Relive the thrilling 2013 24 Hours of Le Mans, where endurance, speed, and strategy pushed drivers and machines to their limits. From intense battles on the Mulsanne Straight to dramatic moments that defined the race, this edition remains a legendary chapter in motorsport history. Experience the full action of one of the most iconic endurance races ever.
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SportsTranscript
00:00:00are talking so we're doing our best we're sorry but we do we do try and talk over each other of
00:00:04course as well obviously i'm just on a very serious note david richards has um sent a message
00:00:09through asking uh just to pass this on to everybody but most of you who've been with us
00:00:14all day will know we had a dreadful accident um only a few minutes into the race and alan
00:00:18simonson lost his life at tertarouge when his aston martin crashed and david richards the
00:00:23boss of aston martin asked us to pass on to all fans and viewers the thanks of aston martin racing
00:00:29for their support and explained that alan's parents did urge the team to keep racing in his
00:00:35honor and this year's race is very much going to be run in memory of alan by the team's organizers
00:00:41fans and hopefully all you viewers so that that's that's the line from aston martin thank you for
00:00:47that david and uh just brings back a somber note just we remember this shadow is going to hang over
00:00:53this year's leman well i think we all heartily concur as we said a little earlier joe gartner
00:00:59was the last man to die in a race here at leman that was back in 1987 and i know uh some friends
00:01:05uh very close friends of his and and that hurt never goes away this is a sport that brings enormous
00:01:10joy to many many people and just occasionally it takes an enormous amount out of us as well and
00:01:17and it's very very hard you know his family here he's got he leaves a wife and a baby daughter
00:01:22behind him and that's it's a dreadful thing to to to happen and unfortunately
00:01:29yeah the world keeps turning and and there are people who said well you know you should pull out
00:01:35of the race but at the specific request of his family the aston martin team are doing what they
00:01:41can to make this at least to somehow slightly honor the memory of alan simons he's got a lot of feel
00:01:49of friends in the field he's got a lot of friends watching he's got friends uh in the booth with us
00:01:54with with damian faulner who raced with and against him over the years and and it does it does take a
00:02:01lot for a team to pick themselves up when something like that has happened so early in the race and
00:02:07and to give it their all because it's just a dreadful dreadful situation so and very hard for
00:02:12the drivers as well i know a lot of these drivers are really struggling it's very difficult to realize
00:02:18something like that has happened on the track that you were racing on at the same time and
00:02:22you know i know that everybody here will be racing with his memory and be racing for him and i think
00:02:27that's what he would have wanted and in fact a lot of drivers i know who have twitter followers they
00:02:32will have realized that that drivers who were in the cars earlier on didn't find out until three
00:02:37four five hours into the race that that the accident had in fact claimed alan's life so
00:02:42are very very serious and serious condolences to his family to his friends and uh hopefully some
00:02:51joyful memories as well of him you know in the end you try and remember the good times and he had many
00:02:56of them he was leading the race doing what he loved to do having set the fastest lap time with the car and
00:03:03doing the very best he could in his life and so uh that's the way we'll remember him and uh the aston
00:03:11martin team as david richard said will continue to race on uh in his memory and with him very much in
00:03:17their hearts and their thoughts i do feel as if we should have a minute of silence at some point for
00:03:21him as i yeah i just feel that would be correct car off in the gravel as uh that is
00:03:28that is that the 32 lotus you see now cars change at night because they have reflective paneling
00:03:37that doesn't always reflect the shape of the car we're not being told who it is just where it is
00:03:44which is at mulsanne corner massive gravel trap there now to protect the cars from going on to the
00:03:50roundabout and car 34 so it's not in fact the second lotus that is yeah the number 34 car is
00:03:58the aurica of nierhausen who in fact had just done his two fastest sector times before that which
00:04:03may indicate why he's just gone off in the gravel this is the fraction too fast perhaps
00:04:08it looks like he'd taken out some bullards as well and it was uh pretty good off so we'll wait to see
00:04:14where we are with that well you know it's a very very long straight and it does slightly appear to
00:04:19oh my goodness there's the corner uh of course they are a little bit more well trained than that
00:04:24and he's spent a lot of time on track well he's done a lot of laps already in the race patrick
00:04:27niederhauser so that all swiss team there is the car being towed out of the gravel trap hard standing
00:04:33this dark area here is tarmac so hopefully once he gets there he should get it fired up and then
00:04:39spread gravel all the way back to the pit yeah i was about to say the unfortunate thing about that is
00:04:42as he comes back he's going to spread gravel across the circuit no matter how hard he will
00:04:46obviously try not to go on the line sometimes you have to there's no way around it and that's
00:04:51what happens at the more the longer you get into a 24-hour race the more there is just debris all
00:04:56over the circuit that becomes part of the racing line and you just have to embrace it and bring it
00:05:01into how you drive the car marcel faster in the pit lane yeah he has uh still not got past
00:05:07natasha gashenang and in as much he hasn't done lapped himself from here yet so he is still uh 11
00:05:14laps behind uh race leader tom christensen we just saw didn't we look at a grassy make his stop
00:05:20because to grassy yep at the moment uh the both those out is up front the number two and the number
00:05:27three car have made 13 stops against toyota's 12 and 11 so we're starting to see the benefits of
00:05:33that extra three liters that toyota as a petrol runner are being given except they're not in front
00:05:38yet so it's going to play out of well i mean it has to play out over 24 hours and that was their
00:05:43that was their chance really wasn't it to try and make that work um lots of people asked about the
00:05:48audi pit stops you see the quote driver helper opening the door and swapping over two bottles
00:05:54it is a pressurized system with a drinks bottle at least one of them is not sure that both of them are
00:06:00they may be i have to say uh i haven't asked that specific question um we might get a chance maybe
00:06:07uh if liz or jeremy return from the pit lane or go down to the pit lane just to ask that question
00:06:11but certainly uh it's a drink system normally the oil and water systems are also very highly
00:06:18pressurized in these cars because the temperatures they have to sustain but they're not normally filled
00:06:22up inside the cockpit you don't want either the oil or the water system leaking into the driver's
00:06:27enclosure so they're kept separate and the 88 car is in the gravel and that is janluca roda
00:06:32uh very good uh oh don't try and get out gentleman driver he's dug himself in a little bit
00:06:38and he is down at marshall's post 76 which is also oh he's not down at marshall's post 76 where's
00:06:45he gone off there there's bollards out as well i wonder it's a load of bollards wow it is
00:06:50uh back up open wider wider wider wider
00:06:55dunlop um 13 14 15 dunlop oh no it's no it's on the way to tetra rouge that's the end of the s
00:07:05how has he done that coming out there's a change for the lead in the class as well there's a big
00:07:10bump there as you come out of the s's a big bump and i wonder if he's just lost that
00:07:14janluca roda was the leader in the felpermeyer proton porsche it is now the dempsey del pierro
00:07:20proton porsche that takes the am lead dr gorgeous is dr leader wow he's going to be loving that right
00:07:26now very exciting i think a lot of his fans are going to be going mental in the stands right now
00:07:31i'm very much fear we're going to get safety car number six because of this unless they can get a
00:07:35little tractor in and tow him out quickly because this is a very tricky place it's one corner
00:07:40see a tractor coming crone's accident isn't it i see a tractor coming there it is lights in the
00:07:46background uh the tractor is coming down we have a boy scout coming in that's very handy
00:07:51classification after niners merci bien super so we're very well looked after here girl guides
00:07:59list and boy scouts absolutely hey don't get that everywhere do you indeed you don't so now what
00:08:06they'll be doing is looking for hopefully the very obvious place tow hook so they don't rip the
00:08:09front of the car well the trouble is the tow hooks about three feet under the gravel at the moment
00:08:13so you're going to have to dig down to normally they're not normally they are just below headlight
00:08:17heights and you can see that i can see it protruding out of the thing because if you have them down at
00:08:21the splitter they tend to get in the way a lot and this is going to put even more gravel on the
00:08:27circuit what a mess it's going to be i hope if we do get a safety car i hope they're going to clean
00:08:31the circuit up a little bit we can only hope we've got to say thank you to the hard-working
00:08:36marshals i'll tell you what they have been really hard pressed this week it's been a very fraught time
00:08:41for them seven red flag incidents in four practice and qualifying sessions this is our well it's
00:08:49another incident we've had five safety cars already mark so we really you know we really don't want
00:08:55any more we've still got 14 and a half hours nearly to get through so we've got nowhere near halfway yet
00:09:01and that's a pretty big number of safety cars at this stage in the race because really relatively
00:09:05in a 24-hour race we aren't very far in at all no it just seems like everyone's been up for hours
00:09:10we've only got six formula one grand prix left to go jamie campbell walter pitting there i think he's
00:09:16still in the car if i'm not mistaken that's him looks like they're just going to do fuel and send
00:09:21him down the road i think are they no just checking the brakes there maybe going to check tire
00:09:26pressures just checking underneath the car i think probably because there's so much debris on the
00:09:30circuit perhaps he's run something over and he's just radioed in and said guys just have a quick
00:09:34look when i stop for fuel it's straight back out good right hand front headlights not on they will
00:09:39have standard checks they they'll use a laser temperature gauge to measure brake and tire
00:09:44temperatures as a matter of course just to make sure that the telemetry's not missed anything
00:09:48right front headlight is on it is on it didn't look like it when it was under the lights but have you
00:09:53noticed that they're running these sort of rally spotlights right in the center in front of the
00:09:57central radiator looks quite uh got to have some retro doesn't it it does look pretty cool i think
00:10:02got to have some cba super oscars yeah i'm thinking yeah early 1970s 911s that did used to have
00:10:08separate spotlights on the bumper didn't they and somebody did ask us on twitter a little while ago
00:10:12i'm afraid i can't remember who it was so please tweet me back if you do because i've had too many
00:10:16uh asking if the lights on the race cars were better than your road car and i would definitely say
00:10:22yes certainly on that car we just saw go past the aston martin and on on the uh front running lmp cars
00:10:28and i think nowadays most of them will be a lot lot better you'd be surprised how good the lighting is
00:10:34out there you're still in the dark you're still going a lot faster than you would on the road
00:10:37but the lights are very very good these days well it's all led of course now yes exactly yeah makes
00:10:42a huge difference you're very right mark just want to say hello to 12 year old harry johnson who's
00:10:46sitting up watching his bedtime in quarter to 12 20 to 12. it's the mom weekend you can't go to bed
00:10:52at 12. now i think susie's letting them stab it's not a school night yeah go for it harry enjoy your evening
00:10:57so
00:11:08so
00:13:43Thanks.
00:13:45car for this year's Le Mans. Really fantastic design. I know Carlton looks a bit like a pizza
00:13:51but actually it's a really interesting concept. I think this is the first time ever they've
00:13:57actually done an actual art car, not the race car, but a car that was designed of the shape
00:14:02of the LMP2 made all out of old road signs which is really, really cool. There's a book
00:14:08of it that I've seen. I will dig up the artist's name. I'm afraid that my brain is failing
00:14:13because I haven't slept for a really long time. Fernando Costa. There we go, Fernando Costa.
00:14:17Thank you, Mark. Fantastic artist. I've had a look at his book and really, really impressive
00:14:21and a great idea and I love the way the team has really embraced it and has the helmets
00:14:25matching and everything. It's very cool. So I hope you all enjoy seeing it. Number 28 car
00:14:30in the garage and it's not always a bad thing when cars are pulled back into the garage.
00:14:35We touched on earlier the fact that you're only allowed two people working on any car at any
00:14:40time in the pit lane. So if you need anything doing at all, it goes back into the garage.
00:14:45For the number 28 car, the fact that people are even looking at it is quite a good thing
00:14:49because it has done a total of 21 laps now. 76 car coming in then. IMSA Performance. Matt,
00:14:57this is their new car, well, their newer car, 2012 spec. Apparently the other car's 2011 spec,
00:15:03which the team says is much easier to work on and much easier to dial in.
00:15:08But Raymond Narak, Christophe Bure and Jean-Karl Verne. Now, he was Peugeot's test driver for many years
00:15:17during that program, but would you believe has never raced here? So he's a rookie.
00:15:20Wow, that's unbelievable. We do have quite a few rookies here that have incredible racing
00:15:26talent that are here for the first time, and we've just seen on our screen race control reports oil.
00:15:35Pardon? That might possibly have been... My guess is the warning for the oil is what
00:15:41they're getting. And in the Porsche curves, oh my, that's really not good at all.
00:15:46That is the fastest changes of direction consistently on the circuit anywhere, the Porsche curves.
00:15:53And so that's really where you don't want it. We're on the second chicane on the Mulsanne straight,
00:15:58and there is a Ferrari 458, one of the fastest road cars money can buy,
00:16:02dusted off like it was in reverse gear by these prototypes.
00:16:05Well, the car in front is a Toyota. Indeed, it is now. And it's a hybrid. Second and third,
00:16:11the Toyotas, they were running fourth and fifth behind the top three Audis,
00:16:15until Audi started to run into problems. One healthy Audi at the top of the field. Tom Christensen
00:16:20shares the car with Alan McNish. Just seeing him exiting Mulsanne corner there. He'll be soon
00:16:26be approaching the Porsche curves, where we have the oil reported. I'm not sure exactly where it is.
00:16:32We've not seen any pictures of that, but really one of the worst places to have oil,
00:16:37especially at night as well. Well, the next question, who might have dropped it? Well,
00:16:40I don't know. We may find out if somebody comes in. It might not be beyond the bounce possibility.
00:16:45The 28 car came back in because of that stop-and-go penalty being awarded to car number 13 for
00:16:51speeding in the pit lane. That's the unlucky rebellion car of Andrea Beliki, Matthias Besh,
00:16:56and Kung Fu Chang. And it is Andrea Beliki who's at the wheel. So I don't know if they changed last
00:17:06time round. Often the driver that didn't commit the offence leaving the pit lane is the one who has
00:17:11to serve it because the guy who was coming in just came in a little hot and forgot to press the
00:17:16speed retarding button at the right time. 35 struggles to leave. We have had a couple of
00:17:23pit lane speeding incidents, haven't we? Yeah, I know. We have had quite a lot,
00:17:27especially in practice and qualifying, more so than you would have thought, really,
00:17:31because they all have a pit speed limiter. Normally, as you enter pit lane, you push the
00:17:35button, leave it there through a driver change, and that way as you exit the pit lane, the pit
00:17:40limiter is already on, and then you push the button as you leave. So it seems like it should keep that
00:17:46from happening, but who knows? Well, I'm sure the radar guns are being properly calibrated. Anyway,
00:17:50Patrick Niederhauser in the number 34 Orica that we were talking about a little bit earlier. He was in
00:17:56the top six battle in the LMP2 class, and that car has dropped right down the order. The race
00:18:00performance car, one of the majority of the LMP2 cars are running on Dunlop tyres. That race
00:18:07performance car, like I say, was up in the top half dozen. It shares with Michel Frey and your own
00:18:11Blake Molen, but Niederhauser still on pit road, and it's been there for a long while now.
00:18:17It's made 13 stops compared to the average of 12 in the class, and it's having a bit of a
00:18:24remedial work for something or other. Just listen to the glorious sound of this V8 Vantage,
00:18:29Rob Bell. He's still the GPU pro class leader, and you can just really hear it.
00:18:37We did it on the early ones, but it's gone now.
00:18:39Just nearly hear it until they turn away from it.
00:18:41Well, that's what they do to us, isn't it?
00:18:43Yeah, yet again, it's not our decision what we say.
00:18:45It comes to the 71 car, fourth in category still, Jimmy Bruny bought that car. No,
00:18:49this is the 71 car. Sorry, the other one. That's Tony Villander's car.
00:18:55Liz, Tom Wilkinson on Twitter wanted to know, will we have women at Le Mans in the future?
00:18:59Well, we've had them all the time.
00:19:01Liz has raced here. We've got two in the race this weekend.
00:19:04Keiko O'Hara, although her car, A, hasn't done many laps, and she hasn't been in it.
00:19:09We've got a Natasha Gashnang as well. We've had all-women crews. We've had a number of women
00:19:14racing drivers. And in fact, we had a question earlier on from an 11-year-old girl who wanted
00:19:18to know how to get into sports car racing. I think...
00:19:22We told her.
00:19:22We did. There's absolutely no reason at all why women can't be racing in sports car racing right
00:19:29at the top level. I mean, it's a great place to earn a living as a racing driver.
00:19:34I think as long as you respect the fitness levels that it requires and you commit yourself to that,
00:19:38and there's no reason why women can't be successful. And we've seen women be successful.
00:19:42I've had people saying, when are we going to see an all-women team in Le Mans? Well,
00:19:45we've had them before. We've had them twice, I believe now. At least twice.
00:19:48And one of those recent occasions was in 2010. Natasha Gashnang, who's here today,
00:19:54was part of that team. It didn't go very well for them, if I'm honest.
00:19:58She ended the race with a fire in the car. But it certainly has happened before,
00:20:02and I hope it happens again.
00:20:03Well, in fairness, again, that was nothing to do with the girls.
00:20:06That was all to do with the newness of the Ford GT, which was A, not really fixed,
00:20:12and B, not really competitive. So, I mean, and neither of the Mark VDS Ford GTs actually
00:20:18fared really well at all. No, it certainly wasn't their fault.
00:20:21It was certainly no way to cast any blame for that on either of the driving crews,
00:20:26male or female. I didn't actually, there was actually an email from a lady who,
00:20:31and I'm afraid now, sorry, tweets, we've got so many coming in, we're sort of skipping through
00:20:36them to try and cover as many interesting points as we can. She said, I'm 62 years old, I would like
00:20:41to race at Le Mans. What is the greatest age of a Le Mans driver? Now, I would think in the modern era,
00:20:47you're right about on the extreme limit of kind of the oldest gentleman drivers.
00:20:54And there are female gentleman drivers as well, racing as well. So it's a term rather than,
00:21:00it's a bit like Hoover. It's a generic, OK? It's a bit like Armco. They may not be Armco barriers,
00:21:05we understand that, but it is the generic term. Mark is desperately finding, I would think,
00:21:11getting up towards 70, but probably not for a few years. Cars now are violently physical.
00:21:19Especially the LMP cars, you really do need to have quite a bit of fitness to drive these cars,
00:21:23and to keep your mind on the game as well, you need to be very fit so that you aren't getting
00:21:27very tired. I think that's a big part of 24-hour racing is that when your body is tired, your mind
00:21:33needs to still be fresh so that you don't start to make mistakes. And what people don't realize is
00:21:37how physical these cars really are. You know, even though you have the power steering, you reach
00:21:42a certain level of G-force and the power steering becomes sort of nondescript. It's not really there
00:21:47anymore. And these cars are reaching up to four Gs in an LMP1 car. That's about the same as an F1 car,
00:21:52not far off. And it's also the relentless mental strain of constantly weaving your way through
00:21:58traffic or having traffic constantly weaving its way past you, or both, if you're in, you know,
00:22:04the top GTs or the LMP2 cars, plus trying to pick your way through nighttime, plus just the endless
00:22:11hours of battering your brain gets. And no matter how much adrenaline you've got keeping you sharp,
00:22:18and it is the adrenaline that keeps your synapses firing, again, if your body can't take it,
00:22:23it drags your brain. Like your kids, it makes your brain dull. Your body can't take it.
00:22:29Yeah, I'm going to propose to you. Jacques Nicolet is the oldest driver here.
00:22:33He's in the field.
00:22:33Yeah.
00:22:3457 years old. The man from Monaco. He owns the...
00:22:36No, you're not. You're telling me to lose it.
00:22:39No, I disagree.
00:22:40Right. That was my proposal.
00:22:42A driver who's over 60. I can't remember his name, but he's in the Murphy prototypes car.
00:22:46Oh, yes, he is.
00:22:47And he is over 60. Yes, that's the one.
00:22:49Indeed.
00:22:49Our three times spinning in one lap friend.
00:22:52I've got to say, if you're starting at 62, I would go and get yourself a nice one litre mini
00:23:00seven and go out and have a lot of fun racing people who are also paying for it themselves
00:23:05and who won't have you off into the boonies at the very possible moment. Realistically,
00:23:10if you're 62 years old, male or female, driving enough, unless you're very, very wealthy,
00:23:17to get your license up to Le Mans standards is going to be very tough, particularly if you've
00:23:22not got racing cars and history in them already. So, yeah, go out and have fun club racing and
00:23:29enjoy us by coming down and watch Le Mans. Yes, of course, because in order to race at Le Mans,
00:23:34you do require an international B license. When you start racing, you start with a national B
00:23:40and have to work your way up through. So it's not something you could just jump into and say,
00:23:44right, I'm going to go and race at Le Mans. You do need to do enough races to acquire your
00:23:49international B license. And then to carry on keeping that license, you must race at an
00:23:54international race per year and prove that you've done it.
00:23:59So, Mark Patterson, 61 years old, and a second place goes to Jacques Nicolet at 57 years old.
00:24:05Yeah, yeah, win.
00:24:06But interestingly, both of them driving prototype cars, not the easier option GT car.
00:24:12Yeah, but lots more fun.
00:24:1642 car. And then this is Luca Ordonez in the Grieg's Zytec. This is one of the
00:24:23chosen cars. We've got the two Morgans and this car, the Nissan Academy cars, as the three factory
00:24:32supported Nismo cars. And Luca Ordonez, of course, the first winner of the GT Academy and made the
00:24:39jump from PlayStation Gamer straight into Le Mans and has really done a great job, hasn't he?
00:24:45Straight into Le Mans and onto the podium, in fact, finishing second in 2011. A fantastic effort and
00:24:51a really great guy. I really enjoyed meeting Lucas when I was working on the US GT Academy. He's very,
00:24:57very professional. He always has been and literally just got into a car straight off the video game
00:25:02and knew how to pedal it. It was one of those very rare people, similar to his co-driver, Ian
00:25:07Martinborough, who's done the same. Terribly impressive. Oh, God, and a very tight shave there
00:25:13with the Porsche. I think the Porsche was trying to avoid the gravel and just swung out where he
00:25:17wasn't expecting into. Well, that's Gianluca Roda, who didn't avoid the gravel just down here in
00:25:21the S's. We saw him a few laps ago beached in the gravel. He was dragged out and changed there for
00:25:27the number 51 AF Corsa Ferrari drivers. Jimmy Bruni gets out. Giancarlo Fisichella was in,
00:25:34so he gets out. Is that Jimmy Bruni getting in? No, it's Matteo Malicello, the third driver in the team.
00:25:40Two of those three, Bruni and Fisichella, won the GT class last year in the GT Pro.
00:25:46Now, again, lots of first-time viewers, so bear with us if we go over a few of these things.
00:25:50GT cars. This is a GT car. It looks like a car. GT Gran Turismo. Okay, so it is basically
00:25:58a supercar, road-going supercar. So, Ferrari, Lamborghini, BMW M3s, Audi R8s, R10s,
00:26:06well, not R10s yet, but they'll come, I'm sure. Aston Martins, that sort of thing. Things that look
00:26:11like cars. The two prototype classes, LMP for Le Mans prototype one and two are purpose-built racing
00:26:19cars, open or closed, and they are the quicker cars on the track.
00:26:31and that sort of thing, the original. It's the better car to be a guy, the other
00:26:36part of the car, but they are the better cars. The new car marketing Microphone,
00:26:39the new car, the new car, the new car is the better car. So bear with me.
00:26:41and you both are the better car, the new car and the new car.
00:26:44The new car is the only car, and the new car is the better car.
00:26:50I don't know.
00:27:20I don't know.
00:27:50I don't know.
00:28:20I don't know.
00:28:22I don't know.
00:28:23I don't know.
00:28:24I don't know.
00:28:25The night watchers are with us.
00:28:27Just quickly, talking about brakes, a question from a first-time Le Mans fan say, what do
00:28:33drivers do about toilet brakes?
00:28:34Do they go when they're not in the car?
00:28:36Well, yes, that is devoutly to be hoped, bearing in mind they've got to share it for 24 hours
00:28:41with two theoretical colleagues.
00:28:44So, yes.
00:28:46I mean, they're not in there all day and all night, and they, like you tell your kids,
00:28:51go before they leave home.
00:28:52There have been thoughtless drivers in the past, but we won't go into it.
00:28:56No, but their teammates had to.
00:28:59Exactly.
00:28:59In cases of extreme physical unwellness, drivers have vomited in their helmets and kept driving
00:29:10before and have been very, very unwell in their race suits and kept driving before, but that
00:29:16is extraordinarily, I mean, these drivers are, when they're in the car, brutalised by
00:29:23the G-forces and the forces of the car and the heat and the vibration and everything else
00:29:28to a phenomenal extent.
00:29:29They are very, very fit athletes indeed.
00:29:33They spend all their lives when they're not driving, physically training their bodies,
00:29:37bicycles and gyms and swims and all the other stuff, and they are, especially in the
00:29:42factory teams, really thoroughly looked after by physios and especially by dietitians and
00:29:48nutritionists who make sure that they eat, they drink, they hydrate, they get all the
00:29:53right stuff, and so hopefully they don't suddenly, halfway down, go, are we there yet?
00:29:58I need to stop at the services, because that doesn't really help you win races like Le Mans.
00:30:03Yeah, it's a totally different ball game for those of you who were perhaps a little bit
00:30:06earlier on looking at the historic racing.
00:30:09It's totally different nowadays.
00:30:11Drivers really do have to be an awful lot fit, and one of the things, of course, the
00:30:14physical strain is different.
00:30:16It's not a question of physical strength, it's physical strain.
00:30:19The G-forces and everything else as well can cause you an awful lot of problems if you're
00:30:24not fit, and that's one of, of course, the age things that was brought up a few minutes
00:30:28ago.
00:30:29Although we have had drivers, in fact, I recall it was a German driver, he was well over
00:30:3360, and I seem to recall he had an accident, but that's not over there.
00:30:37Well, lots of drivers have accidents, whether they're 16 or 60, so that's not entirely unexpected.
00:30:46Several people asking about the Delta Wing that, of course, raced here last year, but as we
00:30:50have now got 14 hours remaining, that means we've got 10 hours in the books, and the so
00:30:58healthy Audi is still our race leader.
00:31:01For those of you who haven't been with us from the beginning, Audi 123 on the grid, had a
00:31:05bit of a trouble in the early wet going with the Toyotas catching right up, and then two
00:31:09Audis had problems.
00:31:10Toyota now second and third.
00:31:12LMP2 leader is now in eighth place overall, and the recovering number one Audi, which had
00:31:18a crank sensor changed in around 20 minutes, tell that to your Audi dealer, is now back
00:31:24up into 15th place among the LMP2 cars.
00:31:26The GTE pro leader is the Aston Martin Vardis V8, 88 car, 99 car rather, being driven by
00:31:33Rob Bell at the moment.
00:31:34It's Aston Porsche, Aston Porsche, and then trailing behind Chevrolet, ahead now of the
00:31:39two Ferraris.
00:31:40First group of the Corvettes of Tommy Milner, and in the orange light and orange numbered
00:31:47cars, the GTE AM class, where you're only allowed one professional driver.
00:31:51It is the number 55 Ferrari, Lorenzo Cazze, currently leading, was Porsche Porsche, first
00:31:58and second in class last hour.
00:32:00Ferrari haven't suddenly grown a spurt of speed, but with pit stops chopping and changing the
00:32:05order, currently the Ferrari being shown in front in that class.
00:32:10So there's been a couple of changes.
00:32:12It was Patrick Dempsey's Ferrari that led after the 88, Patrick Dempsey's Ferrari led after
00:32:18the 88 Porsche, led after the 88 Porsche of Gianluca Roda went off, but currently after a pit
00:32:25stop, he's dropped down to third in that class.
00:32:27And for those, again, who were not watching earlier today, the first retirement in the race
00:32:33was the 95 Aston Martin, an all-Danish crude entry for golf racing Aston Martin in the GTM
00:32:40class.
00:32:41And that accident tragically claimed the life of its driver, Alan Simonson.
00:32:45So with a very heavy heart and at the bequest of his family, the Aston Martin team are continuing
00:32:53to race on in his memory.
00:32:55So the ticket will run across the top of the screen, shows you the driver that's currently
00:32:59in the car with its position, the little red bars show which its class is, and the red
00:33:05ones are for LMP1.
00:33:07Little blue bars will appear in a moment, those will be your LMP2 cars.
00:33:11Little green bars show that they're in the GTE Pro class, and little orange bars show that
00:33:16they're in the GTE Am class.
00:33:18If you've got a favourite driver, you should be able to find them there, or if not, you
00:33:22can go to lemond.org and find them on the live timing, assuming that, like all the other
00:33:28internet here at Le Monde, that hasn't fallen over.
00:33:31Here's a GTE Am car.
00:33:32GT cars, Damien Faulkner joins us again.
00:33:36Damien, GT cars basically look like cars, and the prototypes like this one, second in
00:33:42the LMP2 class, basically don't.
00:33:44They're purpose-built just for going racing.
00:33:48Yeah, thanks Martin.
00:33:49Good to be back again.
00:33:50It's cold out there.
00:33:51It is, isn't it?
00:33:52Yeah.
00:33:53That's why we're all huddling in the booth now, despite the wretched aircon.
00:33:56Yeah, I mean, basically the GT cars have to, there's a lot of regulations.
00:34:02I mean, effectively they have to look like a road car.
00:34:06There's lots of things.
00:34:08I mean, they're obviously homologated into a racing spec for racing here, with lots of
00:34:14different changes.
00:34:16But, you know, even things like the dashboard I was reading, it really has to sort of emulate
00:34:22what a dashboard looks like in that particular car.
00:34:25Yeah.
00:34:25So, yeah, it's nice because in one way you've got the best of both worlds there.
00:34:32You've got, you know, the prototypes that are the real sort of, you know, the cars that
00:34:36are built for maximum performance.
00:34:39And then you've got the GT cars that most of us can identify with, with something we see
00:34:44on the road.
00:34:45Yeah.
00:34:45Not necessarily something we drive on the road, maybe.
00:34:47Even occasionally.
00:34:48Not me, anyway.
00:34:49Yeah.
00:34:49I mean, that's, the GT class is road-going supercars.
00:34:52And they start with a production body shell.
00:34:57You don't necessarily keep much of the production grubby bits, but the engine must be production-based.
00:35:02It must have the same cylinder block, for instance.
00:35:05And a lot of the other components must be very similar to the production engine in terms
00:35:10of suspension, brakes, gearbox, and so on.
00:35:13Fuel as well.
00:35:14They have to be built for this.
00:35:15Indeed, fuel as well.
00:35:16And that, there's another point, you see.
00:35:17Now, we don't have a spec tire here at Le Mans, but we do have fuel controlled and supplied
00:35:23by the manufacturer.
00:35:24So, even in the wildest excesses of Formula One's turbo era, where they were making fuel
00:35:30out of very, very nasty stuff.
00:35:32Indeed, it's essentially a pump fuel that is used here at Le Mans.
00:35:37And, Neville, the prototypes you start with, I was going to say a blank piece of paper.
00:35:41Obviously, it's a blank computer screen and a rule book.
00:35:44And you basically draw what you want.
00:35:46And there's no differentiation between the two classes as to whether you have a lid on
00:35:50it or not.
00:35:51You can, at the moment, design open or closed cars to suit your will.
00:35:55Yes, there seems to be sort of a move towards closed cars again, having had a move towards
00:36:00open cars a year or two back.
00:36:02Of course, this race started out really as a race for road cars.
00:36:07There's no question about that.
00:36:09Prototypes were added.
00:36:10And there are a lot of people who feel that perhaps, how can I put it, that they've stretched
00:36:14the regulations a little bit too far in some areas.
00:36:18It's a debatable thing.
00:36:19I mean, I've heard an awful lot of people talking about, why don't they do this?
00:36:22Why don't they do that?
00:36:23Well, I think there's no value, you know.
00:36:25If it works, why fix it?
00:36:28Exactly.
00:36:28If it ain't broke.
00:36:29And that's very much the way the ACO, I mean, they've always had, for instance, when in
00:36:35the, you know, one of the first big eras of sports car racing, when you had Porsche 917s
00:36:40versus GT40s, the sort of Steve McQueen Le Mans film era, those were all purpose-built
00:36:44specials.
00:36:46And you had things like MGBs and, you know, little lotuses and so on, also racing, which
00:36:53were actually not that far different from a road car, TR3s and all that sort of stuff.
00:36:58So you've always had that sort of mixture of the hyper-exotic, which really gets people's
00:37:03pulses racing.
00:37:04And let's face it, Le Mans, with Steve McQueen, if they're all in MGBs, maybe not quite the
00:37:11same cinematography appeal.
00:37:13I don't know.
00:37:14Just me.
00:37:14Well, you know, there was this sort of thing, you've got to make 50.
00:37:18And I do recall that various plenty of actresses went out and made 50.
00:37:23Well, nowadays you have to make one.
00:37:25If you want to race one, you make one.
00:37:27Yeah.
00:37:28Here's a question.
00:37:29In 1923, in the inaugural race here, how many laps do you think were completed?
00:37:35I'm not thinking about the break now.
00:37:38Bearing in mind, it's 1923, where your average car would be really doing well to be doing
00:37:4465 flat out.
00:37:46They were on gravel roads, narrow gravel roads, which were designed for horses and carts, not
00:37:52for motorised vehicles.
00:37:55123 laps in 24 hours.
00:37:57Do you know what?
00:37:58That's not bad.
00:37:59It would be about 1,250, 1,300 miles, because it was a longer circuit then.
00:38:03Yeah, but it does a lot of new track.
00:38:04Well, and that's the other thing, is that they were in this area, and they went another couple
00:38:09of miles into town to the Poglio hairpin.
00:38:11I'm sorry, it was 128, which is eight laps more than what they managed the following year in 1924.
00:38:19It probably rained more.
00:38:20But again, right from the very first, from the very word go, it was about proving car manufacturers
00:38:28were not out to kill you with these newfangled contraptions.
00:38:31And still, the reason Toyota is here, and the reason Audi is here, is to prove that they
00:38:35are good at making cars.
00:38:38Audi are proving that they're good at making diesels that aren't nasty, rattly, horrible,
00:38:42smelly things, but are fast, comfortable in road car terms, and sporty cars with diesel
00:38:48engines. That's why they're racing diesels, and of course, what they learn here about
00:38:54sipping fuel while producing power makes their road car diesels so much better as well.
00:38:58It all knocks on steel wheels, proper pneumatic tyres, proper valves, disc brakes, you know,
00:39:06any number of different things.
00:39:07No smoke.
00:39:08Yeah, no smoke.
00:39:09And any number of different things were created here.
00:39:12You had to run with the hood up as well.
00:39:14For the first hour of the race.
00:39:15For the first hour of the race.
00:39:16And if it blew off, you darn well had to stop.
00:39:18Pick it up, put it back on again.
00:39:19If you wanted to repair it, you had to repair it with the tools and the spares on the car.
00:39:24Oh, wow.
00:39:24Oh, yeah.
00:39:25And still, cars carry a limited toolkit, and still, drivers are taken to the factory and
00:39:31taught how to use it and what they can do with it, because if the car stops out on track,
00:39:37unless, as in years gone by, you seem to have found some tools in the grass.
00:39:41But by that barrier...
00:39:42That has happened.
00:39:42That has happened.
00:39:44People have been disqualified for it.
00:39:46Absolutely not.
00:39:46I think nowadays you would need to find a laptop to get the car going again.
00:39:50No, absolutely.
00:39:51And several data engineers.
00:39:54Oh, there seems to be a Pratt perch right here full of people with laptops.
00:39:57How very convenient.
00:39:58But, I mean, there's some great YouTube, possibly still on YouTube footage, of David Leslie when
00:40:04he was racing in one of the C2 cars, or one of the C1 cars, either an Aston Martin or
00:40:09a cost car member, taking the rear bodywork off, overall strapped down to his race, covered
00:40:13in grease, trying to fix this damn thing.
00:40:15I mean, he started out as a BMC engineer.
00:40:17He, you know, still could fix pretty much anything mechanical, just like his son Graham is doing
00:40:22now, disappointingly, for the 95 car, which is no longer in the race.
00:40:26But, David, stripped to the waist, trying to fix this car in sweltering heat, covered
00:40:30in sweat and grease, and just for hours, fighting to get the damn thing to run so we can get
00:40:35it back to the pits.
00:40:36Because once you've spent a year getting here, you don't want to give up in five minutes.
00:40:41And none of these guys are going to give up unless they're beaten out of the race.
00:40:45What a man.
00:40:45The great David Leslie killed sadly in an air crash.
00:40:48But one of the people who I really love talking to, because it's said of a lot of drivers
00:40:55that they know what they do, and of others that they think they know what they do.
00:41:00Well, actually, David actually knew what he was doing in a car, just didn't think he
00:41:04did.
00:41:04Yeah.
00:41:04We were talking about silly things.
00:41:07When I was a little boy, the first book I had was Full Throttle by Sir Henry Birkin.
00:41:11And there he had a co-driver who literally ran to the pits and ran back to the car.
00:41:20It's one of the young guys, about 47 years old, Frenchman boy, Jean Chessin, with the
00:41:25bits to repair it.
00:41:26That's fantastic.
00:41:27Remarkable.
00:41:29That used to happen.
00:41:30A riding mechanic would be the guy that went off and got stuff.
00:41:33And yeah, a number of times the mechanics would run, run, mind you, two miles or more back
00:41:40to the pits.
00:41:41We've run out of fuel.
00:41:42Here it is.
00:41:43What?
00:41:44Yes.
00:41:44Off you go.
00:41:45Because the mechanic had to run back with the fuel, or the parts, or the tyre, or whatever
00:41:49was required to keep the car in the race.
00:41:52That's exactly what happened.
00:41:52Easy life now.
00:41:53They're not allowed to leave the pits.
00:41:54Whoa, hang on.
00:41:57This is our GTE.
00:41:59It doesn't want to go, does it?
00:42:00This car, JΓΆrg Bergmeister, took three goes to fire it up.
00:42:03No, that was actually, I think, we're seeing the onboard there.
00:42:07I think that was the wheel guns taken in the wings.
00:42:10You may well be right, yes.
00:42:11Yeah, it was the guns, wasn't it?
00:42:12Noise and vibration, yes, throwing me a kerfball.
00:42:15Good spot.
00:42:15You see, that's why we have racing drivers.
00:42:18They see and understand things we've got no clue about.
00:42:20Oh.
00:42:30Oh.
00:42:31Woo-hoo.
00:42:34Good spot.
00:42:36Whoa.
00:42:50Oh.
00:42:51And I just got another tweet here from David,
00:43:15who has asked me to say hello to his daughter, Marianne.
00:43:18And she's watching her first 24 Hours of Le Mans.
00:43:22So, hello, hi.
00:43:24Get to bed.
00:43:27And I have a second one here from a guy who says,
00:43:31have you noticed the air intake on the Toyotas?
00:43:35He thinks that the 7 has a different air intake from the 8.
00:43:40Stop.
00:43:41I haven't noticed.
00:43:42Stop with the air intakes on the Toyotas.
00:43:44A, we hadn't noticed, and B, we have not yet found out
00:43:46if they're different and if so, why?
00:43:47Don't know.
00:43:49I think you have an explanation for that.
00:43:51You do.
00:43:52The two cars are both new cars.
00:43:55They're both in the same aerodynamic specification as we understand it.
00:43:59I have no idea why they would not be identical.
00:44:02And if they're not identical, is it just a visual trick
00:44:04because one's got different colours on to make it look different?
00:44:07I don't know.
00:44:09Somebody did ask me, which of the Audis are in Le Mans spec?
00:44:12I'm thinking probably all three of them.
00:44:17Yes, yes.
00:44:18Team Radio.
00:44:20I must say, good evening.
00:44:22Marcel, front tyres OK.
00:44:24Front tyres OK.
00:44:26They still have this kind of strange vibration coming from the front.
00:44:30They still have this kind of strange vibration coming from the front.
00:44:30And they still have this kind of strange vibration coming from the front.
00:46:49Well, this is the one. Everything went a little bit quiet. I'm not quite sure why, but anyway, we're back again with still no major change except a silence which has come back to us and all is well.
00:47:03The Christians and Audi still very much in late, my regard to the demon Barbara Worcester. And the interesting thing has got to be that the Toyotas are still there. I think everybody felt that by now, Damien, that we were not going to have the Toyotas sort of quite so close.
00:47:22And it's all worked out totally different to the way we thought, I think.
00:47:25Yeah, and especially after last year with the unreliability as well. And then, of course, leading into this whole weekend with the lack of pace from them, even relative to last year, because they were quite fast last year. In fact, they led the race, didn't they?
00:47:39Yeah.
00:48:09But there is this film question. And as the lady said, it ain't over until it's over.
00:48:15Well, that's the thing, you know, it's 24 hours, of course, isn't it? And it's a challenge. So to finish first, first you have to finish.
00:48:23Very, very much so.
00:48:24As we can see, anything can happen in a race like this.
00:48:27Yeah.
00:48:27It's interesting that I think we've all gone through and explained that you've got the red marking the cars in one class, blue and green. So it's very easy to see because you've got, in fact, you can see the class leader quite easily.
00:48:46And we're joined. Goodness, this is, Carlton, very nice to see you. You've been very quiet.
00:48:53Yes, well, yes, I've finally joined you at 20 past one in the morning. Yeah, looking forward to your company. It is the Apple Nightclub, of course, and we have Mr Licorice, as he's known.
00:49:06Neville Hay, the most magnificent voice in motorsport, joining us.
00:49:09I can't do to say so.
00:49:10Well, yes, well, you know, the truth often hurts, but in this case, I'm sure it's rather pleasant.
00:49:17And Damien Faulkner as well. Guys, it's that time of the night where suddenly we still haven't even reached the halfway stage.
00:49:26And it just gives you a sense of how this race is quantified and how it stacks up. It is quite remarkable.
00:49:33It's crazy. It is. It's a crazy long event.
00:49:36It's a fascination, isn't it? You know, I've been coming to Le Mans for a very long time, and I don't know why it is.
00:49:43It's always the night session that fascinated me more than anything else, because everybody says, well, nothing happens as much during the night.
00:49:50They just go round and round. But actually, it does happen, apart from the fact that people go quite quickly.
00:49:57I mean, we're watching people going within two or three seconds of lap record during the night.
00:50:02But then you get this question when the dawn begins to break, and you get very often a little bit of mist and things like this.
00:50:09And you also get in the middle of that, yes, 77, the Porsche.
00:50:15This is the Dempsey. I think he's Dempsey driving it, too, isn't it?
00:50:19Brief check.
00:50:20Yes, Dempsey is driving it.
00:50:22And he's stuck in a funny place.
00:50:26Well, it's a dangerous place as well.
00:50:28Yeah, I don't think he likes it.
00:50:29I don't think anybody else would.
00:50:30No.
00:50:31He's got a problem there, because everything's flashing, but as they say, there's nobody home.
00:50:37So I think there could be some help there somewhere.
00:50:38Let's see what happened.
00:50:40Did he get clipped then?
00:50:41Yes, he did.
00:50:42I thought he got clipped, yep.
00:50:43Yeah, that's a mad spin.
00:50:45That is a crazy spin.
00:50:47Well, he's trying to restart it.
00:50:49The marshals can't reach him at the moment.
00:50:50It's a very dangerous position, and if it stays there, then we may well have to have the truck to come and help him out.
00:51:04Could very well see that, haven't I?
00:51:05If it's a safety issue, then we may just get a safety car.
00:51:09He's probably just flat at the engine there or something.
00:51:11I'm sure the team will be on the radio telling him to put his foot flat on the throttle.
00:51:15To be fair, he's just off the racing line, but he can't move,
00:51:19and it's a dangerous situation to be in.
00:51:22There was another car involved, and I didn't see who it was.
00:51:24No, I didn't.
00:51:25It was a prototype just there in front of him or something.
00:51:27So, yeah, that was...
00:51:29But his tyres will be, I would imagine, Fred Flintstone.
00:51:33There we are.
00:51:34Still stopped on track.
00:51:35We can't see it at the moment.
00:51:37Incidentally, most of the pictures this evening will be on board,
00:51:40and has he got going?
00:51:41Is that what we're looking at right now?
00:51:42No, we're not.
00:51:43Different place.
00:51:44Just to let you know, there he is.
00:51:47He has indeed got going.
00:51:48The 77 car is back and underway, so he clearly caught it in the end.
00:51:52Flooded engine, as you were saying, Nev, and back and underway, which is great.
00:51:55Last thing we wanted was another hiatus.
00:51:57We've had too many of those already today.
00:51:59He's dropped one place as well to third, hasn't he?
00:52:02Yeah, I'd like to know exactly how that all started and finished.
00:52:05We might get a replay, you never know.
00:52:07But he's a bit late, but that was fast.
00:52:08Do you know what?
00:52:09He is very much an actor who's become a racing driver.
00:52:11Yes.
00:52:11And, you know, all credit to him.
00:52:14He's worked extraordinarily hard to actually reach that level,
00:52:17and he's delivering it right now.
00:52:19Incidentally, if you'd like to get in touch with us this evening,
00:52:21Damien Faulkner and myself, Carlton Kirby, are indeed on Twitter,
00:52:25and we'll be delighted to answer your questions.
00:52:27I know a few of you often like to join the Up All Night Club.
00:52:31Neville, are you on Twitter?
00:52:32No.
00:52:33No.
00:52:34Too lazy, I think.
00:52:35But if you want me, if you talk to any of the others,
00:52:39they'll sort of wake me up or something and say...
00:52:41We'll pass on your good tidings.
00:52:43Yeah.
00:52:43A little bit later on, we'll have Chris Parsons as well,
00:52:46who knows so much history about Le Mans.
00:52:49What he doesn't know is not worth knowing.
00:52:51We're down with the 26 car right now.
00:52:55Not sure what the issue is.
00:52:57No, I'm not quite sure.
00:53:00Incidentally...
00:53:01It's not quite as easy to be thought, is it?
00:53:04Because...
00:53:06Is that a tie?
00:53:07I think he's got a brake problem, actually.
00:53:08Well, the G3 boys have had their issues all evening,
00:53:11but then again, that's exactly what you've got to deal with.
00:53:14Tom Christensen, incidentally,
00:53:15has the fastest lap so far in this 90th Le Mans.
00:53:22Lap 86, it was, when he posted a 3.23.2.
00:53:26He's going around at the moment,
00:53:28having about four seconds,
00:53:31four and a half seconds slower than that pace.
00:53:33Neville, normally at this time of night,
00:53:36when the air density changes,
00:53:38track temperature alters as well,
00:53:40often you get some pretty quick times,
00:53:42but the visibility also plays a part.
00:53:44Yeah, as we were saying,
00:53:45at the moment it's nice and clear.
00:53:46We've been told there might be a bit of mist
00:53:48around about dawn.
00:53:50Have you come across that in your experience?
00:53:54I have, yeah, but I wasn't on the racetrack at the time.
00:53:56Not nice, is it?
00:53:57On the beach.
00:53:57Yeah.
00:53:57Yeah, but it's not nice, you know,
00:54:00I mean, it really isn't.
00:54:01Actually, yeah, Daytona this year was,
00:54:05I wasn't driving, but my teammate was in at the time,
00:54:07and it was actually a yellow flag for a long time.
00:54:10We've got somebody else off and in trouble.
00:54:11One of the Corvettes, yes,
00:54:12has gone up, can't quite see.
00:54:14We're on CCTV cameras, by the way,
00:54:15it's the 70 car.
00:54:17Yes, this is, McNeil is on board.
00:54:20It's the AM class,
00:54:22and unfortunately,
00:54:23occasionally when we get into the night time,
00:54:26a lot of drivers are actually found out,
00:54:28and it looks like that's the case right now.
00:54:29He's trying to get underway,
00:54:31but I think this is going to be beached.
00:54:32He may well need assistance.
00:54:34I think that's going to need assistance,
00:54:35because he's awfully close to the wall,
00:54:37isn't he, as well?
00:54:37Yeah.
00:54:38He's not going anywhere forwards,
00:54:40he's got to go backwards,
00:54:41and if he does that, he'll dig in,
00:54:42so I think it's help.
00:54:44Yes, exactly.
00:54:45I know we've had a fatality on this year's race,
00:54:48and, of course,
00:54:51our thoughts very much with the family.
00:54:54And, yes, Alan Simonson,
00:54:57extraordinarily unlucky
00:54:59to have had an accident in a place
00:55:02where the Armco was abutting a tree,
00:55:04is what we're hearing.
00:55:07So there was no give in the Armco, essentially.
00:55:10One metre more or one metre less,
00:55:13and it would have been fine,
00:55:14but questions will be asked, of course,
00:55:16and safety is absolutely primary here.
00:55:19And I imagine there may well be some tree clearance
00:55:22away from the Armco,
00:55:23if that proves to be the case.
00:55:25A lot of rumours at the moment,
00:55:27but that one is from a decent source,
00:55:30and so we assume that it has some truth in it.
00:55:33If it is the case,
00:55:34then, you know, amendments will have to be made.
00:55:36It's a very different situation
00:55:38in this time,
00:55:40at this time in the world,
00:55:42in 2013,
00:55:43too, shall we say,
00:55:44a matter of 10, 15, 20, 30, 40, 50 years ago
00:55:47here at Le Mans,
00:55:48and it is a comparative rarity.
00:55:51And it is sad.
00:55:52And I think all of our thoughts go with the family,
00:55:55and I think it was a very brave decision on their part
00:55:57to say,
00:55:58no, go on,
00:55:59this is what he would have wanted,
00:56:00and I'm sure it is.
00:56:01I think so, yeah.
00:56:02And I mean,
00:56:03it looks like,
00:56:04you know,
00:56:05these guys are doing him proud,
00:56:07and it would be a very emotional victory,
00:56:10wouldn't it?
00:56:11I know we're still 13 and a half hours to go,
00:56:13but...
00:56:14Yeah.
00:56:14Well, it's Rob Bell that's leading the GT Pro class
00:56:17for Aston Martin at the moment.
00:56:19They're one and three,
00:56:19with Darren Turner running in third place
00:56:22behind Mark Leib's Porsche,
00:56:23as we speak.
00:56:25It would be a great tribute to them.
00:56:27Essentially,
00:56:27what they've said is the best tribute to him
00:56:29is to go and win it on his behalf.
00:56:32Believe me,
00:56:32there will be plenty of tears
00:56:33whether they win or not
00:56:35at the end of this.
00:56:36I think everyone's just very much
00:56:37holding themselves together.
00:56:39And Alan Simonson,
00:56:41who sadly died here at Le Mans
00:56:43earlier on today.
00:56:45We're going to take ourselves a commercial break,
00:56:47and we'll be back,
00:56:49and back with the action.
00:56:51Most of it on board,
00:56:52which I know a lot of you love,
00:56:54because a lot of the cameras
00:56:55further deep down on the course
00:56:57have been closed down
00:56:58out the side of the road.
00:56:59So more on boards to come.
00:57:01We'll be right.
00:57:15It's more to be called λΉοΏ½οΏ½.
00:57:17To go on, we need to make a very good job.
00:57:18I like that one.
00:57:25We need to stop the ocean and use aοΏ½οΏ½ of the salt.
00:57:35If you don't like that one, just like that one.
00:57:45Oh, my God.
00:58:15Oh, my God.
00:58:45Oh, my God.
00:59:15And as a result, it looks like he's out of fuel due to, I presume, the burn that he's used trying to get out of the gravel trail.
00:59:25That's what we're assuming, anyway.
00:59:26And he is on pit road right now, as you can see, and it's very much not even one horsepower as we go now.
00:59:35Yeah, I think it looks, actually, as if he might have some electrical problems as well, because there are no lights at all.
00:59:41They were on.
00:59:43They're now completely off.
00:59:45So there may be a little bit more to it than meets the eye.
00:59:49Well, we can speculate, but we're probably going to find out what's going on here shortly.
00:59:56Could have been a driver change.
00:59:57Maybe he was preparing himself.
00:59:58I don't know.
00:59:59Yeah, never know.
01:00:00Just...
01:00:01Wow.
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