Potential unfulfilled for lead Bentley

The Frenchman, who shared the number seven Bentley with Martin Brundle and Guy Smith, could only watch as the green car rolled to a halt at the exit of the Porsche Curves with smoke billowing from the rear end.

"It is difficult, especially because we had such good potential," said Ortelli. "We were back to where we should have been earlier in the week. I was third in the warm-up this morning and then Martin did an excellent job in the first part of the race"

The Englishman became the first man to put a Bentley in the lead at Le Mans for over 70 years.

"Martin could lead the race easily when he was in the car," said Ortelli. "I was ready to drive to try to do the maximum in the night. I did that in 1998 and I was strong in the night last year too.

"All the tests we did I was quite a bit stronger than the other drivers in the night time so I was just focused and it's hard. It's hard to be ready and suddenly not be doing anything."

Ortelli was one of those leading the expedition out to the Porsche Curves in an effort to save the stricken Bentley.

"In the past because I have been here driving turbo engines since the beginning at Le Mans I know how it is," he said. "We have a turbo engine and by the time everbody just understood that the car was on fire because of the turbo I just told them that we have to go back there and put Guy in the car and try to get back because even if the turbo is gone so long as the fuel tank and everything was still okay, he could come back.

"We found a scooter and went back there. And we could even restart the engine but the clutch was gone so we couldn't even find gears and stuff like that."

Ortelli admitted that the rain was the major factor in the Bentley's demise, as Brundle had predicted before the start of the race. The number eight car has been experiencing similar clutch problems but is currently lying third behind the two Audis.