Skip to main content

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe
Live text
WEC 24 Hours of Le Mans

The 76th Le Mans 24 Hours

Live Text

Sort by
The rain has stopped in the last few minutes. The track surface is damp. The Racing line continues to dry slowly and no longer is spray visible from the ear of the cars.
Marc Gene has upped his pace to a 3:53, taking time out of McNish after the 3:58 lap for the Audi.
Franck Montagny brings the Peugeot into the pits. The No.9 machine takes on a fresh set of full wet tyres, a tankful of fuel and the car leaves the pit stall with the Frenchman still at the wheel.
The No.10 Lola Aston has pitted from 11th overall. Once again they have problems with the car and the rear bodywork is off for attention in the pit lane.
Marc Gene has pitted the No.7 Peugeot from second. He stays in the car and is away with a new tank of fuel.
The No.24 Terramos Courage Mugen entry has spun off entering the Mulsanne straight. Kazuho Takahashi lost control of the rear of the car, spun and looks to have avaoided all the armco barriers.

The Japanese driver makes a meal of recovering the car, but eventually sorts out the situation and gets going again.
McNish is pressing on in the Audi, slicing past traffic on the pit straight. He is using the advantage of Audi's relative fuel economy to stay out longer than his Peugeot rival.
Allan McNish brings the leading car into the pits. The No.2 Audi R10 was maintaining a 46 second lead over the No.7 Peugeot before the latest round of stops.

No driver change - McNish carrying on, fresh wet tyres bolted on, tankful of fuel and autosport.com's guest photographer for the weekend is back on the road again.
23.4 seconds is the gap between McNish and Gene for the lead as the latest round of pit stops has played in the Peugeot's favour.
In LMP2, the Van Merksteijn Porsche RS Spyder is comfortable in the lead of the class by eight laps. The Team Essex RS Spyder has now fallen to third in the class, behind the No.35 Saulnier Racing Pescarolo Judd.
The No.7 Peugeot has pitted after a short stint of five laps. Nicolas Minassian has climbed aboard the second-placed car and is off in pursuit of the lead Audi.
Allan McNish is now almost two minutes up the road on the chasing Peugeot after that surprise stop for the No.7.
The seventh-placed Pescarolo Judd with Benoit Treluyer driving it has gone up the escape road at Mulsanne corner. After a helping hand from the marshals to push the No.17 car, he is able to get going again.
Light rain is falling once again in Le Mans.
At the front of the field Allan Mcnish continues to hold the lead in the No.2 Audi R10, over two minutes ahead of the No.7 Peugeot which is driven by Nicolas Minassian.

Franck Montagny is third in the No.9 Peugeot, one lap down.

Lucas Luhr is fourth in the No.3 Audi, two laps adrift.

Emanuele Pirro is in the fifth position in the No.1 Audi, with Pedro Lamy sixth in the troublesome Peugeot No.8.
The No.8 Peugeot has spun at Arnarge with Pedro Lamy at the wheel ...
Lamy looped the No.8 machine exiting the right-hander. After several seconds the Portuguese driver was able to get going again, but has lost more time, and is now a full 10 laps - 84 miles - off the lead.
The rain is picking up pace once again, becoming heavier.
In GT1 Darren Turner, who seems to be on some sort of one-man mission behind the wheel of the 009 Aston Martin, is comfortably leading the category now, with a one lap lead over the No.63 Corvette.

Jan Magnussen is in the Corvette, but continually lapping slower than the Aston.
The No.9 Peugeot has pitted from third. Christian Klien has taken over and heads back out with fresh wet tyres.
Allan McNish is delivering a useful lead gap in his Audi. He is currently lapping several seconds per lap quicker than the No.7 Peugeot, which is driven by Nicolas Minassian.
Lucas Luhr has had a moment in the No.3 Audi. He couldn't get it slowed down for a chicane on the Mulsanne and had to take to the escape route through a series of tyres.
The autosport.com news team report that Gene was forced to pit after five laps on the recent stint due to chunking of his wet tyres.

Nicolas Minassian is now in the No.7 car and continues to lose ground to the leading Audi.
The rain has eased again and is falling very lightly as the competitors continue to pound round this classic circuit in north-west France.

The tension has most definitely dissipated from the lead battle for top honours, with Mcnish heading towards a comfortable lead.

Similarly in GT1 the 009 Aston Martin maintains a one lap advantage over the No.63 Corvette.
Allan McNish is now in the pits with a lead of over two-and-a-half minutes. The Scotsman is continuing for yet another stint and is away in the lead.
The No.18 Rollcentre Racing Pescarolo Judd has had an off-track excursion. Stephane Gregoire is behind the wheel of that car and continues to run in a very secure tenth place.
The No.8 Peugeot has pitted. Pedro Lamy hands over the sixth-placed car to Stephane Sarrazin.
Porsche No.77 has locked up and gone straight on at Mulsanne corner. That is the Team Felbermayr Proton entry with Horst Felbermayr Senior at the wheel. The car is running 31st overall and sixth in the LMGT2 class.

The marshals help to push the car out of trouble and Felbermayr is on his way again.
Nicolas Minassian pits in the second placed No.7 Peugeot. No driver change and the Frenchman rejoins the race. Meanwhile Allan McNish continues out front and extends the Audi lead.

No tyre change for the Peugeot that time.
In GT1 the No.63 Corvette has been in the pits again for the 22nd time. This extends the 009 Aston Martin advantage even further.
In LMP2, the Van Merkseijn car continues to lead with Jeroen Bleekemolen at the wheel. They are without challenge from the remainder of the class and only late problems could stand between them and the class win.
After the latest round of stops up front, the No.2 Audi with McNish - heading towards the end of a quadruple stint - now leads the No.7 Peugeot by just over three minutes.
The rain appears to have eased off again as we enter the final quarter of the race.

The track surface is mainly damp with some slightly wetter patches in places - especially offline.
Stephane Gregoire brings the tenth-placed Rollcentre Racing Pescarolo Judd into the pits. A driver change is due this time with Vanina Ickx ready to take over, but there is some problem at the rear of the car and this is turning into a long pitstop.
McNish is putting in what are likely to be his final laps of the race and his pace is sensational - he is the only man lapping under four minutes and is between five and ten seconds per lap quicker than the other diesel cars.
Vanina Ickx is now out on circuit in the Rollcentre Racing No.18 car, after that long pitstop.
The No.40 Quifel ASM Lola has problems in the pits. They are fourth in LMP2, well ahead of fifth, and 19th overall. The car has had the rear bodywork removed for some work.
In LMGT2, the No.82 Risi Competizione Ferrari continues to lead the class with Gianmaria Bruni now at the helm. It now has almost two laps over the No.96 Virgo Motorsport Ferrari.
At the front of the field, Allan McNish continues to edge away from the No.7 Peugeot. It is a race-winning performance put in by the Scotsman and the gap is up to 3 minutes 15 seconds.

The No.7 Peugeot in second place isn't all that far away from being lapped.
The No.9 Peugeot has pitted with Christian Klien staying on board, taking tyres and fuel.

By: Geoff Creighton, Emlyn Hughes

Published: