Hour 17: Comas Maintains Pressure
After six Le Mans victories, Tom Kristensen is allowed the occasional mistake, as long as he gets away with them. At the start of the 17th hour he made his first of the weekend
Having set the Champion Racing R8's fastest laps on new tyres during the quick dawn stint, he slid wide at the second chicane on the Mulsanne Straight and bounced across the grass before pitting immediately to hand to JJ Lehto.
The Champion Racing R8 had a two-lap advantage over the chasing Pescarolo of Jean-Christophe Boullion, which is making up time after a gearbox problem on Saturday afternoon. "I got a gear too early, it was my mistake," said Kristensen. "My foot slipped a little off the brake, I was off line which is of course full of gravel. It shouldn't happen but if you have a big basket, you can only lose it.
The lead Aston Martin of Pedro Lamy put in some very fast laps at the top of the hour, dropping the fastest lap in class to a 3m52.078s, despite enjoying a one lap cushion over the chasing Corvettes. In the 17th hour, the Corvettes slowed to four minute laps as the Aston Martins remain in the 3m54s - 3m57s bracket, Lamy stretching his lead in seventh overall as Brabham closed on Max Papis for third in class and 10th overall.
The Team Jota Zytek of Sam Hignett is still running well, as the team enjoying its first Le Mans lies sixth overall. It is two laps down on the fifth placed Pescarolo of Eric Helary which has suffered two accidents during the course of the race.
The Paul Belmondo Racing Courage, which had led the LMP2 class for several hours, had a long pit stop and handed the lead to the RML Lola, itself a car which had suffered overheating and gearbox problems during the opening hour. RML driver Tommy Erdos now enjoys a four lap lead over the Gulf-liveried, Ford two-litre turbocharged powered Courage of Didier Andre, which had started from the LMP2 pole position.
The Raymond Narac Porsche, which lay third in the GT2 class, had a long stop during the hour and dropped to fourth in the class. Mike Rockenfeller, in the Alex Job Racing Porsche, has moved up the leaderboard to 16th overall ahead of Patrick Long and Lonnie Pechnik, who runs third in the Flying Lizard Porsche.
Already, less than four hours after daybreak, the ambient temperature has been measured at 33.6 degrees Centigrade.
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