Hour 20: Pescarolo Down to 1 Car

The Frenchman complained of a puncture, losing control before he entered the corner, straight-lining the chicane and hitting the tyre wall hard, to damage both the front and rear of the car.

Ayari limped back to the pits, however the Pescarolo Sport team chose to pull down the garage door and retire the car.

Upfront, JJ Lehto handed over the leading Champion Racing Audi R8 to Marco Werner. However, the car was still being reeled in by the other Pescarolo Sport car of Emanuel Collard. At present pace, the Audi could be caught in the final hour of the race and the crowd is gearing up for a nail-biting finish.

Lehto said: "Speedwise we can't compete but reliability-wise anything can happen. We need to push now."

In GT1, David Brabham had the #59 Aston Martin chasing the leading Corvette hard, with the gap being down to just over a minute.

In GT2 the Alex Job racing Porsche of Marc Lieb continued to dominate. However, the hour was bad for Panoz Motor sport, the #78 car of Marino Franchitti retiring on the run down to Indianapolis.

In LMP2, the Paul Belmondo Racing Courage C65 of Didier Andre enjoyed a six-lap lead over the #25 Lola MG however, with all leading runners having been wheeled into the garage at one point during the race, the class is not yet decided.

Pos	#	Drivers	Make	Class	On Hour 20
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	9	Hignett, Stack, Kurosawa	Zytek 04S	LM P1
6	64	Gavin, Beretta, Magnussen	Corvette C6-R	LM GT1
7	59	Brabham, Sarrazin, Turner	Aston Martin DBR9	LM GT1
8	58	Enge, Kox, Lamy	Aston Martin DBR9	LM GT1
9	63	Fellows, O'Connell, Papis	Corvette C6-R	LM GT1
10	10	Lammers, Julian, Bosch	Dome Judd	LM P1
11	12	Schwager, Frei, Vann	Courage Judd	LM P1
12	71	Hindery, Rockenfell., Lieb	Porsche 911 GT3 RSR	LM GT2
13	90	Bergmeist., Long, Bernhard	Porsche 911 GT3 RSR	LM GT2
14	50	Goueslard, Dupard, Vosse	Ferrari 550 Maranello	LM GT1
15	61	Fomenko, Vasiliev, Bouchut	Ferrari 550 Maranello	LM GT1
16	18	Short, Barbosa, Ickx	Dallara Judd	LM P1
17	80	Overbeek, Pechnick, Neiman	Porsche 911 GT3 RSR	LM GT2
18	76	Dumas, Dumez, Narac	Porsche 911 GT3 RSR	LM GT2
19	7	Minassian, CampbellW., Wallace	DBA Judd	LM P1
20	72	Policand, Campbell, Alphand	Porsche 911 GT3 RS	LM GT2
21	37	Belmondo, Andre, Sutherland	Courage C65 Ford	LM P2
22	89	Nielsen, Thyrring, Ehret	Porsche 911 GT3 RSR	LM GT2
23	25	Erdos, Newton, Hughes	Lola MG	LM P2
24	36	Gosselin, Ojjeh, Sharpe	Courage C65 Ford	LM P2
25	30	Bennett, Mitchell, Mullen	Courage Judd	LM P2
26	83	Collin, Felbermayr, Shep	Porsche 911 GT3 RSR	LM GT2
27	24	Terada, Roussel, Binnie	WR Peugeot	LM P2
28	95	Hartshorne, Stanton, Johnson	TVR Tuscan 400 R	LM GT2

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Series	WEC
Teams	Pescarolo Team
Author	Tim Redmayne

Hour 20: Pescarolo Down to 1 Car

Pescarolo Sport suffered the major drama of the 20th hour of the 73rd Le Mans 24 Hour when Soheil Ayari crashed out of the race at the Dunlop Curve

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