Hour 11: Werner Takes Over
The number three Audi R8 continued to lead after the eleventh hour of the 2005 Le Mans 24 Hours, but with a reduced lead over its Champion Racing teammate
JJ Lehto completed a triple stint at the wheel and handed over to German Marco Werner. At that point the car was a lap ahead of the number two car of Emanuele Pirro. However Werner was forced to make an unscheduled pitstop towards the end of the hour, bringing the gap down to just 38 seconds.
Werner caught his mechanics by surprise in his unscheduled stop, but after a change of all four wheels and more fuel, the car left seemingly unharmed. However, the gap is bigger in reality, as Pirro's Audi has yet to make its scheduled stop.
The lead did change in LMP2, however. Didier Andre's Paul Belmondo Racing Courage was wheeled in the pits after the dashboard was giving erroneous warnings signals. Belmondo himself took control of the car, but not before the car had lost its two-lap lead to the team's other Courage, driven by Karim Ojjeh.
The GT1 class continued to be dominated by Aston Martin with Pedro Lamy handing over to Peter Kox. Jan Magnussen is in hot pursuit in his Corvette however, and still believes that the Aston dominance can be overcome.
In GT2, the Alex Job Racing Porsche of Mark Rockenfeller continued to hold a one-lap lead over the White Lightning Racing Porsche of Patrick Long.
About this article
| Series | WEC |
| Author | Tim Redmayne |
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