Hour 13: Collard Closes In
Emmanuel Collard set a blistering pace during the 13th hour of the 2005 Le Mans 24 Hours in an effort to make up some ground on the leading Audi R8s ahead
Collard regularly lapped more than five seconds quicker than the leading Champion Racing Audi pair of Marco Werner and Allan McNish, in an effort to start to regain the lead lost due to the transmission problems early in the race.
Werner and McNish have three and four laps over Collard respectively, but the French team were proving that the race is still wide open with 11 hours still to go.
The Dome of Seiji Ara was two laps further behind Collard in fourth, recovering from their ECU change in the previous hour.
WRC champion Sebastien Loeb finished his night stint in the other Pescarolo Sport, the number 17 car losing extra time in the pits when the French mechanics had to gaffer-tape damage to the rear wing.
Oliver Gavin's Covette briefly took over the GT1 lead during the pitstops, before the Aston Martin of Tomas Enge took control when Gavin let Olivier Beretta take the wheel.
Gavin said: "It is going to be close and like this all the way to the end. I need to get some sleep for the fight in the morning now."
LMP2 continued to be led by the Paul Belmondo Racing pair of Courages, with the #36 car of Adam Sharpe leading the #37 of Didier Andre by three laps. However the lead could change soon as Sharpe was pushed back into the pits as the hour ended.
The RML Lola of Warren Hughes briefly held second in the LMP2 class before it was wheeled into the pits with a clutch-based fluid leak. The car lost several minutes before ending the hour third in class.
Marc Lieb's seemingly bullet-proof Porsche RSR continued to dominate GT2, ahead of the White Lightning Porsche, now driven by Timo Bernhard.
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