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Le Mans 24: Peugeot 21st Hour Race Recap
At midday, with only three hours of racing remaining laps, the two front-running Peugeot 908 HDi FAPs now enjoy a cushion of seven laps after the N°1 Audi spent almost 15 minutes in its pits. The N°9 Peugeot in the hands of Gené/Wurz/Brabham continues to represent Team Peugeot Total's best chances of victory, with the N°8 sister car (Sarrazin/Montagny/Bourdais) providing rearguard support in second place. The N°7 car of Minassian/Lamy/Klien has patiently worked its way back up the order following its spate of problems in the early hours of the morning and is up to sixth overall.
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(Conditions: bright and sunny, with increasing cloud cover, and even a few drops of rain18°C 21°C)
Provisional positions at 12:00:
1, Gené/Wurz/Brabham Peugeot 908 HDi FAP (N°9) 336 laps (4579km)
2, Sarrazin/Montagny/Bourdais Peugeot 908 HDi FAP (N°8) +1m55.312s
3, Capello/Kristensen/McNish Audi R15 +7 laps
4, Charouz/Enge/Mucke Lola Aston Martin +8 laps
…6, Minassian/Lamy/Klien Peugeot 908 HDi FAP (N°7) +13 laps
Pit stops and incidents:
N°7 Peugeot 908 HDi FAP (Nicolas Minassian / Pedro Lamy / Christian Klien):
09.04: pit-stop (fuel and tyres). Klien takes over from Minassian.
09.37: pit-stop (fuel)
10.28: pit-stop (fuel)
11.11. pit-stop (fuel and tyres). Lamy takes over from Klien
11.54: pit-stop (fuel)
N°8 Peugeot 908 HDi FAP (Stéphane Sarrazin / Franck Montagny / Sébastien Bourdais):
09.24: pit-stop (fuel)
09.40: pit-stop (fuel and tyres)
10.33: pit-stop (fuel)
11.19: pit-stop (fuel)
11.59: pit-stop (fuel and tyres). Bourdais takes over from Sarrazin
N°9 Peugeot 908 HDi FAP (Marc Gene / Alexander Wurz / David Brabham):
09.09: pit-stop (fuel and tyres). Wurz takes over from Brabham.
09.44: pit-stop (fuel and tyres)
10.32: pit-stop (fuel)
11.14: pit-stop (fuel)
11.58: pit-stop (fuel and tyres). Gené takes over from Wurz
Observations:
The early morning picture essentially continues, with the N°9 and N°8 Peugeot 908 HDi FAPs still running first and second at the top of the order, and the N°7 car figuring just inside the top-10 as its drivers evaluate various solutions with a view to helping the two front-runners. Slowly but surely it picks its way up the leaderboard and is sixth at midday.
At 9.20am, the leading car (Peugeot N°9) reaches the 4000km mark (293 laps) Another crash (Aston Martin) at 9.36am prompts another safety car period and a round of unscheduled pitstops to make full use of the neutralisation. Green flags are shown again at 9.53am, and battle resumes. The gap behind the top three (two Peugeots and chasing Audi) seems to have stabilized at around the 1m40s/1m50s mark, when the rumour breaks that rain is expected at around 11am…
Shortly before this time, at 10.45, the N°1 Audi passes the N°8 Peugeot to 'un-lap' itself. Three minutes later, rain is announced at Tertre Rouge and teams begin to prepare rain tyres, just in case.
As the tension mounts, Sarrazin puts in a "quintuple" (4,5) stint in the N°8 car.
Two unscheduled pit-stops (one very long) totalling almost a quarter of an hour for the N°1 Audi in the halfhours before midday will have taken some of the pressure off the two leading Peugeots.
Quotes:
David Brabham (N°9 Peugeot 908 HDi FAP): "I basically just did what I was told to do, i.e. save the car, keep to a given pace and keep it clean. All the way from the start we've essentially stuck to a given plan."
Nicolas Minassian (N°7 Peugeot 908 HDi FAP): "My team-mates and I were obviously cruelly disappointment when our car was hit and we dropped out of contention very early on. But that's behind us, and our car is now essentially a laboratory car, validating solutions that might help the other two Peugeots. That's actually quite stimulating. It's true that I posted some quick times earlier this morning, but I've just been trying to keep to my own pace. It's my way of staying focused. Whenever I think that the team might just win this, it brings me out in goose pimples…"
Christian Klien (N°7 Peugeot 908 HDi FAP): "That wasn't a bad stint, and the balance of the N°7 car is perfect. My tyres were very consistent, too, but my windscreen was quite dirty and there were few places where there was a little rain. We need to keep up this sort of pace to the finish."
PaddockTalk Perspective
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