LeMans Hour 4: Audi leads, then Peugeot takes over

The Risi Ferrari led the GT2 category

Risi Competizione charged through the GT2 field and into the lead after four hours at the 24 Hours of Le Mans with Gianmaria Bruni holding the point in the No. 62 Ferrari F430 GT he shares with Mika Salo and Jaime Melo. The Ferrari was one of two American Le Mans Series entries to lead their classes.

At the front of the grid, Audi’s Le Mans strategy was working perfectly as the diesel-powered R10 TDI of Dindo Capello, Allan McNish and Tom Kristensen led by just over 30 seconds over the leading Peugeot 908. The Audi had made five stops through four hours compared to six for the Peugeot, enabling the R10 to take the lead in the third hour. However, by the 5th hour Peugeot was back on top.

The Audi R10 led overall for awhile but then Peugeot just drove right past them

At the 4th hour Capello led Nic Minassian by 34 seconds with Audi seeking its third straight victory with the R10 TDI and eighth since 2000. Two other Audis were on the lead lap with Alexandre Premat running fourth and Marco Werner, looking for his fourth consecutive win, in fifth place.

In addition to the overall lead, the American Le Mans Series had drivers leading the three other classes.

In LMP2, the Team Essex Porsche RS Spyder of Penske Racing’s Sascha Maassen along with Casper Elgaard and John Nielsen led by 15 seconds over the Van Merksteijn Motorsport Porsche.

The GT1 battle was as close as expected. Aston Martin Racing’s David Brabham drove the factory Aston Martin DBR9 to lead past Corvette Racing’s works Corvette C6.R of Johnny O’Connell. Entering the fifth hour, Darren Turner led Olivier Beretta in the No. 64 car by four seconds with the pole-sitting 63 another 12 seconds back with Ron Fellows at the wheel.

Back in GT2, Bruni led the Team Felbermayr-Proton Porsche 911 GT3 RSR of Wolf Henzler, who drives for Flying Lizard Motorsports in the American Le Mans Series. Bruni held the advantage by less than a minute.

Disaster struck the Lizard Porsche early nearly two hours in when Seth Neiman and the IMSA Performance Porsche of American factory driver Patrick Long made contact and sent both cars into the gravel. The Lizard entry suffered significant damage including severe bodywork damage on all sides, a broken rear wheel (and the other three badly damaged), two broken radiators and right rear suspension damage.

It took 80 minutes to get the car repaired. Jörg Bergmeister rejoined the race but was 20 laps behind Bruni.

Hour 5 Standings