Le Mans 24 Hours 2014 The 82nd Le Mans 24 Hours
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Rain
Rain falling in the sunshine at the pits, and the Mulsanne straight is flooded again.
Amazingly, the sun is out on the pits-side of the track.
Yellow flag
"Heavy rain" now reported, and we have a safety car. Visibility is non-existent on the Mulsanne - it's a huge storm.
Rain
Rain reported from Tertre Rouge to the first part of the Mulsanne straight. That's the same place it came in from before.
And, just after the last retirement updates a few minutes ago, the #81 AF Corse Ferrari, unsurprisingly, was officially retired.
LMP1 laptimes:
Wurz 3m43.4s
Lotterer 3m41.3s
Bernhard 3m51.1s
Kristensen 3m55.6s
Wurz 3m43.4s
Lotterer 3m41.3s
Bernhard 3m51.1s
Kristensen 3m55.6s
Lotterer takes another 2s out of Wurz that lap. The leader is 1m28s clear of the chasing Audi.
It's drying, fast. Mucke stops in the Aston as Milner in the #74 Corvette flies past Holzer's wet-shod #92 Manthey Porsche for second.
So far, we have three cars officially retired. The #3 Audi, the #37 ORECA and the #0 Nissan ZEOD RC.
Kristensen (P4) is on the lead lap after all. He's 2m43s adrift of Wurz. Sorry, TK fans, we didn't mean to cause alarm earlier.
Garcia pit for a bit of fuel and a return to slick tyres – the track's drying quickly.
Bernhard doesn't have the pace of the top two, so he's now 1m42s off the lead and slipping back in third.
Lotterer's first flying lap after the restart is 3s quicker than Wurz, and he's two second faster through the first sector of the next lap. So the Toyota's lead is down to 1m27s.
Proper gaps mean we can gauge where the GTE cars are.
Pilet leads, but has only stopped once after 28 laps – Mucke's now second, having stopped twice, and is about 1m30s behind.
Holzer is third in the second Manthey Porsche, just over a second behind the Aston.
Pilet leads, but has only stopped once after 28 laps – Mucke's now second, having stopped twice, and is about 1m30s behind.
Holzer is third in the second Manthey Porsche, just over a second behind the Aston.
Garcia's brought the #73 Corvette into the pits again. That's the third time – this can't be scheduled.
Kristensen is fourth in the #1 Audi, but he's a lap down having made an extra stop so far.
Bradley did rejoin for the restart in the #47 KCMG ORECA. He's now down in 11th in class.
The leading #74 Corvette has pit and that means the #91 Manthey Porsche moves to the head of GTE Pro.
LMP1 gaps are up to date now: Wurz leads Lotterer by 1m33s and Bernhard by 1m39s.
Brundle passes Badey for fourth in LMP2.
Yellow flag
That's prompted localised yellows.
Crash
The #52 Ram Ferrari, driven by Matt Griffin, has spun off at the Ford chicane.
Wurz crosses the line and has lots of clear track to play with. He was the second car in his safety car group, and naturally moved to the front of it immediately. Now we wait for Lotterer and Bernhard to cross the line.
Pla brings the #26 OAK-run G-Drive Morgan into the pits.
Breaking news
After an absolutely manic first two hours – yes, we're two hours in already! – we've had a bit of time to catch our breath because of that extended safety car period.
So, as we go racing again, here are our reports for you to catch up with what's happened so far:
Hour 1: Toyota leads frantic opening hour
Hour 2: Rain causes chaos, Audi/Toyota crash
So, as we go racing again, here are our reports for you to catch up with what's happened so far:
Hour 1: Toyota leads frantic opening hour
Hour 2: Rain causes chaos, Audi/Toyota crash
Green flag
Green flag. We're racing again. Let's see how the race order looks when the gaps update.
Safety cars in this lap.
Due to the split of the safety cars, Wurz's group is touring round three minutes ahead of its main pursuers - the #2 Audi of Lotterer and #20 Porsche of Bernhard.
The left-front suspension is removed from the #8 Toyota.
HOUR 2 ORDER:
1 #7 Toyota
2 #2 Audi
3 #20 Porsche
4 #1 Audi
5 #12 Porsche
Leading LMP2 runners:
1 #34 Race Performance ORECA
2 #47 KCMG ORECA
3 #36 Signatech ORECA
Leading GTE Pro runners:
1 #74 Corvette
2 #91 Manthey Porsche
3 #73 Corvette
Leading GTE Am runners:
1 #77 Dempsey Porsche
2 #53 Ram Ferrari
3 #57 Krohn Ferrari
Thought that it was probably too good to be true for the #47 KCMG ORECA. Bradley did rejoin second in LMP2 after hitting the tyre stacks at the first Mulsanne chicane, but he has pitted and been pulled into the garage for repairs.
Fernando Alonso might not have picked the best time to turn up in the Audi garage as the team comes to terms with losing one of its three cars so early in the race.
But he gets a warm welcome from fellow Spaniard Marc Gene, and a pat on the back from Allan McNish.
But he gets a warm welcome from fellow Spaniard Marc Gene, and a pat on the back from Allan McNish.
Lots of shots of the Toyota garage, where repairs are taking place at the front of the #8 car crashed by Lapierre. Naturally, we can't see exactly what is going on, but mechanics are working on the front end from above and underneath.
A road-sweeper is clearing up the scene of the accident.
Crash
Further review of the replays of that crash show that the spinning Lapierre did clip Bonanomi - just before Bird arrived on the scene and hit the Audi hard.
Under this safety car, Makowiecki's cried enough and pit the #92 Porsche – that was 13 laps compared to 12 previously, though obviously the last few were at a reduced pace.
Rain
We've got more rain on the pits straight again...
The LMP2-leading Signatech Alpine ORECA has been in, with Panciatici handing over to Chatin. This hands the class lead to the #34 Race Performance ORECA, with Bradley's KCMG car back up to second.
The #8 Toyota is up on its stands in the garage and the crew is frantically going to work.
...and now the sun comes out.
GARY WATKINS: In all the excitement, it is easy to overlook the first evidence we have in the 'will they, won't they' question of the extra lap for the petrol P1s. The Toyotas did 13 laps and so did the #20 Porsche, but their strategy was quite likely to have been influenced by the rain shower. Nothing conclusive yet.
By: Geoff Creighton, Scott Mitchell, Glenn Freeman, Edd Straw, Gary Watkins, AUTOSPORT staff
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