Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Hour seven: a chink in the Audi armour?

Battle for the lead

Two key events for hour seven: trials and tribulations for the number 21 Rafanelli Lola and Mario Andretti returning his Panoz Spyder safely back into the hands of David Brabham after a double-stint that saw the car consolidate its fourth place.
With Didier de Radigues about to end his stint and the pit crew preparing for a stop, the Belgian put the Rafanelli car off in the Porsche Curves. An initial diagnosis said game over, but after 20 minutes or so a noseless Lola crawled into the pit lane for some fairly fundamental repairs.

Andretti's stint had been undramatic, but had given Brabham some work to do if he was to get back on any kind of terms with the Audis. The fact that the veteran was given a double stint, and not a token single session, said it all.

Back at the sharp end, the Audis went into concertina mode, a slow lap for Rinaldo Capello slashing 10s off his lead to Laurent Aiello in one fell swoop. Third, and a minute behind Capello, was Emanuele Pirro. If, as team chief Dr Wolfgang Ullrich stated, the Audi team wasn't entertaining team orders for this race, it suddenly looked like this would be the acid test. But with Aiello coming in to the pits at the top of the hour, the potential problem ended before it began.

Drama! A seemingly routine stop for Aiello turned into frantic activity - a problem with the rear end, the car pushed into the garage and a whole pre-built gearbox and rear end winched into position. A chink in the Ingolstadt armour or just more of that ruthless teutonic efficiency?.


More attrition in the LMP 675 class, with the Multimatic Lola coughing and dying at the entry to the pitlane. The Vipers domination increases, with the three ORECA cars holding 13th, 14th and 15th, ahead of the 63 Corvette. And that oh so relentless 83 Dick Barbour Racing Porsche GT3R climbing up the leader board as high as 19th.


Shane Lewis, the driver of the crashed number 71 Porsche GT3R, has suffered a concussion and will be kept in hospital overnight for observation.
England beat Germany 1-0 in Euro 2000.


Pos No Drivers Car Class Laps/Time
7, M Alboreto, C Abt, R Capello, Audi R8 (900), 104 laps
9, L Aiello, A McNish, S Ortelli, Audi R8 (900), 1 lap
8, F Biela, T Kristensen, E Pirro, Audi R8 (900), 1 lap
11, D Brabham, J Magnussen, M Andretti, Panoz Spyder LMP (900), 2 laps
12, H Katoh, J O'Connell, P H Rapanel, Panoz Spyder LMP (900), 3 laps
3, E Bernard, E Collard, F Montagny, Cadillac LMP (900), 4 laps
24, S Johansson, J Matthews, G Smith, Reynard-Judd 2KQ (900), 5 laps
15, T Bscher, J M Gounon, G Lees, BMW LMP (900), 6 laps
22, K Tsuchiya, M kondo, A Iida, Panoz Spyder LMP (900), 6 laps
16, S Bourdais, O Grouillard, E Clerico, Courage-Peugeot C52 (900), 7 laps


Class No Driver Car Time
900 8, T Kristensen Audi R8 3m38.184s


Class No Drivers Car Class Time
35, J B Bouvet, S T Daoudi, X Pompidou, WR-Peugeot @ 54 laps
52, T Archer, M Duez, p Huisman, Chrysler Viper @ 10 laps
83, D Muller, L Luhr, B Wollek, Porsche GT3R @ 14 laps


No Drivers Car Laps Reason
20, J Lammers, P Kox, T Coronel, Lola B2KJ10 (900), disqualified - 50 laps
4, M Goossens, C Tinseau, K Kolby, DAM'S Cadillac LMP (900), fire - 5 laps
5, Y Dalmas, N Minassian, J P Belloc, ORECA Reynard-Mopar 2KQ (900), oil pressure - 1 lap


Be part of the Autosport community

Join the conversation
Previous article Hour six: Ingolstadt marque untouchable
Next article Hour eight: Abt takes up the cudgels

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe