Race: Wide open at five-hour mark

With dusk beginning to descend on the Ardennes circuit, the Rafanelli Ferrari 550 Maranello of local hero and former 24-hours winner Eric van der Poele inherited first position from long-time leader Mike Hezemans' Chrysler Viper GTS-R.

The Dutchman beat the Ferrari away of the grid, and has led much of the race with team mates Jeroen Bleekemolen and Thierry Tassin as they proved the Carsport Holland team's car is without doubt the quickest car here.

But after 4 hours and 30 minutes they ran into problems when a cracked exhaust header forced them to make a lengthy six minute pit stop to place a specially fabricated sleeve around the offending area in order to protect damage to the valves further down the line. Bleekemolen emerged in the car in fourth place, two and a half laps down.

This allowed van der Poele to sweep triumphantly into the lead in the new-for-2001 Ferrari, which many did not expect to stay trouble-free for this amount of time. Lurking just 50 seconds behind, however, is the pre-race favourite Larbre Competition Viper of championship leaders Christophe Bouchut and Jean-Philippe Belloc, shared with Spa expert Marc Duez.

The Larbre team has taken a deliberately steady approach, using stealth rather than outright speed to move through the top five in the early stages of the race. And with the Rafanelli team yet to put their two gentleman drivers that share the 550M with stars van de Poele and Emanuele Naspetti behind the wheel, Larbre looked well positioned to sweep into the lead come nightfall.

Also handily placed just 21 seconds behind the Larbre car is the lead Belmondo Racing Viper of Eric Helary, Vincent Vosse and Emmanuel Clerico. The car led through the second hour courtesy of a lucky break under one of the two safety car periods which meant they pitted under yellows and, with the rest of the pack held behind the safety car train, opened up half a lap lead. Although Hezemans hauled them back in, they have remained trouble free.

Back in fifth is the second Larbre Viper led by Formula 3000 star Sebastien Bourdais. The young Frenchman has put in a sterling stint over the last two hours to make up much lost ground after the team elected for the wrong tyres at the start.

With hordes of the ever-reliable N-GT Porsche 911 GT3-Rs in the field, there is a very real chance of one of them finishing on the podium overall - or even winning if all the Vipers hit problems.

In wet conditions in particular the Porsches can outpace the bigger GT class cars, as former Le Mans winner proved during one of two wet spells by rising to second overall in the lead Freisinger 911. The Frenchman now lies second in class behind the leading Seikel Porsche - and with another 19 hours to go and many more heavy showers forecast, anything could yet happen.

The second Carsport Viper is out when Jean-Michel Martin crashed out in the fourth hour when his power steering failed. Both the other two Belmondo Vipers have also been seriously delayed.


Van de Poele/Naspetti/Steveny/Chouvel Rafanelli Ferrari 550 106 laps
Bouchut/Belloc/Duez Larbre Chrysler Viper 106 laps
Vosse/Helary/Clerico Belmondo Chrysler Viper 106 laps
Hezemans/Bleekemolen J/Tassin Carsport Chrysler Viper 104 laps
Bourdais/Goueslard/Dumez Larbre Chrysler Viper 103 laps
Burgess/Buttiero/Collin Seikel Porsche GT3-R 103 laps
Ortelli/Chiesa/Sauvage Freisinger Porsche GT3-R 103 laps
Dierick/de Doncker/Dupont Silver Chrysler Viper 103 laps
Riccitelli/Quester/Simon/Garcia RWS Porsche GT3-R 103 laps
Pompidou/Tinseau/Ickx V/Verbergt Freisinger Porsche GT3-R 102 laps