1547: Strauss was pulled out of the gravel and gets back to the pits to hand the #80 Nissan over to Nick McMillen for the final double stint.
1549: Henry Hassid gets ready to take over from Catsburg. Seems likely the Frenchman will do an hour or so in the #12 BMW and Catsburg will then take the Z4 to the flag. Front-right brake is smoking heavily as the car takes on fuel.
1553: Out-of-sequence Haupt still leads in the #19 Mercedes, but second-place Laurens Vanthoor is the effective P1 man in the #1 Audi. Realistically, he just needs to keep out of trouble for the next hour and 50 minutes and the title will be his. The same is true of sixth-place Stefano Gai, who’ll win Pro-Am with co-driver Andrea Rizzoli from their current position.
1555: The weather has improved a bit, with the rain easing off and visibility increasing. Soucek is now back ahead of Afanasiev after a better pitstop by the ART crew.
1558: Haupt makes his late stop – Abdulaziz Al-Faisal will take the car to the finish, while Vanthoor moves into the lead on track. Afanasiev is third ahead of the top three Pro-Am runners, while Soucek has made an unscheduled extra stop in the #99 McLaren and dropped to seventh.
1604: #11 Pro-Am class Kessel Racing Ferrari of Alessandro Bonacini comes to a halt trackside, having been running just outside the top 20 overall.
1610: A moment of drama as the #90 Pro Am points-leading Ferrari goes off track and rejoins in the hands of Thomas Kemenater (who isn’t in contention for the title). But he rejoins without damage.
1623: The gaps at the front with less than 90 minutes remaining: Vanthoor leads, then +49s to Al-Faisal, +51s to Afanasiev, then +1m37s to Hassid and +1m38 to Soucek. Everyone else is a lap down.
1625: Cars are moving off-line on the start-finish straight to keep their wet tyres cool. A change to slicks may well be necessary before the end. Most drivers will probably try to time this for their final routine stop.
1630: A roll of the dice from ART Grand Prix as Soucek pits for slick tyres. McMillen does the same in the #80 Nissan – but it seems ART went too early, as Soucek spins and hits the barrier within a few corners. It hasn’t worked out for McMillen either – he gets a drive-through for speeding in the pit lane.
1635: A big off at T6 for the #25 Gentlemen Trophy Audi of Claude-Yves Gosselin. He’s out of the car, but that’s race over for the French squad.
1639: Approaching the final hour. This hasn’t been the most thrilling race, but not without a few moments of excitement. Outside, the rain has started up again, eliminating the dry line that had begun to appear.
SE
