Audi Toyota battle tightens 14.5 hours into Le Mans 24 Hours race

Driving tirelessly in the wee hours of the morning at circuit La Sarthe the No. 1 Audi R18 etron quattro driven by Lotterer entered the pit lane for a driver and tyre change, when engineers detected a problem with the windshield wipers or a crank sensor failure, which compelled them to take the car back into the garage for a more thorough check up losing one position to the LMP1 competition. Shortly after the Audi ‘s leading No.2 car driven by Duval and Buemi’s No.8 Toyota also made their scheduled stops with little intervention required.

The #1 Audi had dropped back to 21st position earlier in the race after a long repair break due to an alternator failure. At half time of the 90th anniversary Le Mans edition André Lotterer was already back up to ninth place. Oliver Jarvis was still racing in fourth position.

Martin Plowman in his Morgan Nissan for Oak Racing leads the LMP2 category with an overall 9th position a lap behind Audi’s Lotterer. India’s Karun Chandhok in his Oreca Nissan for Murphy Prototypes  is in 11th place in the LMP2 class and 21st overall. A no.93 SRT Viper that crashed out at a gravel trap at the end of the Mulsanne straight was towed away from the circuit. There have been six retirements so far for reasons ranging from eletrcial failures, vibrations and in some cases a crash, most fatal of which occured very early in the race when Allan Simonsen racing for Aston Martin crashed into the barriers and lost his life due to sustained injuries.

With the thundering sound of the race cars and some strong black coffee to keep them awake and alert the engineers continue to communicate with drivers for any crucial information regarding the performance of the car as they push harder and harder to better lap times and in doing so improve their overall position. 

Positions after 14.5 hours: 1 Audi #2 2 Toyota #8 -1L 3 Toyota #7 -2L 4 Audi #3 -2L 5 Lola-Toyota #13 -5L