LMP
The second hour began with the sight on the monitors of Lapierre overtaking a trio of GT cars flat-out along the Mulsanne … but on the hard shoulder! The #9 Toyota looked dangerously ragged on the loose stuff, skipping fore-and aft as he headed up the inside, the car getting airborne as car caught the hillocks in the uneven tarmac. Fighting to keep control, he must have been mightily relived when he regained the track, cleanly ahead of the gaggle of Ferraris and Porsches.
After the frenetic give-and-take of the opening hour, it was almost a relief to see some degree of settling-down in LMP1. Conway and Buemi were tied together at the front, with Jani’s #1 Porsche now five seconds back in third, with Bernhard a further twenty seconds off in the #2 Porsche. Lapierre’s #9 Toyota was trailing over a minute away, clearly running its own more leisurely but, perhaps, ultimately less stressful pace. Toyota appeared to have the luxury of being able to send off two hares, comfortable in the reassurance of having a tortoise bringing up the rear … and we all know what happened in that story.
As if to add a moments reality check, Buemi overcooked it at Mulsanne Corner as the hour approached half distance, giving away a couple of seconds to Conway. Then, keen to regain that lost ground, or not give away more, Buemi took a very aggressive line around the outside of the limping G-Drive Oreca to avoid being held up at the pits entrance. That this happened in what was, technically, part of the pit lane could yet draw stewards attention.
The second hour in LMP2 saw Senna pits at the end of his 18th lap from the class lead, first of what would be a routine second round of stops. Vergne stayed out longer, the net result being that the #24 moved through into the lead.
At just after four-fifteen Rusinov made glancing contact with the #88 GTE AM Porsche as the two cars negotiated the Porsche Curves. The G-Drive prototype was carrying huge speed into the corner and giving no quarter to the slower car. Both were pitched into the barriers at high speed. The Porsche sustained the most obvious damage, with the front-end heavily stoved-in, and panels hanging off all corners of the car. Miraculously, Al Quabesi managed to limp the Porsche back to the pitlane, the front-left wheel locked and smoking, bits of body panel festooned loosly around the shell like decorations on a Christmas tree.
At first sight the G-Drive Oreac didn’t look to have fared so badly, but Rusinov was next seen pulled across to one side, and out of the car, peering under the rear-right of the orange Oreca. The car had glanced the rear corner heavily onto the concrete wall, and given the car’s lop-sided attitude, something was clearly out of kilter and rear suspension damage seemed the obvious cause. Initially, the marshals hauled the car out of harm’s way, but eventually Rusinov was able to limp the car to the pits, narrowly missing being hit by Beumi, with the damage now even more evident. Forty minutes later unofficial confirmation came through that the car had been retired.
This was effectively the second official retirement of the race, with the ByKolles ENSO CLM LMP1 being the first to fade to grey on the timing screens. After a much stronger showing in qualifying this was hugely disappointing for the team, the car having not even managed a single racing lap.
Just after the half-hour The next cycle of stops began in LMP1, with Buemi pitting first from second, so the order at this stage had the #7 leading, still with Conway at the wheel, with Buemi second, Jani third for Porsche, Bernhard fourth and Lapierre a distant fifth in the thiord of the Toyotas.
Bruno Senna, meanwhile, was establishing a sound lead over Nelson Piquet Jr in LMP2, the #31 Vaillante Rebellion enjoying a 25 second lead and lapping regularly in the 4:06’s. Ollie Jarvis was closing on the Brazilian however, and it wouldn’t be long before the #38 Jackie Chan DC Racing car had moved to within a second of the tail of the Rebellion Oreca. Then, in an impressive display, the former Audi works driver threw down a 4:05.509 to steal the position. Petrov held third for Manor.
At twelve minutes before the end of the second hour the top three entered the next round of scheduled stops, and ten minutes later the LMP2 field did likewise, this being the third round of scheduled refuels for the LMP2 field, and in most cases, driver changes were effected.
Nicolas Prost took over the #31 Vaillante Rebellion, and the lead, but was being chased by Matthias Beche in the sister car #13 from Thomas Laurent in the #38 Jackie Chan car. Having had a relatively safe midfield run from the start, the sister #37 car began to figure as Alex Brundle set best sector times for theJackie Chan Oreca, improving the car to fifth in class, trailing Jean-Eric Vergne, who had stayed aboard in the #24 Manor, and rounding out the top ten overall and completing Hour 2.
GTE
A left-rear puncture for the #77 Proton Porsche (GTE Am) kicked off the second hour of GT action, which also saw Rees in the Larbre Corvette clawing back some of the track positions he’d lost due to the car’s slow first pitstop, getting back up to second in GTE Am by 10 minutes in. The car was now out of sequence and stopped to let Romain Brandela take the wheel.
There was also action in GTE Pro as Estre in the #92 Porsche, holding third in class, came under sustained attack from polesitter Pier Guidi in the #51 Ferrari. Mucke in the #66 Ford meanwhile made an unscheduled second pitstop due to a slow puncture, handing the car to Pla.
Proton Competition’s race in GTE Am then went from bad to worse as the #88 911 with Khaled Al-Qubaisi at the wheel was hit by the #26 G-Drive LMP2 on the way out of the Porsche Curves, unsurprisingly bringing out the yellows and making the area a slow zone. Antonia Garcia in the #63 Corvette reacted with a pitstop, handing the wheel of the car to Magnussen.
The badly damaged #88 was just about able to make it back to the pits under its own power, immediately being backed into the garage for repairs. However evaluation by the team revealed it was too badly damaged to continue, meaning Al-Qubaisi, Stephane Lemeret and Klaus Bachler’s Le Mans was sadly over.
Thiim and Turner’s Astons (with about six seconds between them) continued to lead GTE Pro with 90 minutes done, with the #51 and #71 Ferraris formation flying in third and fourth, just ahead of Westbrook in the #69 Ford and Estre in the #92 Porsche, who soon pitted for a scheduled stop.
Westbrook then got between the Ferraris on the run down to Indianapolis, while behind the Vilander in the Risi Ferrari did Gavin in the #64 Corvette into one of the chicanes just before the second cycle of GTE Pro pitstops began. However, the stop of the #69 saw mechanics having to change the tail section due to a faulty brake light.
With those stops largely complete, the order in the two classes at 5pm was as follows:
GTE Pro
1 #95 Aston
2 #66 Ford
3 #92 Porsche
4 #97 Aston
5 #63 Corvette
6 #51 Ferrari
GTE Am
1 #62 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari
2 #98 AMR Aston
3 #90 TF Aston
4 #84 JMW Ferrari
5 #55 SoR Ferrari
6 #99 Beechdean Aston
