SUMMARY: Nissan mantained its lead over Lamborghini after the third round of stops and there was another safety car to recover a stopped car on the Mistral. A drive-through penalty took the #63 Huracan out of contention, with Marc VDS BMW now leading the charge in second. After another round of stops, the #7 Bentley emerged as Nissan’s strongest challenger.
Leader Buncombe in the #23 Nissan kicked off the third round of pitstops on lap 86, five minutes after the race’s half-way mark. There were also stops for the other top three runners the #46 BMW (Palttala taking over from Martin) and drama for the #19 Lamborghini (running down in 20th) when it slowed temporarily on the start-finish straight and then stopped altogether at T7 at the start of the Mistral.
This was enough to bring out the safety car for the third time – but once again the leading contenders had just finished a round of scheduled stops so there would be no strategic trickery. Circulating behind the pace car, Chiyo in the #23 Nissan (above) led Venturini in the #63 Lamborghini and Palttala in the #46 BMW.
Vautier sat fourth in the out-of-sequence #20 ASP Ferrari, ahead of Meyrick in the #7 Bentley, Henry Hassid in the #12 TDS BMW (the Pro-Am leader) and Micheal Broniszewski (second in Pro-Am having just taken over the #11 Ferrari from Lyons).
Salaquarda was eighth, the #75 ISR Audi having another strong top-10 run here after Silverstone, with Fassler maintaining the #5 Phoenix Audi’s watch in ninth and Dusseldorp rounding out the top 10 in the #99 ROWE Mercedes.
The safety car came in on lap 95, with almost exactly 2.5 hours of the race remaining and the previous gaps between the front-runners now compressed. The #75’s run was then dented by a drive-through for improving its sector time under yellows, while Palttala moved into second when the former race-leading #63 Lamborghini was handed a drive-through for a pistop infringement.
A number of lapped cars between the Finn and Chiyo up ahead allowed the Nissan driver to build up a 15-second lead within a lap or two of the safety car pulling in. Meyrick was now back in a podium position in the #7 Bentley.
Audi’s difficult race continued on lap 100, as Marcel Fassler found himself having to drive almost a full lap with the #5 R8’s bonnet flipped up onto his windscreen. A black-and-orange flag meant a trip to the pits and work by the mechanics to repair the damage. Elsewhere, the #12 TDS BMW had pulled off the track at T3, bringing to an end another promising top 10 run, contact with the #17 Insight Ferrari the explanation here.
The top three in Pro-Am were now running together in fifth, sixth and seventh: the #11 Kessel Ferrari, the #22 Nissan and the #18 Black Falcon Mercedes. Meanwhile, Dusseldorp had continued the #99 ROWE Mercedes’ steady progress up the order to fourth.
Sanchez nabbed fifth and the Pro-Am class lead from Broniszewksi on lap 103, while there was further Audi heartache at the same time as the #2 WRT car was now circulating with heavy bodywork damage – having hit the #6 Phoenix car.
As the clock approached two hours to go, Meyrick kicked off the fourth round of regular pitstops, bringing the #7 Bentley in to hand over to Steven Kane, who was expected to take the car to the flag.
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While things remained static at the front, Venturini had set about clawing back some positions following the #63’s drive-through and was up to fourth by lap 111. Salaquarda was doing similar in the #75 Audi, now into fifth, while seventh and eight overall were now also ahead of the leading Pro-Am cars.
Alessandro Bonacini was now aboard the #11 Ferrari and had overhauled Shulzhitskiy in the #22 Nissan to swing the class lead back to Kessel Racing. Sean Johnston was third in class and ninth overall in the #18 Black Falcon Mercedes.
The leading #23 Nissan pitted on lap 115 so Chiyo could hand back over to Reip. Palttala in the #46 Marc VDS BMW, Dusseldorp in the #99 ROWE Mercedes and Venturini in the #63 Lamborghini left it a little later to stop – Palttala coming in on lap 118 to hand over to Luhr once again and Venturini stopping on the same lap to give the car to Zaugg. Dusseldorp completed the cycle on lap 121 in the Mercedes, handing to Daniel Juncadella for the final portion of the race.
When the field came around again, Reip had 10 seconds in hand over Kane, with the #20 ASP Ferrari having once again inserted itself into the top of the field by dint of running out of sequence with the others. Luhr was fourth for Marc VDS, ahead of Juncadella and Pro-Am leader Bonacini in the Kessel Ferrari. Shulzhitskiy was eight seconds behind the Spaniard, with Zaugg’s Lamborghini having re-emerged in eighth.
The action in Pro and Pro-Am meant there was little time to keep up with the Am Cup battle, currently being led by the championship-leading #25 Glorax Ferrari heading the #78 Team Russia By Barwell BMW by 30-odd seconds on lap 129 and the #15 Boutsen Ginion BMW a fair way back in third.
There was a twist in the Pro-Am battle with just under an hour and 20 minutes to go as the #18 Mercedes was called in for drive-through due to one of its drivers exceeding the maximum 65-minute stint time applied for six-hour Blancpain races.
Meanwhile in Pro, Kane in the chasing #7 Bentley tapped the lapped #75 Audi of Marco Bonanomi into a spin, the slight time loss as he backed off manifesting itself in the gap to leader Reip, which was now 17 seconds. Elsewhere, Luhr moved the Marc VDS BMW back into third when the out-of-place #20 Ferrari made its latest pitstop on lap 133 – the driving-time limit meaning it will have to stop again in the closing minutes of the race.
With Reip controlling the gap to Kane, the big question mark heading into the final hour of the race was whether the #7 Bentley would take a penalty for the contact with the ISR Audi.
Stephen Errity
