Andre Lotterer, who had been absolutely flying, went through to take the fastest lap of the race in 3:22.881. Lotterer then unlapped himself, passing Kristensen on the straight run after Arnage, and was now on the same lap as the second placed Porsche; Timo Bernhard’s lap times several seconds off those of his countryman, who underlined this by setting yet another fastest sector 1 time of the race.
Pegasus Racing’s Morgan Nissan found itself back in the pits again.
Jann Mardenborough reports the problem with the 35 car was a general lack of power and a fractured rear brake disc as a secondary issue. There seemed no immediate solution but the car did rejoin after a fairly brief spell in its garage, hanging on to second place in P2.
GT-Pro leader Bruni hands the car over to Toni Vilander, the Ferrari maintaining a 2 laps advantage over the second place Porsche, now taken over by Richard Lietz.
The #27 SMP Racing Oreca found itself back in the pits again, having been running tenth in P2 the activity of the mechanics focused on the suspension components in fairly frantic fashion.
Having had a fairly clear run, the Dempsey Racing Porsche was rolled into the garage from sixth in class, the car having run just outside the podium positions throughout the night.
Darren Turner was pushing the #97 Aston Martin as Vilander’s Ferrari threatened to put the Gulf liveried car a further lap down. This was confirmed as the Aston pitted, the car looking a little smokey at the front, but being sent out after a re-fuel.
Christian Klien’s Morand Racing Morgan Judd picked up a stop/go penalty for pitlane speeding, losing its sixth place to Franck Mailleux in the #34 Oreca.
Overall leader then pitted for fuel only, Kristensen still at the wheel, one lap clear of the #20 Porsche with four hours to go.
ML
