.

00:09:32That was an incredible stand. You drove so fast. How was it?

00:09:37It was quite all right. She gave me a good car.

00:09:41It makes me the honor to go track me for this race.

00:09:44The only thing you can do is when you ask you to push, you push and the car react perfectly.

00:09:49So it was all right.

00:09:49What is the strategy now? You are leading the race.

00:09:55What is the strategy now? You are leading the race, so...

00:09:56Well, that's in the car. We are quite far behind.

00:10:03I want to help me. I had to push better luck to come back.

00:10:06Now we're back in race, so I don't know.

00:10:09Maybe we're going to save a little bit more the car, but the car is fine.

00:10:12We need to push more.

00:10:13Thanks, Frank.

00:10:14Well, that doesn't bear well for Audi, does it?

00:10:20The fact that Frank Montaigne is saying, well, the car is fine.

00:10:23There's no problem. I can push more if we want to.

00:10:25So it's obviously...

00:10:26You know, we've talked a couple of times about him being on his own personal limit,

00:10:29being comfortable in that sort of lap time.

00:10:31What's going to be interesting now?

00:10:32You've picked up on the fact that Christensen,

00:10:34he seems to be absolutely flying now in the Audi.

00:10:37And the relationship now with the new drivers on board of Janay and Cleon,

00:10:40how are they going to be able to get there?

00:10:42You've just noticed something, Liz.

00:10:43Yeah, it looks like Christensen has just done the quickest time so far for the Audi at all.

00:10:49This time he's just done a 3.24.1, so certainly he is on it as we expected.

00:10:55I'm sure it's team orders that he's got to get on it and stay there and push as hard as he can.

00:10:59This time of day, best time to be putting in the times.

00:11:02It's cooling off.

00:11:03The track circuit is getting much cooler as well, so he's going to be lit.

00:11:07Well, it looks like on evidence that it's going to be a treble or even quadruple stint that Christensen's going to do.

00:11:13We've seen this before when Christensen's won in the past.

00:11:15We've seen him coming in for what we're guessing is probably going to be fueled, possibly tires.

00:11:20He's done this before when he's got on board in the middle of the night and he's gone out absolutely dominating.

00:11:25And we've got a real battle going on right now because, actually, well, Tom Christensen has just brought that car into the pits, I think, hasn't he?

00:11:33But they were so close together, the top three cars when it went across the line.

00:11:38Christian Cleon, of course, has just come out of the pits and Tom Christensen has just come into the pits.

00:11:42And Marc Genet is flying along there up to speed already.

00:11:46So we're seeing shuffling positions just constantly.

00:11:50It's great stuff.

00:11:51Well, this is really a big chance for Tom Christensen because Frank Montemi has just gotten out of the car.

00:11:56He was the one putting in the incredible lap.

00:11:57So now this is Christensen's chance to really push and get back up there and hopefully close that gap again.

00:12:03I think we could see him doing even a quadruple stint here.

00:12:06He does that many times in the night.

00:12:07It's so much cooler.

00:12:08You've got no roof.

00:12:09So it really is an opportunity for them to make up time.

00:12:12And, you know, I think it'd be crazy to bring him out if he's comfortable.

00:12:15Well, that's what McNish did that to start off with.

00:12:17And Dindo Capello did the same as well in the second, you know, the second driver in the car.

00:12:22So I'm sure we'll see Tom Christensen do that.

00:12:25You know, he was...

00:12:27Sorry to interrupt.

00:12:29Just notice that they're still showing Pedro Lammy is in the car.

00:12:31It's definitely Stefan Sarazan.

00:12:33And he's just set the fastest lap of the race.

00:12:35He's done it, just like we said he was going to do.

00:12:37Yeah, well, it's a good job.

00:12:37We didn't have a bet on that one, guys.

00:12:38I think we've all have done money for each other.

00:12:41Nobody argued with each other on that one.

00:12:43It was a collective nodding of heads in the Eurospil booth there.

00:12:46And Will said, yeah, no problem.

00:12:48And Sarazan, this is going to be the story now.

00:12:50He's still sitting there in 10th position.

00:12:52But at the moment, he's now 1 minute 50 behind the Olivier Panis driven Courage.

00:12:58And he is lapping at the moment 13 seconds a lap fast.

00:13:02So that'll do it, won't it?

00:13:03So it'll be very interesting to see when we come back after the break.

00:13:07We're going to take a couple of moments of breather for you to see exactly how much time can Stefan Sarazan take out of the car in front.

00:13:15Join us after the break.

00:13:16We come back to one of the most exciting Le Mans 24-hour races we've seen in many a year.

00:13:26Not just because of the fantastic scrap that is continuing for the overall league.

00:13:30But the fact that we see racing throughout the various areas, even races within classes that are outstanding.

00:13:36Even the fact that we know that the diesel-powered Peugeot and Audi are absolutely dominating the performances so far.

00:13:43But there's been some stunning performances from the petrol versions of the MP1 cars.

00:13:47And we're looking on screen now at one of the pieces of action that is going to keep us riveted for the rest of the race, I'm sure.

00:13:54Corvette versus Aston Jeremy.

00:13:55Yeah, brilliant stuff, isn't it?

00:13:57And it's been a battle right for all the way through.

00:14:00We've got David Braddon in the lead right now in the 009 car.

00:14:03We're watching there the third-place car in the class.

00:14:06Karl Wendlinger is at the wheel at the moment.

00:14:09And I think he is trying to get past the lapped car of Oli Gavin, I think.

00:14:15Because, yeah, judging by the timing screens, Oli Gavin had that slightly longer stop about, what, 20 minutes or so ago.

00:14:22They had the rear deck off the No. 64 Corvette.

00:14:26So he lost more than a lap to the leaders having been in the lead of the class before that stop.

00:14:31But lap times-wise, the pace really doesn't differ much between the Corvettes and the Astons.

00:14:38As we've seen time and time again, you mentioned it before, it's not just a one-off with one driver in one car.

00:14:43It's actually all three drivers in both or three of the cars if they run three.

00:14:47But certainly, we've really seen these four cars, two Corvettes, two Astons, all the respective drivers.

00:14:53Every single one of them is a star.

00:14:54Well, certainly, the GT1 class has always been one of the most competitive classes at Le Mans.

00:14:58And it's one of the only classes where you find virtually all professional drivers in the cars.

00:15:03It's very, very competitive, especially the top four.

00:15:05You don't find a single gentleman driver in the lot.

00:15:08And, you know, even the ones who they call amateurs will be spectacular drivers.

00:15:11So, really, it's going to be a push all the way to the finish with these cars.

00:15:15Now, just on that point there, Liz, we've obviously seen a lot of publicity about your compatriot, Danica Patrick, doing very, very well in the States in IRL racing.

00:15:25And yourself and a number of other female drivers have really just proved that there isn't really anything to choose from in terms of whether it's male or female drivers.

00:15:34But we talked about a gentleman driver.

00:15:36There are some lady drivers out there who are perhaps not as talented as an experience as other lady drivers.

00:15:40So, what's the equivalent then?

00:15:42Is it called a gentleman driver?

00:15:43You know, I think that term has just sort of unfortunately been spounced into women as well.

00:15:48But, you know, certainly I like to think of myself as beyond that point now, but as I think we all like to.

00:15:55But, you know, maybe we need to think of a nicer term to use for that.

00:16:00But certainly Miss Vanina Eekes out there on the circuit right now is far from that.

00:16:05I'm not sure if she's driving at this moment, actually.

00:16:06But, yeah, she's been here before.

00:16:09Spectacular driver.

00:16:09I'm happy to see her back in the car.

00:16:11So, she'll be far from that title.

00:16:12And back where she belongs, really.

00:16:14She struggled a bit in DTM.

00:16:15Yeah, combination of the team, combination of perhaps not adapting to that particular type of car.

00:16:21He said it before, is, you know, certain driver suits, certain types of cars.

00:16:24She's a sports car driver.

00:16:25Well, what else would she be with her?

00:16:26I can sympathise with that.

00:16:27I'm much happier in than myself.

00:16:29So, she's a girl after my own heart.

00:16:31And, you know, nice to see her back here.

00:16:34Jeremy, you had something?

00:16:35No, just, yeah, check us out a little bit.

00:16:37Not to get away from female drivers.

00:16:39Certainly, that's a...

00:16:40No, you looked excited about something.

00:16:41Well, no, just a couple of changes in positions once again.

00:16:44Jeremy, LMP2, we've just seen the Van Berscheen car has been into the pits for its schedule stop.

00:16:51Jos Verstappen now back at the wheel of car number 34.

00:16:54So, that puts Kasper Elgaard and Team Essex Porsche back into the lead of LMP2.

00:16:59And the gap from first to second now in that class is a little bit less than a minute.

00:17:05So, we'll have to see how Jos Verstappen, who clearly is a class of the drivers in car number 34.

00:17:10Although, I must say, Jeroen Blankeman was doing a very good job as well.

00:17:14We'll have to see how that gap perhaps changes over the next couple of hours or so.

00:17:20Because I'm sure Jos will be doing at least a double stint in that car.

00:17:23Meantime, in GT2, Jamie Mello has just brought the recent competition.

00:17:27The only Ferrari onto pit lane for, again, scheduled service.

00:17:31And that puts Alex Davison into the lead.

00:17:34I think perhaps fairly briefly.

00:17:36Because I think he might be coming onto pit lane as well.

00:17:39Well, the other significant thing is we are seeing a fight for the outright lead.

00:17:43Once again, Christian Klien has been reeled in by Marc Genet.

00:17:47Now, only 0.464 of a second last time they crossed the start-finish line.

00:17:52And he was lapping just at about 1.4 seconds quicker than Klien.

00:17:57So, with this stage of the race starting to what we thought settled down when Montagny seemed to have vegged across.

00:18:03Now, we're starting to see where Genet, who's still very much a current Formula 1 experienced driver,

00:18:08of course, with the testing with Ferrari, has really started to turn the wick up a little bit.

00:18:12He spoke to us in an interview earlier, said he was a bit concerned about the Porsche curves

00:18:16in light of his massive accident he had in testing.

00:18:19But I think that's gone out of his mind now, Liz, don't you?

00:18:21Yeah, I think you reach a point where you just have to get on with it.

00:18:23And it'll be there for the first stint, maybe, in your head.

00:18:26But I think after that, a driver of his level and his professionalism, it's going to be gone.

00:18:30He's going to be just flying now.

00:18:32And Christensen looking strong as well.

00:18:34He's now within a minute, almost, of Genet's car, which could be Klien's car if this position changes, Gerry.

00:18:40Yes, indeed.

00:18:41Certainly, Christensen must have had quite a bit of traffic, I think, last time around.

00:18:44A much slower that than he has been doing on a regular basis.

00:18:47And I just say that that was Alex Davison into the pits in car number 77,

00:18:52the team Felbermaier Proton, Porsche.

00:18:54So he has once again given up that lead in GT2 to Jamie Mellor, who remained at the wheel, I believe, of car number 82.

00:19:01Third place in that class is another of the Ferraris.

00:19:05This is the AF Corsa car of Thomas Biagi, Tony Wielander and Christensen Montanari.

00:19:10But the other scrap, yet another scrap going on right at the front,

00:19:13is that Rockefeller, Wieland car has now closed right up.

00:19:18And it looks like Rockefeller now is on the pace of being able to do something in terms of potentially swapping around.

00:19:25But that scrap is going to run and run, I think, between those two.

00:19:28So it's just absolutely nothing that's settled, is there?

00:19:31It's not.

00:19:31I think, did they change actually a lap or so ago, these two?

00:19:33I think they might have done, actually.

00:19:34I think maybe just Frank Vito's just passed Mike Rockefeller.

00:19:38So he is up now into fourth place ahead, puts Rockefeller back into fifth place.

00:19:43But these two outies are still going at it.

00:19:45And, you know, as you say, you know, it's been that way all the way through the race so far.

00:19:48We've got six and a half hours into it.

00:19:50And we've just seen nose to tail battles all the way through the field.

00:19:53It's amazing.

00:19:53Has there ever been a Le Mans like this?

00:19:55This is what I was about to say.

00:19:56I don't think, I personally can't remember a Le Mans where all four classes,

00:20:00the front runners have been right together and really battling it out.

00:20:03Certainly LMP2 over the years has been a surprisingly weak category,

00:20:07which in the last couple of years has really picked up.

00:20:09In this year, I think it's the strongest LMP2 has ever been.

00:20:11We're seeing much stronger cars as well that are just making the distance and are pushing hard.

00:20:15And drivers as well.

00:20:17And Jos Verstappen there gets a new class fastest lap in the Van Buxley Porsche RS.

00:20:22By the car number 34, Jos Verstappen at 3 minutes 34.188.

00:20:27Well, that is absolutely interesting.

00:20:28We thought this way would well be happening.

00:20:29It's quite good.

00:20:30Six for the moment.

00:20:31Second Le Mans, is it still hard?

00:20:33Yeah, well, Lawrence is saying the car is fantastic.

00:20:50And we think we're going to be able to save the car for the latter part of the race and push it a little bit more.

00:20:58In front of it, it runs fast.

00:20:59Do you think there's still a thing to do?

00:21:01Pardon?

00:21:02In front of it, it runs fast.

00:21:04Audi and Peugeot are really big in front.

00:21:07It's a bit of a waiting course and you're doing your thing.

00:21:09No, we're not here for the competition.

00:21:10We have to keep the yellow ones.

00:21:12It says in front of the Audi and the Peugeot are very, very strong.

00:21:15It must be the war between us and we're going to take advantage of it.

00:21:17We're really concentrating on our...

00:21:19Not concentrating on that fight, just concentrating on the battle that we've got with the other petrol engine LMP1 cars,

00:21:26which is, I don't know, what we thought was going to be the case anyway.

00:21:29He's done a good job, Gropp.

00:21:30He's actually been, you know, perhaps one of the less well-known drivers in that particular car,

00:21:35but really, he's been very consistent.

00:21:38Yeah, he blocked his car on a bit on Thursday.

00:21:41He went off on one of the chicanes on his out-lap, actually, that was a bit embarrassing,

00:21:46but I was talking to Pierre Dudonnet this morning and he's a team manager down there at the Orica Group

00:21:51and he was saying they've had some problems with the traction control on those cars this week.

00:21:57It's just not consistent, so you kind of get used to, you're used to mashing the throttle

00:22:01and the traction control takes care of any wheel spin to the back end,

00:22:04but it's not been, as I say, not been consistent.

00:22:06So every now and again, it won't work properly and you won't get the same sort of lessening,

00:22:11of traction to the rear was under full power as you're used to.

00:22:13That caught out properly, unfortunately, on his out-lap.

00:22:16You've got a bit of damage to the front end of that car, but other than that, yes, he's doing a very good job.

00:22:20Now, that really is difficult when you have a problem like that

00:22:22because it ruins some of your confidence in the car and, oh, we've got a problem here.

00:22:26It's, oh no, is that one of the front runners?

00:22:28Is that the Essex car?

00:22:30Yeah, that's the Essex car, isn't it?

00:22:31It is, oh no.

00:22:32That's Caspar Elgar with what looks like a punter, doesn't it?

00:22:34That does not look good.

00:22:35Well, that is going to hand the lead back to Jos Verstappen for sure.

00:22:39We've seen how fast Verstappen has been anyway.

00:22:42On the previous lap, Elgar did a 338 against Verstappen 334.

00:22:46That could have just been traffic.

00:22:47Perhaps this situation was unfolding, though.

00:22:49Yeah, well, you know, he's got to be careful here.

00:22:51He's got to make sure he doesn't do any more damage to that car.

00:22:53You've got to be, you know, if that tire were to come apart right now, it's all in one piece.

00:22:58It's if it's just flat.

00:22:59It hasn't apparently done any extra damage to that car.

00:23:03Very, very lucky that that happened so close to the pit lane.

00:23:05I mean, that's just pure luck right there.

00:23:07That's exactly what you want to happen.

00:23:09It is indeed, isn't it?

00:23:10You can see that really has played into the hands in terms of damage limitation.

00:23:14In the most literal sense with that.

00:23:16But you can see that the rear bodywork is intact.

00:23:18That could be a significant problem.

00:23:20But more importantly, it would appear that the car's rear is running straight and true

00:23:26other than obviously the puncture.

00:23:27In other words, the suspension and all the components around it

00:23:30don't appear to have been damaged by that.

00:23:32What does this mean?

00:23:32We're looking at the lap charts whilst the Essex team are sorting the problem out

00:23:38and replacing those tyres and see whether Verstappen has made his way to the front.

00:23:42Yes, he has.

00:23:43And it's going to edge away for sure.

00:23:44Caspar Elrod getting out of the car after a very good double stint

00:23:47and John Nielsen getting back into that car.

00:23:50Well, it's another former winner.

00:23:52We've got so many former winners here.

00:23:54We don't know where to start really.

00:23:55And of course, the winner with Jaguar, of course, was Jan Lambert a couple of years before that.

00:24:00And Nielsen has just been, again, he's another guy a bit like Lambert,

00:24:04a bit like Estefania Hansen that just doesn't get any slower with age.

00:24:08Well, I think if anybody can take on the task of getting back the lead that they have just lost,

00:24:12it's going to be John Nielsen.

00:24:13So they've certainly put the right guy in the car to do the job.

00:24:16Not that there would be much of an issue with any of the drivers in that car, to be honest.

00:24:19They're all, you know, big winners.

00:24:21And they've all, you know, proven that they're purely capable of taking the lead in anything.

00:24:25Yeah, just interesting to interrupt there.

00:24:27Interesting.

00:24:28We saw the number 10 Lola that we saw have a big, big problem.

00:24:31Now, I was running down well out of the top 30, top 40 earlier on.

00:24:36I'm just interested to see exactly how that car is faring now,

00:24:40whether it started to make its way back in to some sort of meaningful position.

00:24:44He's now 27th at the moment with Jan Cherus, and he's lapping in there.

00:24:49The last lap was a 337.8, which, again, traffic permitting.

00:24:53It's pretty competitive at this stage, and on that evidence, on that sort of lap time,

00:24:57it's quite likely, we keep saying how early we are in relative terms of the race,

00:25:01that we could see that car, bearing in mind it qualified so well,

00:25:04genuinely being somewhere in a sensible finish position.

00:25:06Yeah, I mean, at this point in the race, like I say, it seems like we've been going for ages,

00:25:09but anything could happen.

00:25:11I mean, we have so far to go, even by the time you reach the morning.

00:25:14You know, it always feels like you should be getting close to the end,

00:25:17and everyone thinks, oh, we've hit morning, and we're coming around the homestretch.

00:25:19No, you've still got eight hours to go.

00:25:21You know, this is 24-hour racing, and it's very easy to get comfortable too early on,

00:25:26but really, we've got a long way to go.

00:25:29Another time we see the 33 car on the screen.

00:25:31Xavier Pompidou on board at this stage, lapping fairly consistently as well.

00:25:36That car is now running third in class,

00:25:39and that's considering the problems they had over the week,

00:25:41leading up to a couple of crashes in qualifying.

00:25:44That car was running strongly.

00:25:46Andrea Belicki on the driving strength of that car,

00:25:48and there's a man that you would have thought,

00:25:51perhaps his career would have gone a bit further, a bit quicker.

00:25:53He's been in a sports car, he's been incredibly quick.

00:25:56Yeah, it's been good.

00:25:56Just more to that battle for the lead that's still going on,

00:25:59of course, between the two Peugeots.

00:26:01It's Christian Cleon who still leads in car number nine,

00:26:04and the gap between first and second, it's fluctuated a bit.

00:26:07I mean, it was down less than a second not too long ago.

00:26:09Now, it's up as high as six seconds,

00:26:11but on the last lap around,

00:26:13Janae was actually a couple of seconds quicker.

00:26:14So, you know, it's just fluctuating with the traffic,

00:26:17and it's just a case now for those guys that are not making a mistake.

00:26:22Clearly, they've got the pace to win this race.

00:26:24They've already had a couple of niggly little problems.

00:26:27There's nothing too major for either of those two.

00:26:29The number eight car, of course, lost about five laps early on,

00:26:33and maintains that five-lap deficit right now,

00:26:36albeit in tenth place overall,

00:26:38and having set the fastest lap of the race.

00:26:40But the battle between those two Peugeots at the front,

00:26:43Cleon and Janae, is ongoing.

00:26:45Just 3.992, so a hell less than four seconds,

00:26:49as they come across the line outside.

00:26:51And I don't think that's going to last very long,

00:26:53because at the moment, we're looking at two seconds a lap quicker for Marc Janais.

00:26:56So, you know, we might see that lead changing yet again.

00:26:59You see the 35 car coming, the Sornio run.

00:27:02Pescarola, that's currently fourth in LMP2.

00:27:05At the moment, Pierre Rag on board,

00:27:08and it's also sharing with Matthew Lahaye and Frankie Cheng,

00:27:11who's making his debut in a prototype.

00:27:14He's also making his debut at Le Mans, and he's really excited.

00:27:18Loving the circuit, loving the experience, think it's superb.

00:27:20Hasn't had a lot of laps in the car,

00:27:22but for Frankie, he's really been getting more and more to grips.

00:27:25And interestingly, I think we mentioned before,

00:27:27that the average age of those two guys, three guys rather,

00:27:29is only 23 and a half years old.

00:27:31So they're just babies in age, but they're dealing with this situation.

00:27:35Interestingly, the very, very intelligent approach.

00:27:37I spoke to Frankie, he said,

00:27:38we've all sat there and spoken to this.

00:27:39We know that we win together, we lose together.

00:27:41It's that sort of approach.

00:27:42That's the sort of thing you'd expect to see

00:27:44from the Beelers and Christensen's and Capello's and McNish's.

00:27:47And for these young guys to do that, that's a good, huge story, surely.

00:27:50And certainly, you know, the youngest combination of three drivers

00:27:53are just interviewing by quite some distance.

00:27:56Yeah, well, I think that's really showing their ultimate talent for the future, to be honest.

00:28:00If they can be smart enough to say,

00:28:02okay, right now we're endurance racing,

00:28:04we're going to listen to what the team has to say,

00:28:05we're going to learn from the people that know,

00:28:07we're going to listen to the orders we're given

00:28:08and what we're supposed to do,

00:28:10and we're going to take that on board and work with it.

00:28:11Instead of, you know, a lot of young drivers you'd see,

00:28:13especially out of Formula cars would come in

00:28:15and not be able to change their mindset over.

00:28:18They have to get in the car and they have to perform a certain way

00:28:20and it's very hard to swap that mindset.

00:28:22And I think that's showing a lot of maturity there.

00:28:24Well, this is the car that's just running behind them in class.

00:28:27The WF Embassy car at the moment.

00:28:30Johnny Kane on board, of course, in Johnny racing at the moment.

00:28:33All sorts of things in spikers and going back into the NG Lowers

00:28:36when we saw that works effort as well as back in the day.

00:28:39Even now, it's still a great livery,

00:28:41that grey and green that we saw those cars running.

00:28:44And then, of course, the Lola MG was looking strong

00:28:47for another possible class win this year,

00:28:49but they just had an absolute disaster of a time of it.

00:28:51The Amalek car really getting beaten up and bashed about very, very early.

00:28:55And poor Tommy Otis on board really couldn't do much about it.

00:28:57This has been an interesting story.

00:28:59You were talking a bit about this earlier on,

00:29:01that they really have come to the fore considering

00:29:03they've had a relatively limited development programme as well.

00:29:06Yeah, very much so.

00:29:07They must have lost a couple of laps, I think,

00:29:09a pit stop around about an hour ago.

00:29:11We know not why, but certainly in that car now,

00:29:14it's running very well indeed.

00:29:15It was as high as third in class.

00:29:17It's showing fifth right now.

00:29:19No, it was as high as fourth, I think it was.

00:29:20So they've just got one position to the 35 car,

00:29:24the Kia Rag and the Kung Fu chain car,

00:29:27but it's certainly running pretty nicely.

00:29:29And they're only about maybe a minute or so

00:29:33behind the Pescarolo car there.

00:29:36In 17th and 18th places overall.

00:29:38But Johnny Cain, as you say, at the wheel and sailing along

00:29:41and thoroughly enjoying himself as well.

00:29:44It looks like we've just seen the number 19 car being wheeled back out into pit lane.

00:29:48So we might possibly, yes, we are seeing the driver getting back into the car.

00:29:52I think it is Amanda Stratton, possibly.

00:29:55That car's been out for quite a long time.

00:29:57It's had a bit of a crash, or a big crash rather.

00:29:59So, yeah, really good effort on her part for getting the car back to the pits after a long,

00:30:05long delay.

00:30:06And it looks like that's going to be back out again.

00:30:07So that's good news.

00:30:08She's not had much of a week, has she?

00:30:09She's not, no.

00:30:11So, yeah, I think, I can't see.

00:30:13Is that her?

00:30:14I can't tell.

00:30:15No, I thought it might have been, but I'm not sure.

00:30:17If it is, it's good that Bob would give her the opportunity now to regain some of her confidence,

00:30:22because it's taken quite a beating over the last couple of days.

00:30:26Sorry to spoil the burn, actually.

00:30:27Have you seen the helmet better?

00:30:29I think it is, Bob, yeah.

00:30:30Yeah, I think Bob getting back in.

00:30:31He's obviously said, right, let's, if nothing else, probably from a shakedown point of view,

00:30:35getting in the car that's had some damage, the Chamberlis, you guys have got the car out,

00:30:40and have worked, obviously, incredibly hard to get themselves back into competing.

00:30:45And for a situation like that, for a lot of teams, even though they know a meaningful result

00:30:49in terms of positions out the window, now this is about, let's do this for us, for the boys,

00:30:53for the sponsors, and finish the race.

00:30:55Exactly.

00:30:55Get the thing home in one piece, try not to have any more dramas, and that will be a victory in itself.

00:31:00It's a bit of a cliche, but when you're involved in a 24-hour race, you don't believe how hard it is,

00:31:05not just on the drivers, but on every single member of the team that's involved.

00:31:09It just is a draining event, isn't it?

00:31:10And certainly after her having a crash on her out lap, I believe, to send her back out,

00:31:15into the upcoming night conditions, possibly not the best time.

00:31:19You know, this is difficult lighting.

00:31:20You know, off you go, do a good job straight into the dark, you know.

00:31:24I think maybe in lieu of that crash, maybe it's a good idea to just let her settle down a bit,

00:31:29put Bob in the car, sort the car out, then maybe put her back out a bit later when she's more settled.

00:31:33The lap times between the two leading Persians have now pretty much equalized on that previous lap.

00:31:373.23.6 for Christian Cleon and 3.23.4 for Marc Cheney.

00:31:42Traffic, as you can see, as ever, a problem.

00:31:44We saw how well Montani dealt with the traffic.

00:31:47He's going to be the better of the two in traffic this time.

00:31:49Remember Cleon, first time at Le Mans, not anything that he's really experienced before.

00:31:53No, that's right, and doing a very, very respectful job here.

00:31:563.23 is a very good lap indeed.

00:31:59Tom Christensen now, he was doing 3.24s and 5s not so long ago.

00:32:03His last time was a 3.28.

00:32:05So five seconds, the Audi lost on that last lap alone to the Peugeot's running first and second.

00:32:12And Frank Bieler and Mark Walkenfeller running in fourth and fifth and very much together.

00:32:16Still, they're tied together as well.

00:32:18Less than a second between those two.

00:32:21Well, it's just great.

00:32:22We are normally, as commentators, when you're watching an endurance race,

00:32:25after a while, everything settles down into a pattern.

00:32:28There's a lap between that car, and that's going to have a stop, and this is on those tires,

00:32:32and that's the quick driver, and that's the not so quick driver.

00:32:34And it's almost, it's pretty predictable.

00:32:36It's still interesting because it's a tactical and strategical and the technical issues,

00:32:40all the things that can happen.

00:32:42But this time, it just doesn't keep saying it.

00:32:44It's a proper full-on sprint throughout the pack.

00:32:46Melo and Davison are still scrapping for the lead of GT2.

00:32:49Brabham and Magnussen and Wendling are scrapping for the lead of GT1.

00:32:53And we saw the problem there with the Essex Porsche, which has handed the lead to Jos Verstappen.

00:32:58So he's now on a lead lap ahead of John Nielsen in the Essex car.

00:33:03But that's going to change for sure, isn't it?

00:33:05Well, it keeps changing, doesn't it?

00:33:06I mean, I think it's going to keep swapping around as we go.

00:33:09And, you know, I'm looking forward to seeing where we're going to be at the end of the night.

00:33:13That's going to be the big telltale, is if this can keep up throughout the night.

00:33:17You know, the longer the cars run, you know, the harder on everything that's in them,

00:33:21the harder on the mechanics, everything.

00:33:23So it's going to be interesting to see who is still running at the end of the night

00:33:26and if this push is still going on in all four passes.

00:33:29Interesting point you made there is they close right back up on each other once again.

00:33:33You can't really see now where the light's getting intensely blinding for us looking at

00:33:39just a set of Xenon headlights coming towards you at speed.

00:33:43No, it was in fact a lot of traffic that they were dealing with there.

00:33:46But just looking out of our window of our country box,

00:33:48the flags that are on top of the Tribune's opposite us are fluttering a little bit more

00:33:52intently than they did previously.

00:33:53There is still a possibility of rain.

00:33:56The clouds aren't particularly thick and heavy around us,

00:33:58but the forecasters be that at some point during the night it could well happen.

00:34:01And then what we're seeing at the moment is an incredibly tight and exciting race.

00:34:06Well, just rip that one up and start again.

00:34:08Well, Le Mans at night in the rain certainly is very exciting and very treacherous.

00:34:12You know, virtually every year you get a lot of rain in the practice,

00:34:15but this year nothing in qualifying really.

00:34:18They've had all dry running.

00:34:19You know, I suppose I can almost say thankfully there was some wet running in the in the qualifying weekend,

00:34:25but certainly that could really shake things up a bit.

00:34:27This is a difficult circuit.

00:34:28You know, when you've got a mix of road surface and real racing surface,

00:34:32it really changes things up a bit.

00:34:34We talked a bit about March today,

00:34:35and he had a big accident at the 3% before at Porsche Curves

00:34:38in the testing that you mentioned there as the 3 and the 1 Audi are falling over one another.

00:34:43He mentioned that he was still a bit concerned about Porsche Curves,

00:34:46mainly because he's so bumpy through there.

00:34:47And that's an interesting point you made, Delis, about the difference in road surface,

00:34:51the difference in track conditions as the track changes with more rubber

00:34:54and potentially obviously different temperatures in the night.

00:34:57So there's all of these factors that you have to do as a driver, as a racing driver.

00:35:00You're constantly cross-referring, get the words out,

00:35:04cross-referencing all of that information to make sure that you're finding the grip in the right way.

00:35:09GT1, we're here to see David Bradham in making a pit stop.

00:35:14Alex, the race started really well, you had some problems, how do you feel now?

00:35:21Yeah, the first three hours were good, we were leading, but then we had a gearbox problem,

00:35:26they had to change some parts on the gearbox, which lost us six laps.

00:35:32Which is a pretty bitter moment because Chef and Pedro, myself, we are definitely the fastest guys

00:35:39out there clocking really fast average lap times.

00:35:43Now we lost six laps, so I'm a bit sad, but on the other side now no more mercy, we go flat out.

00:35:48Yeah, it's not finished for sure, so it's still a long race, so are you going to push hard until the end?

00:35:54Yeah, basically we're going to drive like we've stolen the car and to a runner.

00:35:58Yeah, and we have to take more risks now with the traffic and anything else,

00:36:05because we can only now win and improve the situation, but it will be hard, yeah.

00:36:09How are you going to organize the night with the stands? Are you doing more than normally?

00:36:14Yeah, we're just checking now with the tire situation, what tires we're going to run,

00:36:18if we can find maybe a different trick or strategy to help us,

00:36:23but I don't know yet, so I have to wait for the team managers, okay.

00:36:28Thank you, Alex. Thanks.

00:36:31What a wonderful man to get an interview from. It's a bit like listening to Gerhard Berger

00:36:35a few years ago, the same wonderful deep Austrian accent and the same sense of fun in his easy

00:36:40join his racing in there. Drive it like you stole it, we've got a good job, we're really pushed now,

00:36:45this is all the kind of stuff we want to hear. We know we've got a race on our hands,

00:36:48if there was any doubt, listening to Alex Burst has just told us that he is a great asset

00:36:52to the Ramon 24 hours, isn't he? Oh, absolutely, and I think he's just telling us

00:36:56exactly what we all thought was going on, is the minute Peugeot's behind,

00:37:00Team Waters push like nothing else, drive it like you stole it, like you said,

00:37:04so they're going to be out there hammering along, which is going to be very exciting for us watching

00:37:08this race, to watch these slower Peugeot, well, not slower, but it's back a ways,

00:37:13we're going to watch them push through the night, and it's going to be very exciting.

00:37:16I think possibly their strategy, he said they're looking at their stints,

00:37:19I think we may see triple or quadruple stints from these guys, just to try and save some time,

00:37:24and just, you know, to keep pushing through the night, this is what I think is going to

00:37:26happen. I think you're right, and Alex Burst, he's a lovely guy, he's only raced here once

00:37:30before, but he didn't do too badly, did he? He won the race in 1996, of course,

00:37:34that was for the Josti, wasn't it, in the Porsche X Jaguar, if you like, and he was a breath of fresh

00:37:41air in Formula One, I thought, when he came back a couple of years ago, just, he says it like it is,

00:37:46doesn't he, as you were saying there, Simon, he's got a great personality, he's not afraid to say

00:37:51what's on his mind, and as you say, a great asset to sports car racing and the Le Mans 24 hours.

00:37:56Bit of a moment there for Toramos, I believe that is. Yeah, the time coming.

00:38:01Yeah, well, problems earlier, it seems to be getting the car more or less running sensibly again,

00:38:06but obviously that looks, looks like a driver error, but couldn't say for sure. Gap between the, uh,

00:38:10the one and the three, car Bela and Rockenfella has gone back up a little bit, could have been traffic,

00:38:15Bela was two seconds quicker than Rockenfella on that previous lap, whether, as we say, that was

00:38:19traffic or whether that is a pace thing, but this is where, again, we talked about Tom Christensen and

00:38:24the lap times he was doing, but, um, it was interesting that, uh, that Bela is now really

00:38:30sort of reminding people just what a star this guy still is, he's been, um, absolutely on it

00:38:35throughout the race, he's just gradually started to edge that gap away, now there's a traffic issue

00:38:40that we talked about, at least, talk us through it. Just so tight there, the LMP1 gap between the GT2,

00:38:45it's so huge this year, because the LMP1 cars are so fast, that it's just an incredible speed

00:38:50difference, I mean, you come up on them so fast, and look at the Peugeot go by, it's as if the Audi

00:38:55was an LMP2 car, that's an, that's just incredible. Now, I just wondered if that, maybe, I couldn't quite

00:39:01see, was that the 8 car coming past, maybe unlapping himself, I think that may well have been Stafford

00:39:06that is Sarazan on a mission, that is a man on a mission that we're looking at there, charging

00:39:10through traffic, taking the risk that we heard Alex, Alex Wurt said, maybe we're going to take.

00:39:14Well, what, from what Alex Wurt said, he said, we are the three, we are the definitely the fast,

00:39:18fastest car out there, well, I think I beg to differ with what Sarazan's doing, not only has he

00:39:22literally got the fastest lap, but, in, in, is driving a little bit like, uh, Montaigne was earlier,

00:39:28taking risks, driving the traffic properly, but being monstrously fast in the process, and he just gets more,

00:39:34more exciting. Well, if anyone can step up to the plate and take that on, it's going to be Stafford,

00:39:38so this is going to get more exciting as we keep watching. We saw the indicator on from the

00:39:43Lamborghini there, he's thinking, I'm getting out of here quickly, but from us at Eurosport,

00:39:48the race is going to continue, the action will continue, and we will be joining you a little bit later on.

00:39:53Well, welcome back live, just a brief change of personnel, and we're kind of going jazz club as we

00:40:06head towards the evening. Neville Haynes, Chris Parsons, and myself, Carlton Kirby, will be your

00:40:11hosts for the next hour or so. Mark Cole will be joining us as well, and, uh, it'll be the up all night

00:40:16club from then on in, where the real hardcore fans who love this sort of thing, uh, just kind of get a buzz out

00:40:22of, uh, the sort of stuff that leaves, um, most mere mortals, uh, just completely perplexed,

00:40:27to be absolutely honest. We're looking at, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the Audi number one car,

00:40:33it's, uh, Frank Bieler, I think, who has just swapped over, and, uh, but it is the second-placed Audi.

00:40:39Tom Christensen is on the lead lap at the moment, trading 45 seconds behind, uh, Cleans Peugeot.

00:40:45He's our leader after 118 laps, with 17 hours remaining. You heard that absolutely right.

00:40:53It's as if, uh, uh, a job is already completed, and I know all of you must be thinking, well,

00:40:59how on earth do these guys stay with their focus? It's, uh, remarkable that any kind of

00:41:04race driver can come to this sort of event, and then just carry on, and it's getting to that magic

00:41:09time, that dangerous time, that hyper time, really, where the sun disappears, and, uh, it's an awful

00:41:15lot darker than it might well appear on your screen. Uh, the bugs are out, uh, the wind is up as well,

00:41:21thankfully, keeping some of them away, but it starts to get just a little bit greasy out there,

00:41:25as, uh, the moisture in the earth just starts to show itself. Uh, we do get that evening dew,

00:41:31and as you get that crossover between night and day, things start to happen. Distances become a little

00:41:37bit unfocused, let's put it that way. There's been some great chase down action out there,

00:41:41which, uh, hopefully, you have all been, uh, enjoying. No doubt about it, the Porsche Spiders

00:41:47have, uh, come here and done a tremendous job. So have the Peugeots, and it's a tremendous battle

00:41:53raging on still between Corvette and the Aston Martins. It's, uh, Corvette, Aston, Aston, Corvette,

00:41:59Corvette, Aston, Corvette. They're the top seven. Amazing. Magnussen is our leader there. Only two cars

00:42:05on the lead lap. The other one is Garcia on board the 009 Aston Martin. Uh, Puccini trying to chase

00:42:11down in the James Bond 007. Audi, they've been hot on the heels of Peugeot, had ill fortune out there.

00:42:17As far as the petrol-driven cars are concerned, they're still chasing out there. It's a tremendous,

00:42:22uh, time to join the night action, and the overall classification looks like this. Peugeot,

00:42:29908s. One and two, uh, the other is chasing back from adversity. It's down in seventh place, and is

00:42:37just, uh, well, spanking the field for the time being. As we look further down, you see the LMP2s.

00:42:42It's the Porsche RS Spiders who are leading that, with the Lola of Zakia running in third place in that

00:42:48glass. We told you about GT1. GT2, it's Ferrari on top. Jaime Melo is our leader there. Only one of the

00:42:55car on the lead lap, and it's Mr. Davison, who is on board the 77 car. If you're wondering what

00:43:01happened to the Lizards, well, of course, the Matbutts, well, they got into each other earlier on,

00:43:05basically nullified their campaign, and so there you have it. That's the little wrap of how we stand

00:43:10at the moment, and we'll be opening up, uh, yet again onto the message boards. Don't forget,

00:43:15it's Eurosport.yahoo.co.uk. Go to the messages, then hit Motorsport, find Le Mans, and you will

00:43:24get Race Weekend Live as our, uh, little thread for the time being. That will be changing to the

00:43:30Uppall nightclub, and, uh, so we'll be starting a new thread fairly shortly. Just wait on for that.

00:43:36We have any messages to post right now. I know it's been a bit of a hiatus, but that's because we

00:43:41haven't been here. So, Chris Parsons and Neville, hey, a very warm welcome to both of you. Nev,

00:43:46this is a bit of a danger time, is it not, when, uh, the, the night time just starts to strain the

00:43:51eyes ever so little, and fatigue really starts to play a part. Yeah, the great thing, sort of,

00:43:55when I was doing 24-hour races in the past, and you'd come on, and you'd say,

00:43:59I'm now the pleasures or the dangers of the night, and it's the half-light situation just as it's

00:44:06getting dark, and of course, I think which is even worse, the half-light situation in the morning.

00:44:10Yes. If you survive that period, if you survive the period now until, shall we say,

00:44:17eight, nine o'clock tomorrow morning, you can keep your fingers crossed and say there may be a few,

00:44:21sort of, injured motorcars about, but it's probably going to survive, but this is the drama time.

00:44:26Chris, take us through what we're seeing on screen at the moment. Oh, well, okay, these,

00:44:30these boys, they, they're starting to look tired, aren't they? And, uh, at this, oh, well, we'll come to

00:44:36Chris in just a moment's time, but we have Ricardo Zonda, I believe, who's just waiting in the wings

00:44:41to talk to us. Uh, we might have just a few moments, Chris. It is a tired time, it is a dangerous time,

00:44:47and you can see that they're almost doing it more gingerly, and we will go to that interview,

00:44:51and then we'll be great with Chris in the moment. Sorry, Chris, he's looking very disappointed.

00:44:55We'll be great with him in the moment. Stay with us.

00:44:57Sorry. Ricardo, uh, Frank did a really, really good stand. Are you going to push as hard as him?

00:45:05Yeah, of course, we have to keep the position. Uh, of course, the gap is being very close from car

00:45:12number seven, Peugeot car. So, we try to keep the same gap, and, uh, of course, uh, Frank did a very good

00:45:20job. We just try to do the same. You are fighting against Audi, but also against the other Peugeot.

00:45:29Yes, of course, uh, our strategy is a little bit different than the Audis, and, uh, of course, uh,

00:45:36all the three cars from Peugeot is quick, and it's closer. So, we, we have to fight,

00:45:42but we have to be very careful also. Thank you, Ricardo. Good luck.

00:45:48Well, thank you, Ricardo. I wish we could have, uh, heard it. We're all straining like crazy to

00:45:52find out exactly what was going on, but, uh, Ricardo essentially saying this battle is not over yet,

00:45:57and, Chris, um, it's, uh, it's a time where everyone has to take care, even at, uh, things like the

00:46:02refueling stops. You've got to get it all so right, particularly when you're passing on the track.

00:46:06Yes, and they're coming in every 40 minutes or so. There's one of the Peugeots now in your pictures,

00:46:11and, uh, yep, and, of course, the windscreens at this time, and I know I've said this before,

00:46:17the windscreens are getting spattered by bugs, so making it very difficult to see.

00:46:23You've got to be careful. You've got to take care. We're going to take a break,

00:46:27and we'll be back after seeing what's on the, uh, message boards.

00:46:30We're going to take care. We're going to take care. We're going to take care.

00:46:35Lights ablaze as the 63 Corvette, uh, pits off the lead. He's pilling off the lead. 108 laps completed.

00:46:42Uh, Garcia is the nearest man to him, and it's a bit of a race for time, and that is a worry for us.

00:46:48Chris Parsons, you've spotted that there have been a long, long time. That is the lead Peugeot in the kitty litter.

00:46:53It, uh, it is, uh, and it is not going anywhere. That is the lead car.

00:46:58Gleon has gone in, and it's not clean at all for him,

00:47:00and Christensen is going to sniff this. Christensen himself just posted a 4.30. We're wondering whether he's slowing and coming in,

00:47:07if he's got any problems, but that's the lead, uh, Peugeot, and it has been for the time being,

00:47:12and Gleon is the man on board. Gleon then overtakes him on the table, uh, as far as the timing is concerned.

00:47:19The number seven car is up there, and he is distraught. Look at this. Come on, help me out, he says.

00:47:24I need to get this back out there. Can't go backwards or forwards. The marshals, where is that?

00:47:28Straight away, snap, they come in. You can see he's actually taken one of the, uh, one of the markers out here.

00:47:32Yeah. And I wonder whether this was a personal effort by himself, whether he got tapped. We will get a replay.

00:47:38But chaps, it's exactly what we were saying. The moisture on the track out there is going to catch you out if you're in trouble.

00:47:43It's been quiet, and suddenly it all hits us. Uh, we've got all sorts of things going on,

00:47:49and we don't know where that is, but he's facing the wrong way. We can see cars coming past,

00:47:54and, uh, will the marshals, um, drag him to a safe place where he can...

00:47:59That's the important thing, isn't it? I mean, this is where the regulations man comes in.

00:48:05I understand, and I may stand corrected, that if you touch it, if anybody else touches it but you,

00:48:13then you're in real trouble. In other words, if they do tow it out, it doesn't matter.

00:48:17Uh, no, they can tow it to a safe place, Neville. Exactly, they can.

00:48:21They have to take it to a safe place. You can be sure of that if it's a Peugeot.

00:48:24If it's a Peugeot. Let's not be unfair. There will be a safe place.

00:48:27They've been helping out an awful lot of people. Uh, well, let's just see how long it takes them to get back,

00:48:32but suddenly worried looks. It's not all falling into place. They wanted a one, two, three.

00:48:37Are they going to get it? It does not look like it. Um, but then again, we've said this earlier on,

00:48:41don't forget the Peugeot number eight. It was way down the field. It's currently running in ninth place,

00:48:46albeit it is, uh, five laps down on the leaders. Well, it's not five laps down on that lead car.

00:48:52That nine car is absolutely stuck, and the rest of the field are continuing to march on.

00:48:57Tom Christensen, uh, we had a bit of a hiccup on his timing. He's kind of sorted himself out.

00:49:01I think it was a relay, boys, which is why I was holding off on mentioning it. Uh,

00:49:04we have got a microwave loop that goes all the way around this circuit, and sometimes they just miss out a check,

00:49:10and it can be the transponder. He's on, he's on form. His last lap, a 3.27, but this is, uh,

00:49:15great news for us and all the neutrals because it's Peugeot, Audi, Peugeot, Audi, Audi at the

00:49:20moment with the next Peugeot down in ninth place. Good news as well for the Courage, the Dome Judd as

00:49:26well, the 11 car. Uh, suddenly it's becoming, uh, a bit of a petrol race as well. We may well even see

00:49:32a petrol-driven car on the podium if this attrition rate continues. He's got, it looks like he's got the

00:49:37Peugeot, the Peugeot. It's out, isn't it? Yes. Yeah, it's out. I would wonder if that was actually

00:49:42being towed to a safe place. Well, getting him going is the safe option, to be honest, uh, chaps,

00:49:48and, uh, you know, it is a place that cars can go off. He's just done it himself. Still not sure

00:49:52why this is the case. He hasn't done a puncture. It may well simply have been a little bit of debris

00:49:57picked up driver error. We don't know. We're going to wait and find out for you, but the big news is that

00:50:02Peugeot have not had a clean run here. Look at the faces and look at the flare. Now, this is what

00:50:06approaches you. If you are one of, uh, the, uh, lower placed cars, then that is the kind of glare

00:50:15that you get. And you cannot tell, lads, how far away that car is when it's coming and how quickly

00:50:21it's approaching. Especially in this light, it's, uh, it is very difficult. Uh, it is much darker here

00:50:27than you can see on your, on your screens. Uh, the cameras are, uh, really doing a good job at

00:50:33opening things up, but it is much darker in reality. Yeah, it's, uh, it's amazing as well,

00:50:38Neville, isn't it? You see the technology that they have to deal with here. Two Peugeots running side by

00:50:43side. Uh, can you believe it? But one of them is the nine car and the other is the eight car,

00:50:48which, uh, is a couple of laps behind it. So, uh, they can sort of wave hello to each other,

00:50:52but really they don't want to be there, either of them in the standing. No, well, that car is going to come in.

00:50:57He's going to get checked for sure. He's want to be checked. I wouldn't, if I'd been out in the

00:51:01skitty litter, but one way or another, it's all happening. It is live here on your spot, back in a moment.

00:51:10The night time well and truly upon us and the flare, it's actually coming from the brake lights now.

00:51:14Uh, they're driving through, they're pushing hard and Peugeot need to do exactly that. Mark Jenny is our

00:51:19leader. He's in the seven car, but we're on board here. I think it's with the nine with clean. He's making his

00:51:23way in for a cleanup aptly named and they've got to get him in. They've got to take the wheels off.

00:51:28They've got to get the blowers and, uh, the, uh, vacuums in there as well. They need to tidy the

00:51:34vehicle up. They will have caught an awful lot of gravel and nationalist. They need to sort it out,

00:51:38don't they? Yep. That's going to take a few more, um, valuable minutes off that car. Uh, meanwhile,

00:51:45Mark Jenny is, is, uh, leading the race from Tom Christensen and, uh, driving very quickly. Here we

00:51:52are coming through the Porsche curves and, uh, that car has not stopped. No, uh, it hasn't. It's actually

00:51:59looking rather well set up and it makes you just wonder. Uh, it couldn't have had contact.

00:52:03Was it just driver error? Was it that night, uh, day and night thing that we've been talking about?

00:52:08And, uh, straight by he goes, says, no, thank you very much. Uh, and the fellas put it all away.

00:52:14I'm not coming in. It feels fine enough to me. Well, he might be carrying a bit of extra ballast,

00:52:18but he's shaking it out there as he goes around the curves. He's saying, no, no, no. And it makes

00:52:22you think then that it must have been driver error because nothing's gone wrong with that car. If

00:52:26he's gone straight by the pit entrance level, he wants to carry on driving. Now, if you're in it,

00:52:31you know, it feels like an attractor because all the gravel's swelling about. If you've ever been off in the

00:52:35gravel, you know. He's clearly happy. He's really nasty and he's obviously pretty happy. Yeah. Um,

00:52:40so let's just hope he can continue because if he had to come in, he would probably lose a better part

00:52:45of another lap and he can't afford to do that. Somebody said a few moments ago, I think it was

00:52:50probably when we were in break that, um, so far, fingers crossed, Adi have had a good run, but let's

00:52:55face it, they are not on the pace in the terms of the Peugeot. But they are in terms of longevity.

00:53:01They're going an extra couple of laps out there and, uh, that is helping them an awful lot. It can

00:53:05come down to fuel mileage and that may well be the crux of this. If you're having ill fortune and

00:53:09you're having to turn the wick up, gaining a couple of seconds per lap is going to cost you out there.

00:53:14Um, it really is. In terms of, uh, the economy, the amount of fuel the car is literally drinking,

00:53:20it means you're going to have to come in earlier and you're just going to lose that advantage.

00:53:23Yeah, it's going to take five hours, frankly, another five hours, though, before you can see where we are.

00:53:29A stop is four minutes or so, uh, to actually, from front to back, to actually get the, get the job

00:53:33done. Four minutes, if you forget four minutes, making that up on the track, it's just, it's

00:53:38imbalanced that, it's silliness. But, uh, we, we also have to say that it's highly, highly unlikely

00:53:45that all three Audis will run completely, uh, trouble-free. Uh, they won't even have spins and

00:53:52things like that. Peugeot may have had their problems. Audi may still have a problem or two

00:53:58to come. And, uh, while we look at the four-car being dealt with at the moment, uh, just let me

00:54:02remind you that we will be switching channels, uh, throughout. And, uh, if you want to make sure

00:54:07that you're on the right channel, I'm sorry to tell you to sound just a little bit vague,

00:54:11but we're, we are currently talking to Eurosport Asia, Eurosport World, Eurosport International,

00:54:15British Eurosport and Eurosport 2. So, if suddenly the pictures decide to desert you, go to your menu

00:54:21and find out where it is live, because we're not going away, okay? Just have the belief,

00:54:26we will be staying with you. So, if the first chance suddenly it goes to another sport, uh, we are a

00:54:32general sports channel on Eurosport, don't forget that, but we are looking after you motorheads so well

00:54:37over the Le Mans 24 hours. Find out where it is, go there and carry on enjoying, okay, this coverage.

00:54:43And what a race it's been. It's been full of drama right the way through. Peugeot, Audi, a great battle,

00:54:50but others are coming into it. The Courage driven by Ayari, the number five car is in the frame as

00:54:55well. The four car would love to be up there too, you can be sure of that. So, we're going to take,

00:55:00uh, uh, a brief break in just a few moments time. Uh, thanks all of those of you, uh, uh, uh, Nilo Roney,

00:55:08or Nilo, Nilo Ronnie, I don't know what, uh, said, yeah, channel switching, you've got to keep on it.

00:55:14He's absolutely right. Uh, we'll be having a word with more of you on the forums in just a wee while.

00:55:19We're going to take that breakdown back live in a moment.

00:55:27You're at Le Mans, you're live, and we're on board with the three car here. Rockenfella,

00:55:31he's running in a fourth place. It's Audi, Peugeot, uh, all sharing the front six places. Uh,

00:55:39no change there, you might say, but boy, oh boy, they've had to wrestle to stay there. The eighth car

00:55:45is, uh, battled its way back through the field. It was down as low as 18th, I think it was,

00:55:50and it's now back up to six. Rockenfella is running in, uh, fourth place. Tom Christensen's in the two

00:55:55car, with Alan McNish actually, uh, chopping at the bit, desperate to get back in the car. Uh, but

00:56:00the leader is Marc Genet. He's on board the Peugeot, number seven car, 128 laps in after, and with,

00:56:07I should say, 16 minutes and 20, uh, 16 hours and 23 minutes. You can almost get confused because the

00:56:15figures, the time figures, they're just so mind-boggling. The 009 car's in, lads. Uh,

00:56:19that's our class leader, 115 laps they've completed, and when the LMPs have completed 128,

00:56:26you can see the performance difference. Yes, these cars, uh, it would seem, are pretty evenly

00:56:32matched, but the 009 car would appear to be the quickest than the Astons. It's also the luckier,

00:56:37it's the one that won, uh, last year, 007 James Bond doesn't seem to just have it. No. Uh, it, they do,

00:56:43drivers really genuinely do believe in lucky cars, don't they? Yeah, I can't remember the stories of

00:56:47of the film or in the books, but 009 was the lucky agent. No, no, no, no, no, no. 008 was the

00:56:52buddy. Yes. Was it 008? Well, that's why they don't use it. He was, he was the double agent. Ah,

00:56:57well, say no more. Therefore, uh, he, I think James Bond had to kill him often. 007 had to kill

00:57:03off 008. The Dunlop Curves' venue, venue earlier on about where, where, uh, uh, McNish spoiled the Peugeot

00:57:11party right at the beginning well the party is being spoiled right now as the number nine car

00:57:14gets back into it that's running in third place genet is the man out front with tom christensen

00:57:19charging him down uh once tom comes by in just a moment's time we'll actually get that time check

00:57:25on you uh they are sharing the lead lap the uh seven peugeot and the number two audi and zonta

00:57:32is on board the nine car now and he is a handy peddler but i'm also looking at the times that

00:57:38tom christensen's doing now we'll keep our eye on this but he's lapping at the last lap was three

00:57:45seconds quicker than uh mark janet and the leading peugeot so uh he's going well he's eating into the

00:57:52lead and uh we'll we'll keep you updated on that this chap has just got on board the car that clean

00:57:59actually uh handed over to him and they did a great job they did a terrific job uh earlier on

00:58:05and uh well uh not only flaring it seems outside it's not quite as bright as that it doesn't

00:58:12distract the driver it looks a little bit brighter to you we've actually got the retina wide open here

00:58:17so that we can get some outside vision of what's going on as well flashing the lights uh some of

00:58:22them have got a real strobe effect i was actually worrying about the the health implications for for

00:58:28for the viewers at home pescarola themselves uh they have a kind of a strobe to tell people to get out

00:58:33the way uh really rather worrying it almost looks like lightning yes again sorry to butt in here

00:58:40carlton but look at look at the readout on the steering wheel you can see the gear you can see

00:58:46the high gearing of these cars because they're very low revving the the diesels only rev to 5 000

00:58:53something revs instead of the 19 000 in formula one uh but you can see the the readout you can see the

00:59:01uh the gear that he's in very good very good illustration fantastic you see also how he's

00:59:07wrestling the course here and the speeds are absolutely tremendous you see that how that

00:59:11quickly they change gear as well just picking their way up and look at this hump here neville yeah

00:59:15which is a sequential box uh and so you'll see it come down quite quickly before five four three two one

00:59:21but the other thing of it of course is you look at the cockpit of the car you realize how different it is

00:59:27now to the way the more used to be years ago you've got everything you can alter a whole load of

00:59:33things and i was listening to somebody saying oh yes but we have a bit of a problem with the

00:59:36traction control you know uh that sometimes it works or sometimes it doesn't i wonder whether

00:59:41actually it's a question that if you get offline and this does happen here and it will be happening

00:59:46during the night if you get offline you'll find there's some debris and you can get into real trouble

00:59:50there and that might be able to happen to clean and that's probably what took him out neville there

00:59:55we are there's the audi number two pit getting ready for this car it's tom christensen we'll wait

01:00:01and see if there is going to be a driver change we just noticed a moment ago at the loader in the

01:00:05hands of the zakiya it's the 33 car uh the speedy racing machine really looks uh kind of kind of a

01:00:11diminutive car but you saw the performance difference there as uh the purchase went through the lmp2

01:00:17field uh it's being led for the time being by the the porsche rs spiders josh restaffens is back on

01:00:22board he was the man who completely bossed qualifying as far as that was concerned totally dominated it

01:00:27and looked terrific uh but it really was shared honors even by the end between the 34 and the 31 car

01:00:33that 33 lola of the zonta the speedy racing anglo-swiss outfit uh with uh samia pomido andrea valici and

01:00:42steve uh zakiya they've really proved that they can stay up there as well and they've

01:00:46come back from university as well oh in long distance racing you can do that endurance racing

01:00:53there we are back to the audi pit getting ready we've been on board with tom christensen somebody

01:00:59nearly went off a short while ago we don't know who but i don't know whether you saw there was a huge

01:01:05shower of gravel came up there as the peugeot came through so who'd done what with which and to whom i

01:01:10don't know but that's another thing you've got to be very careful this was the car that got terrible

01:01:14rear end damage and the rear end is the expensive bit on uh this class of vehicle the gt1 that's

01:01:20where it all gets rather nastily mashed and uh when that happens uh it's very expensive 32 is the jmp

01:01:28racing 99 car uh it's uh alan ferte uh the uh who raced in jaguar mercedes group c all those years ago

01:01:35ben orcott the amateur he went off at arnage during uh testing uh got lumpy again as well in qualifying

01:01:43stefan daoudi uh regular with jmb and it seems that uh well he's been forgiven for misdemeanor's

01:01:49monster and is back as well in that 99 car that lovely sweep up to dunnop where the crowds gather

01:01:55and enjoy it like uh if le mans is uh your kind of thing there's no better place to stand so then

01:02:01visor clean ready to go out it looks like no driving change yeah that's number one not number two yeah

01:02:08i did number one not number two so they're all waiting i think they might well be stacking up

01:02:12out there to make a few changes that is uh frank beeler uh on board and that was a straight straight

01:02:18forward change no tires just fuel and he's off right so it was being that stayed on board i didn't see

01:02:23whether this driver changed because i was i was busy just checking my notes on the jmp racing output so

01:02:27frank stays aboard the number one machine what quality they've got strength in depth audi um you would not

01:02:33bet against them upsetting the persia's here would you know it's a very difficult thing to look at

01:02:38as i've said i think everybody else has said you've got experience uh and use the youth team is really

01:02:45i suppose the peugeot team the experience team is the audi team one wonders who the uh looking on

01:02:51a couple of three years ahead when the changes inevitably come when the very experienced hands

01:02:55like beeler uh and the rest of them sort of think well perhaps it's time to hang my hat up

01:03:00uh who's gonna join them then hey well gary maybe he's a man who's packed his wife off to kent he's

01:03:08uh uh taking the beers out of the fridge and he is uh ready to go racing with us ready to go to work

01:03:13the boys yep there's one of the peugeots coming in we don't know which one it is yet but uh there

01:03:19there are the boys ready for it we saw it coming into the pits any second now here here comes down pit

01:03:25road and it's the eight car it's the eight cars sarah's out on board and uh just look at the state of all

01:03:29the bugs that have got that that is the difficulty with the uh coupes they do get a bit messy and it's

01:03:35this time of night that they can get caught out so a big cleaning job going on at the front it's going

01:03:39to be a double stint no driver change planned here uh by the looks of things and they're leaving the

01:03:44wheels as well this is what they need it's got to be a quick one it's refuel only and a quick hoover-up

01:03:49job as well checking everything making sure that the air intakes are absolutely as they should be uh

01:03:53water bottles being changed by the looks of things uh uh yes indeed that's exactly what that

01:03:58technician has just done all taking place while the fuel goes in it's all about fuel tap tap off you

01:04:03go and uh well there he is he's back and underway nice and cleanly done very very routine and nice

01:04:10and clean it was thanks uh by the way to everybody who's uh come on before uh we still haven't got our up

01:04:18all night tag going just yet but that will be created in the next 15 minutes so fingers on buttons

01:04:25everybody uh because we'd love to hear from you it's it's where we really do go deep into the jazz

01:04:30archives there's a little clever stuff down there if you look this year i don't think i've saw this

01:04:35before how you've got a red light and yellow light and blue light flashing on the front of their pets

01:04:41so that if you come in you know at least which yours if you're just sort of a bit disorientated

01:04:47uh and i'm just looking to see whether or not there's a similar thing up the road

01:04:51we just saw uh the master being bullied there the number 44 master uh well not being bullied it

01:04:57being passed that car has got a story all of its own but one of its back lights are out and they may

01:05:02well be called in you've got to have a full light set and if one is missing it might well be called

01:05:07out that was the least of their worries when they went for a huge barrel roll in qualification it's

01:05:12taken three days to rebuild the car they've managed to do it with the help of lola tremendous effort

01:05:17they're out there and they're racing as the two car of tom christensen comes up gets on his marks

01:05:21drinks only thank you very much and uh pure water for tom doesn't like any other kind of shenanigans

01:05:27uh uh uh they've got these amazing little uh they're not they're kind of sugar tablets nothing more

01:05:33and uh he's he chomps on a few of those before he gets out there just likes a little bit of water

01:05:38possibly sweetened but that is all he takes out there despite what any of the other sort of uh

01:05:44make makers of isotonic drinks might tell you he likes just sugar water and that's his lot so we're

01:05:50going to take a commercial break we'll be back and we'll be talking to you on uh the message boards

01:05:55in just a few moments time you're live on euro sport here

01:06:02now this is an interesting one uh the 90 car does not have a green door but its sister car

01:06:07does uh they needed a door the sister car was out of the race so they corrupted it uh got the door

01:06:14and um they've uh they've rejoined it farm back are used to this sort of thing stuck a number on it

01:06:19now the question is if this car wins they're going to have to make a model with a green door

01:06:26so if you are one of those collectors who loves little cars it's going to have a green door if

01:06:30they have success i've really rather wanted to do well now is that called car braking it is so they've

01:06:35uh they've well call it whatever you want they're still racing it is legal they've clearly bought the

01:06:41door it just happens to be the wrong color the aco aren't that bothered and uh fantastic in fact

01:06:46if you if you look in the pit there you can see the other door exactly isn't that great so if the

01:06:5090 car does well it will oh dear oh dear and uh we have a car stopped it looks like uh the 78 car is

01:06:58it looked like 78 to me yeah exactly and uh that's if it is can't quite see it in the lights it's a it's

01:07:04the airport for ferrari the number 78 car and that was running third in class montanari on board if

01:07:11it is that car we can't quite see it clearly uh for the time being uh farnbacher is uh uh on the

01:07:18farmaca racing and the 90 car i think that's the car that's just left the pit so uh um maybe a problem

01:07:35there yeah maybe a problem uh the corvettes uh just trying to settle themselves down o'connell is in the

01:07:4163 car and it's the 64 it's the 64 car running it's ollie gavin on board in uh no they've got that

01:07:48wrong it is the 78 78 we got it right well there you go uh we were right and uh graphics were wrong

01:07:55so our eyes are better thank heaven for that 64 car getting dealt with right now uh thankfully we can

01:08:01set ourselves down there is ollie gavin up on his jack we're getting tired as well we've got to get focus

01:08:06chance interesting thing looking at the times mark cheney who i think is back the wheel of that car

01:08:12uh the leading peugeot a 327 and a half now for quite a long time christiansen was going quicker

01:08:21but all of a sudden i'm looking again zonta 331 rogan feller 331s uh bieler 332s that was either

01:08:31uh one out of the back of the net so to speak or he certainly quickened his pace a little and if you

01:08:39think of the enormous accident that mark jenay had just two weeks ago in in testing at on the test

01:08:46weekend at this circuit that's very impressive there you are you can see the three uh lights on

01:08:52that car to noting that that car what was in third place in the class i'm wondering what the problem is

01:08:58i'm wondering whether it's just simply out of fuel here if you just misjudge that go around once too

01:09:03often uh can he get it going uh that's the question he's he's getting all the help he possibly can but

01:09:08they are pushing it this is uh the yos verstappen machine and uh yos absolutely superb in lmp2 and these

01:09:16cars well they've got a bit of history in the states they've been uh beating lmp1s they've come over

01:09:21here uh or they've been performing in europe as well just wait till the pensky rs spiders get an invite

01:09:27uh we can't wait for that uh many think that um that the the reason they're not here is because

01:09:33they've been asked not not to turn up just in case they spoil the party the lmp1s yos the boss

01:09:39well uh if i can come in on that one of course the pensky rs spiders are officially the factory cars

01:09:46and the aco the runners of the organizers of the le mans 24 hours are on record that they do not want

01:09:53factory cars in lm lmp2 well that's as maybe but uh as they've actually uh just doing so well in

01:10:02america i think they've actually got the right to come here as a sort of sort of uh champion

01:10:06which we will wait and see uh for the time being they've been sort of uh they haven't made the trip

01:10:12and uh for whatever reason that may be is this the chamberlain synergy car that back put together

01:10:17and uh running uh running once more can't quite see that kind of flare doesn't help it doesn't

01:10:22help anybody least of all the cars is approaching it is indeed the 19 car and great to see it back

01:10:28out there they've had all kinds of problems poor old amanda stretton um she had a an on-screen

01:10:34argument with bob berridge uh during qualifying when uh she damaged the vehicle apparently uh today's

01:10:40crash was nothing to do with that was nothing to do with that uh it was uh uh suspension problems

01:10:47that they had uh it lost it on a corner and uh unfortunately she put it in the wall but it

01:10:51looks like it is back and looks reasonably healthy if rather slow i think that is amanda driving it

01:10:59only because of the relative size of the driver well it didn't uh it wasn't up to speed was it no maybe

01:11:06maybe they're just testing whatever it was that was damaged they want to go gently so it doesn't

01:11:11get into any kind of problem a lot of suspension it was all of one side it may well be it may well

01:11:16be that this is the sort of outrun for them just to check that everything's all i think bob went out

01:11:20today before didn't he didn't you know i think bob berries has been out in that car but they still

01:11:24don't know exactly what happened so i think i think there is there is a query they're still testing

01:11:30the car they think it might have been oil pumped out of the engine onto the rear wheels that uh sent

01:11:36amanda into that spin dr wolfgang ulrich cursing they're looking pensive i don't know what he's

01:11:41thinking about because he's watching a picture of himself at that moment there's the 10 car and uh

01:11:47well they've had their own incidents as well and that's lovely to see the 10 car back in and doing

01:11:52business it's the shiru's racing lola aston martin and that looked very second hand not very long ago

01:11:58and they're back out and on course way down the rankings but they don't care um they just have pride

01:12:04at stake right now and i'm sure there was a pescarella we saw with the body of a moment

01:12:07or two ago actually pushed into the back put into the pit it wasn't out the pit road but um i just

01:12:12saw it out of the corner of my eye and i thought that's a pescarella but what it is and who it is

01:12:18i didn't have chance to find out because i haven't got any bodybuilding mark janet in the lead now running

01:12:24326 is uh quickest of all the diesel cars and uh really that is very impressive at this time of

01:12:33night he he's obviously in in the groove and enjoying himself and uh that uh that broke that pinned ankle

01:12:40of his is is not giving him too much gripe here's the ferrari boys the number 78 uh crew waiting for

01:12:46their vehicle to come back still not sure what the problem is we suspect it may well simply be that

01:12:52they're out of fuel um they look uh a little bit nonplussed and if i can say that the the problems

01:12:59of that car have now put tim suggdon in the virgo ferrari 430 up into third place in the class

01:13:07um albeit a lap behind uh the the port the porsche in second yeah very pine peddler tim suggdon

01:13:16actually um very experienced now but uh nice to see him get himself in the top three in the class

01:13:21well uh neil uh has has actually texted in here and said has anyone been able to work out any

01:13:26finishing positions if anybody knew that uh the teams would know that and they've got no idea uh

01:13:32neil atterborough thanks thanks for your for your message uh as well as everybody else you can't

01:13:37figure it out because luck plays so much a part here and uh driver eric in happen at any time just look

01:13:42at the speeds that they're gathering here look at the white lines coming at them and as they go from

01:13:46public roads back on the circuit constant changing as well just in the nature uh the pitch the surface

01:13:51everything there's so much at stake here that you have to take account of uh that we couldn't

01:13:55possibly predict anything but that's what's the beauty of the only partial answer that we can give

01:14:00him is that calculations by the word doing the maths i've heard several times or doing the arithmetic

01:14:09says that says that so do i says that uh the relative speed and the pit stops and everything else of the

01:14:19leading cars i.e the pressures and the audis could and i use that word advisedly could end up with them

01:14:27actually being even closer than we'd ever imagined they could end up with audi having a slight advantage

01:14:34it depends on the fact that they're doing perhaps a lap sometimes two laps longer now if that is the case

01:14:40by about 12 hours we might have an idea subject of course to all the other vagaries of motor race and that

01:14:47well-known commentators curse absolutely but uh going back to if you want to see cars yo-yoing

01:14:54look in gt1 because every time you look at the screens there seems to be another leader

01:14:59we're now back with the corvettes in in the lead aston second aston third corvette fourth and fifth

01:15:06so uh with aston six so they're written and they're they're yo-yoing the whole time uh pit stops uh we

01:15:14we very difficult to keep up with who's actually uh doing well on that in the pit stops because

01:15:20although the corvette's in the lead it's done one less pit stop so maybe it's due for one here we're

01:15:26now seeing the rml lola mg going being pushed back into its pit for work there is damage on the front of

01:15:34that car uh we know it had a big accident uh early in the race uh maybe there's more work to be done

01:15:45yes they're having a really troubled time now little team and uh it's rather sad because that car

01:15:50when it does go is very very quick it's just unfortunately that things haven't worked out for

01:15:54them at all but uh it's a long way i know who stopped there can we see it looks like it's the

01:15:59zytec number 32 yes barasi uh now what's happened that that looks like the beginning of the pit road

01:16:08it does doesn't it look as if you come to come to a sad stop could he have run out of petrol who knows

01:16:18one of the other corvettes making a stop one of the luke alfant corvettes in have you got to think

01:16:24about running out of petrol because i've got one of my chaps that i used to work with me for years he had

01:16:27a terrible than worrying at a petrol because he always was damn well doing it it it has been known

01:16:33that's all i will admit to let's grow the 17th car it's uh not exactly in happy land but it is in the

01:16:40top 10 and uh could well challenge the dome or the courage for that top petrol spot uh it will be an

01:16:48award all of its own if not recognized with a trophy it's all part of the lmp ones but such has been

01:16:54the dominance of the diesels that uh well you really have it really has to make you think why

01:16:59there isn't a separate category it may well be that uh soon the rules do change to equalize the

01:17:03difference between them to bring the petrol cars back into the frame they're going to have to do

01:17:08something because they can't allow as the 32 car gets a push and a rather an unusual steer um that uh

01:17:16they will allow the gap to maintain otherwise they're just going to put uh the crews off and

01:17:20particularly some of the privateers this is the barazzi epsilon car should have started off in blue

01:17:25but they've gone for a new sponsor's livery looks rather attractive i think fellas well it does but

01:17:30um it's running by marshall power at the moment and uh i hate to be boring but i'm never quite sure

01:17:37about the regulations but then nobody is actually at the moment i think it's how how one feels at the

01:17:42time i think if the driver gets can get the car into the pit lane it can be pushed ah you might be

01:17:49right so i'm sure you are right i don't think well it's the team who've pushed it actually it's not

01:17:54marshall's yeah the team mechanics well we'll see i know that and then it'll all oh the aco will very

01:18:03very soon tell them if uh if they've broken the regulations but uh hopefully the team managers on top of

01:18:09that and uh i think they they uh they uh they stopped the drivers doing the pushing and that

01:18:15they now now allow mechanics to do it as long as the car is in the pitch road i should tell you that

01:18:20term and chris has often acted as referee in these battles in the time in the past when he was uh

01:18:25running the group c and you actually see chris because i will give you a description he is not a

01:18:30enormously large man but you can you can he's a very gentle man in the gentle sense and you can see

01:18:36him sort of keeping the war in factions apart he would never make a good boxing or a wrestling

01:18:40referee thank you neville 958 posts uh on our current uh threads and so the up all night club is alive

01:18:50and well so uh chris wadsworth uh jay broad and stew 48 ever sir 346 aston scott john egg and the rest of you

01:19:00timber 1981 uh connor sheila m and all the rest of you nutcases are still up uh go over there because

01:19:08it's just going to be easier for us to scroll down and we can uh we didn't quite make the thousand but

01:19:13i'm sure we'll be getting up there fairly shortly it's night time and tom christensen is still in the

01:19:19frame he's kept audi up there they've had their problems perjo uh when will it end difficulties well they

01:19:26all end in 15 hours 58 minutes and 35 seconds to be absolutely precise we're going to take ourselves

01:19:32a short break uh we're going to be uh swapping over a few bits of personnel jeremy short is back i'm

01:19:38carlton kobe i'll be bidding you a fond farewell until the morning but don't forget the up all night club

01:19:43will be here and uh it'll be a pleasure for them to lock on and find out exactly what you're saying what

01:19:48you think of them that kind of thing so chris neville do enjoy uh everyone else out there i think i've got

01:19:54the soft option this year well i think i might i'm actually slightly disappointed anyway there is

01:20:00how it's standing at the moment perjo audi perjo audi audi perjo and the remainder corvette still leading

01:20:07gt1 and it is mellow and the ferrari that are leaving leading the cruise as far as gt2 is concerned

01:20:14as far as gt2 is concerned that that is how it stands just one porsche in the mix uh in the top seven

01:20:21and uh well we're just gonna have to wait and see how that one fans out don't forget that website

01:20:26it's eurosport.yahoo.co.uk uh you go to the message boards find motorsport and click on le mans and it

01:20:35is the up all night crew uh up all night we are are you is what it says uh drop us a line and we'll have

01:20:42a chat with you as soon as we possibly can so uh ill fortune for the number nine zonta's on board but

01:20:49uh seems to be bringing that peugeot back into it the dominance the peugeot have shown earlier on in

01:20:54the evening seems to be ebbing just ever so slightly uh tom christensen is a man who uh knows how to uh

01:21:00to drive a car as well and that all important all-star crew that wear the number two well they seem to be

01:21:06holding life together very very well for audi they've had the fortune so far you might say but they've

01:21:10also got the experience three very experienced crews and uh well they look like they might well

01:21:16go all the way but then again we thought the same of peugeot they've been out there and testing don't

01:21:20forget they've been testing uh as if they've run a 32 hour race so should have got plenty of longevity

01:21:27underneath their belts as uh other stoppers come uh it's regular stops for the 23 car and the rest

01:21:34uh queuing up and uh to take over may i add it's time for me to uh bid you fond farewell but uh don't

01:21:40forget those threads the apple nightclub is open and waiting for service we'll speak to you soon

24 Hours of Le Mans 2008 - Race part 05

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