The opening laps of the 22nd hour of the race saw a continuation of the few close battles out on track that were left. The scrap over fourth place overall was as close as before, with the #2 WRT Audi and #26 Vita4one BMW swapping places because of different pit strategies. It was the same story too for the lead in Pro Am with Griffin in the 59 AF Corse 458 and the #71 SMP Ferrari of Mika Salo.
Whilst there there were battles to savour there were plenty of other cars in self preservation mode with plenty of dirty, damaged and sluggish looking cars still circulating the circuit.
There was further disruption to the weekend for the #69 Gulf Racing Mclaren. After an already incident packed 21 hours for the team, they were handed a stop and go penalty for passing the red light at the pit exit.
Another Mclaren in trouble during the hour was the Von Ryan car, which was shown in the garage being looked at by mechanics as it continued to slip down the order – It would though rejoin after a relatively short delay.
It was Christopher Mies that gave us the move of the hour with a a textbook pass as he finally closed the gap on the Vita4one BMW on track and passed it on the outside at Piff-Paff taking fourth place overall giving us an overall top 5 as: Mercedes, Porsche, Ferrari, Audi, BMW – a picture of variety, which makes this series and this race so popular with GT fans.
The Pro Am lead battle by the end of the hour saw just 17 seconds separating the #71 of Salo and the #59 of Griffin. Griffin however received a warning for not respecting track limits – obviously pushing so very hard to try and win the class for his team.
Class standings at end of the hour
Pro
1 – #84 HTP Motorsport Mercedes – 514 laps
2 – #150 Manthey Racing Porsche
3 – #44 Kessel Racing Ferrari
Pro Am
1 – #71 SMP Motorsport Ferrari (7th overall)
2 – #59 AF Corse Ferrari (8th overall)
3 – #35 RJN Motorsport Nissan (9th overall)
Gentlemen Trophy
1 – #20 Sofrev ASP Ferrari (15th overall)
2 – #52 Sport Garage Ferrari (20th overall)
3 – #111 Kessel Racing Ferrari (21st overall)
Stephen Kilbey
