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24 Hours of Le Mans
Le Mans 24 Hours 2014 The 82nd Le Mans 24 Hours
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Timo Bernhard on his opening stint in the #20 Porsche and leading the race: "In the opening phase the car felt quite tricky to drive but that improved after a few laps. We were really fast in the rain and employed the right strategy. My experience from several years at Le Mans helped me a lot during this stage of the race, but it was still extremely difficult.
"We had all kinds of conditions out there that you could imagine, from zero vision to completely dry track, and everything in between. All this within one single lap. That was absolutely crazy, I have never experienced anything like it.
"To put a Porsche in front of this race for the first time after the comeback was definitely a great moment. Now we have to make sure that we keep doing a zero-error job."
"We had all kinds of conditions out there that you could imagine, from zero vision to completely dry track, and everything in between. All this within one single lap. That was absolutely crazy, I have never experienced anything like it.
"To put a Porsche in front of this race for the first time after the comeback was definitely a great moment. Now we have to make sure that we keep doing a zero-error job."
GARY WATKINS: Mark Webber has just completed his first racing lap of Le Mans. He has never actually raced here before: in 1998, his Mercedes was out with engine failure before he was due to drive and we all know why his car didn't start 12 months later.
Now that Lietz is back out, here are the leading GTE Pro positions: 1 Westbrook (#74 Corvette); 2 Fisichella (#51 AF Ferrari); 3 Turner (#97 Aston Martin); 4 Lietz (#92 Manthey Porsche); 5 Taylor (#73 Corvette).
The #98 Aston Martin continues to lead its sister #95 car in GTE Am.
The #98 Aston Martin continues to lead its sister #95 car in GTE Am.
The #79 Porsche is back in the pits but, in addition to plenty of damage to left rear, has a small fire at the back of the car as well.
That gets treated by a fire extinguisher pretty quickly, and the car is wheeled into the garage.
That gets treated by a fire extinguisher pretty quickly, and the car is wheeled into the garage.
Di Grassi pits the #1 Audi from third place. He was 2m25s off the lead before coming in, and is handing over to Gene.
After Hartley's off on his in-lap, the #20 Porsche (now in Webber's hands) is one lap down in fourth place.
GARY WATKINS: The times have pretty much leveled up between Treluyer and Nakajima, now the Toyota driver's tyres are the best part of a stint old. The net loss in 10 laps has been 21s. If it remains at that amount, there will have been a small net gain for Audi.
LMP1: 1 Nakajima (Toyota); 2 Treluyer (Audi); 3 Gene (Audi; 4 Webber (Porsche); 5 Beche (Rebellion); 6 Dumas (Porsche).
The #7 Toyota's lead over Treluyer in the Audi is back up to 1m00s, as it was before the last round of stops where Audi made up a chunk of time when it didn't take fresh tyres.
Turner's absolutely flying – 3m56.259s is comfortably the quickest of the GTE cars right now. He's 22s behind the Ferrari of Fisichella having taken on new tyres in his stop – as did Nick Tandy, who is in the #91 Manthey Porsche for the first time in the race.
Yellow flag
Imperatori has shunted the #47 KCMG ORECA on the run out of the Porsche Curves. Safety car deployed
That's a shame for Imperatori, who drove a superb first stint to get that car up into the lead of its class.
Audi pits the #2 car, which prior to that had been tough to pass for the recovering Davidson, who was trying to get a lap back in the #8 Toyota to no avail.
Dalla Lana had a quick spin in the GTE Am-leading #98 Aston. We'll assume that was before the safety cars were called out.
Nakajima is in the pits for Toyota, as the #2 Audi - now with Fassler at the wheel, is released from the end of the pit lane to join the first SC group to pass by.
Imperatori got back into the KCMG ORECA in the hope of getting back to the pits. But it's being wheeled back behind the wall. Looks like that will be it.
GARY WATKINS: Audi ended up losing time to the leader with its quadruple stint. The gap between Nakajima and Treluyer went out from 36s to over a minute over the course of the stint. Maybe Audi will see it as a gain, because the Toyota would have been quicker even if Treluyer had had new Michelins.
Looks like the safety car has done the LMP2-leading OAK Ligier a favour. Seems to in the next safety car group up the road from its pursuers. So should give it an increased lead.
Imperatori is out of the car, and explaining his off to various marshals/photographers.
The #1 Audi of Gene (third) is just about on the lead lap still after the shuffling in this safety car period. He's in the same safety car group as the leading #7 Toyota, but the Audi is at the front of the queue and Nakajima's TS040 is at the back of it.
Safety car in this lap.
Chandhok is bitterly disappointed by the off he had while crawling in the heavy rain, with the #48 Murphy ORECA spinning into the wall. The car has rejoined and is showing its pace, but is out of contention in LMP2. Chandhok set fastest LMP2 lap after rejoining.
Chandhok's summary: "The car turned into a canoe - no steering or brakes. Nightmare..."
Chandhok's summary: "The car turned into a canoe - no steering or brakes. Nightmare..."
Green flag
Race is back underway.
LMP1: 1 Nakajima; 2 Fassler; 3 Gene; 4 Webber; 5 Beche; 6 Dumas
Yellow flag
Yellows at Porsche Curves
Yellow flag
Apparently the #66 JMW Ferrari has gone off. That's driven by Pumpelly.
Green flag
Seems that Pumpelly has got back going again fortunately.
Second-placed Fassler crosses the line 2m52s behind the lead Toyota of Nakajima.
That new gap between the leaders means Audi lost out - to the tune of well over a minute - during that safety car period.
Turner has just taken second in GTE Pro.
LMP2 leader Shulzhitskiy is in. The car gets fuel and tyres and Mardenborough takes over.
GARY WATKINS: The safety car has closed up the first three - Westbrook, Turner and Fisichella - in GTE Pro. There is now 2.5s between them, But the second Corvette and the two Porsches have been dropped, courtesy of the three safety-car set-up.
Lancaster has pitted in the #34 ORECA. He rejoins and should retain emerge in LMP2, as the #46 TDS Ligier pitted under the safety car and lost time.
The #88 Proton Porsche has taken a trip up an escape road with Al Qubaisi at the wheel.
Turner nails Westbrook to take the GTE lead!
Meanwhile, Tandy is pressuring Lietz for fourth having passed Taylor's Corvette.
Pla just set the #26 OAK-run G-Drive entry's best lap of the race. He's fifth in LMP2 but has close to two minutes to make up on the fourth-placed #46 Ligier.
Webb brings the #36 Signatech Alpine ORECA into the pits. That will give the lead to Mardenborough in the #36 Ligier.
Fassler is eking back some of those seconds lost to the leader in the safety-car period. On new tyres, he's a couple of seconds a lap quicker in the Audi than Nakajima, who is on stint-old Michelins.
Turner's opened up a 1.4s lead now over Westbrook, while Fisichella has pitted from third.
By: Geoff Creighton, Scott Mitchell, Glenn Freeman, Edd Straw, Gary Watkins, AUTOSPORT staff
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