It wasn’t just in P1 that the times were coming down. Michael Krumm posted a 3:42.8 in the #42 Greaves Zytek just before pitting at the start of the seventh hour, but John Martin then posted a 3:41.882 – the quickest time in the class so far in the race.
With eight pitstops completed apiece, the three Audis continued to head the race – Benoît Tréluyer leading in the #1 from Loïc Duval in #2 and Oliver Jarvis then in the #3. Less than two minutes covered this trio, while the nearest Toyota – the #8 of Sébastien Buemi – was on the same lap but some way adrift.
Archie Hamilton pitted the #25 AMR Delta Oreca in the previous hour and went into the garage. “We had a split hose on the gear system, which caused an air pressure issue, meaning the car couldn’t change gear,” said Team Manager Simon Dowson. “We had the issue earlier, and fixed it by hand, but as you can see it didn’t work.”
“We put new lines in this time, so it should hold up better.”
The leader pitted for the ninth time after 98 laps, but seemed to have trouble getting away again. The car eventually got going under its own steam, but stuttered a little before finally getting under way – the delay possibly cost the car 30 seconds.
The #3 Audi then suffered a puncture just minutes after the hiccup with the #1 car. Jarvis stopped the car at the Dunlop Bridge for a handful of seconds before slowly pulling away, revealing a completely delaminated tyre.
The rear wasn’t damaged enough to warrant any replacement bodywork when the car came in, but the team did decide the change driver though. Jarvis got out after a mighty job of getting the car back to the pits with the puncture, and handed over to Marc Gené for his first stint.
The #1 came back into the pits a lap later for a tyre change, but it was then wheeled back into the garage just three laps after the car’s last stop. The mechanics searched around the rear of the car, and it became immediately obvious that this was not going to be a quick fix – Wolfgang Ullrich telling the assembled media that it was an electrical generator issue, believed to be a linked to the hybrid system. The team changed the alternator.
All this promoted the #7 to second place with the sister car in third.
Jann Mardenborough would distract us from the drama at the front, with an attempt to use a curb as a ramp at the second Mulsanne chicane after setting the best LMP2 first sector of the race. The car looked to be undamaged, but the leap certainly looked spectacular, and was masterfully ‘collected’ on the down side.
The problems in LMP1 continued almost through to the end of the hour when the #12 Rebellion Lola was wheeled back into the garage just metres short of taking a spot in the top five.
Mark Howson & Stephen Kilbey
