Hour 16: Kristensen Consolidates

Kristensen held a two-lap advantage over the Pescarolo Sport of Boullion, the Frenchman lapping approximately five seconds faster than Kristensen when traffic allowed. Boullion was pushing so hard he got within a couple of tenths of the car's qualifying performance.

Kristensen was pushing so hard he made a mistake at the second Mulsanne chicane, losing time after running over the grass.

The #2 Audi R8 finished the hour in third, having got going again in the hands of Frank Biela. The Champion Racing team made repairs following Allan McNish's trip into the tyre wall during the 15th hour. The team lost more than 20 minutes due to the incident, McNish revealing to Autosport-Atlas that a tyre delamination resulted in the accident.

Michael Krumm suffered a puncture on his Rollcentre Dallara Nissan in the latest incident to affect the #8 car and limped back to the pits.

The GT1 battle remained the closest battle of the race with Pedro Lamy's Aston Martin holding station, more than two minutes ahead of the number #64 Corvette C6-R.

In LMP2 Tommy Erdos moved up to second in the MG Lola, however the Brazilian remained less than two laps behind the leading class car of #36 of Claude Yves Gosselin.

The drama in GT2 was provided by the number #91 T2M. Their Porsche 911 retired after an accident with Xavier Pompidou at the wheel. The Frenchman was taken away from the scene in the medical car, however he did not appear to be seriously injured. The #71 Alex Job Porsche of Mike Rockenfeller remained in the lead.

Pos	#	Drivers	Make	Class	On Hour 16
1	3	Lehto, Werner, Kristensen	Audi R8	LM P1
2	16	Collard, Boullion, Comas	Pescarolo Judd	LM P1
3	2	Biela, Pirro, McNish	Audi R8	LM P1
4	4	Montagny, Gounon, Ortelli	Audi R8	LM P1
5	17	Loeb, Helary, Ayari	Pescarolo Judd	LM P1
6	9	Hignett, Stack, Kurosawa	Zytek 04S	LM P1
7	58	Enge, Kox, Lamy	Aston Martin DBR9	LM GT1
8	64	Gavin, Beretta, Magnussen	Corvette C6-R	LM GT1
9	63	Fellows, O'Connell, Papis	Corvette C6-R	LM GT1
10	59	Brabham, Sarrazin, Turner	Aston Martin DBR9	LM GT1
11	7	Minassian, CampbellW., Wallace	DBA Judd	LM P1
12	10	Lammers, Julian, Bosch	Dome Judd	LM P1
13	18	Short, Barbosa, Ickx	Dallara Judd	LM P1
14	12	Schwager, Frei, Vann	Courage Judd	LM P1
15	50	Goueslard, Dupard, Vosse	Ferrari 550 Maranello	LM GT1
16	71	Hindery, Rockenfell., Lieb	Porsche 911 GT3 RSR	LM GT2
17	90	Bergmeist., Long, Bernhard	Porsche 911 GT3 RSR	LM GT2
18	80	Overbeek, Pechnick, Neiman	Porsche 911 GT3 RSR	LM GT2
19	61	Fomenko, Vasiliev, Bouchut	Ferrari 550 Maranello	LM GT1
20	76	Dumas, Dumez, Narac	Porsche 911 GT3 RSR	LM GT2
21	36	Gosselin, Ojjeh, Sharpe	Courage C65 Ford	LM P2
22	72	Policand, Campbell, Alphand	Porsche 911 GT3 RS	LM GT2
23	25	Erdos, Newton, Hughes	Lola MG	LM P2
24	37	Belmondo, Andre, Sutherland	Courage C65 Ford	LM P2
25	30	Bennett, Mitchell, Mullen	Courage Judd	LM P2
26	89	Nielsen, Thyrring, Ehret	Porsche 911 GT3 RSR	LM GT2
27	83	Collin, Felbermayr, Shep	Porsche 911 GT3 RSR	LM GT2
28	92	Macari, Eriksson, Wilson	Ferrari 360 Mo. GTC	LM GT2
29	35	Hillebrand, Hahn, Pickering	Courage C65 Judd	LM P2
30	24	Terada, Roussel, Binnie	WR Peugeot	LM P2
31	95	Hartshorne, Stanton, Johnson	TVR Tuscan 400 R	LM GT2
32	78	Sellers, Franchitti, Bourdais	Panoz Elan	LM GT2
33	8	Verdon Roe, Krumm, Primat	Dallara Nissan	LM P1

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Series	WEC
Author	Tim Redmayne

Hour 16: Kristensen Consolidates

The battle for the 2005 Le Mans 24 Hours looked to be a two-car race as Tom Kristensen and Jean-Christophe Boullion pushed their cars as hard as possible in pursuit of victory at the end of the 16th hour

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