Zoom Setback at Peugeot

The second evening of qualifying for the Le Mans 24 Hours event began under very cloudy skies and upon a progressively drying track following the showers which crossed the area earlier in the day.

Many cars left the pitlane for a first round of laps as soon as the light turned green. Early on, the No.6 Courage-Oreca driven by Marcel Fässler went off but quickly recovered. Aboard the team's No.5 car, Laurent Groppi had to stop after slightly damaging his ride after just five minutes. An interruption would be necessary to remove the car and repair the dented barrier.

The session was restarted shortly after 7:30pm as rays of sunshine shyly appeared. Stefan Mücke, driving a Lola Aston Martin, was the first to better his time this evening when he came 0.7 seconds close to the No.16 Pescarolo 'petrol' leader.

In the LMP2 class, the Speedy Racing Team Sebah's No.33 Lola Judd, with Steve Zacchia at the wheel, stopped near the PlayStation chicane.

The No.25 Lola MG improved on yesterday's results, now sixth of the LMP2s but still behind the No.45 Embassy car. Tomas Erdos managed to bring the car closer but later returned to the pits at a slow pace.

Ater 45 minutes, Ben Aucott lost control of his No.99 JMB Team Ferrari and ended his slide by smashing the rear of his car against the tyre barrier of the Dunlop curve. The driver was unharmed… but not the F430.

Shinji Nakano signed better times despite electrical problems affecting his No.21 Epsilon Euskadi. Over at Saulnier Racing, the No.4 LMP1 car also improved, but the No. 35 LMP2 was stuck in the stands with gearbox issues.

An hour after the green light, the No.8 Peugeot 908 was still the fastest on track with a lap of 3:20. 566, two seconds away from Wednesday's best time.

The LMGT1 category was moving, with the No.009 Aston Martin DBR9 taking over fourth position from the No.55 Lamborghini Murcielago.

The colours of the leading Porsche RS Spyder changed in the LMP2 class when Jos Verstappen of the Van Merksteijn team made a quicker lap than the Team Essex effort.

A half-hour before the break, the No.1 Audi R10 TDI was setting a better pace but remained in fourth position, five seconds down from the leading Peugeot. Ricardo Zonta then lost his No.9 Peugeot 908 and strongly hit the Armco barriers, badly damaging both the front and back ends.

A few moments later, the N0.59 Team Modena Aston Martin lost a wheel at the Mulsanne corner. The red flags came out when the No.14 Creation violently crashed at Tertre Rouge; Stuart Hall removed himself from the CA07, but the front end was in very bad shape.

In order to give the stewards enough time to clear all the debris from the track, and to allow the trucks to remove the broken Peugeot, Aston Martin, and Creation cars, Race Control decided to stop the session earlier than scheduled.

The final session of qualifying will therefore begin slightly earlier, at 8:45pm instead of 9:00pm.

Daniel BASTIEN
© CAPSIS International