Audi number two of Tom Kristensen/Allan McNish Loic Duval leads after 8 hours, capitalising on engine problems for the dominant number one car of Benoit Treluyer/Andre Lotterer/Marcel Fassler, which dropped them several laps down. It got worse for Audi, as a puncture for the third Audi of Oliver Jarvis/Marc Gene/Lucas di Grassi elevated the Toyotas to podium positions and within striking distance of the leader.
Bertrand Baguette/ Martin Plowman/ Ricardo Gonzalez hold the P2 lead after a spin for team-mate David Heinemeier-Hansson, with G-Drive’s John Martin/ Mike Conway/ Roman Rusinov second. After a brilliant stint by Fred Makowiecki, Bruno Senna is the top GTE runner, with Paolo Ruberti at the head of the GTE-Am pack.
Murphy Prototypes suffered more bad luck when a GT Porsche nudged Mark Patterson into the gravel, and a safety car for debris meant the no. 48 was held at the end of the pitlane at the start of Karun Chandhok’s first stint. Thereafter, Chandhok lapped as quickly as the leaders and caught up to the HVM-Status Lola before handing back to Patterson.
Brendon Hartley (NZL) : “I drove really well in the beginning, but we had a fuel pressure problem from the word go, and I was losing around 5kph on the straight, which around here is about a second and a half on the stopwatch. Pace is good, Karun showed that now the problem has been rectified. The good news is we have a quick car, the bad news is that we’re almost five laps down. But the fault is fixed, we’re P27, but we’re going to move up if we stay consistent – let’s see if we can salvage a result. Morale is high, Mark’s done a good job, Karun’s done a good job. There is still a lot to play for, and we’re not even half way yet.”
Karun Chandhok (IND) : “The car is fast and that’s the frustrating thing of where we’re at. We have the pace and we have the pace of the guys in the lead, so we’re matching them lap for lap. But, we’re five laps down and you trundle along and we’ll see what happens at the end.”
Greg Murphy Team Principal (IRL) : “It’s been frustrating so far. We’ve been very quick once the car is going and Karun made the comment that the car is just brilliant when he came down the pitlane. We show we have the pace of anybody, we’ve proved that Murphy Prototypes are a top team, but the luck of the Irish has struck again. We are going to keep fighting – we have a long way to go now and Mark Patterson is putting in some great lap times. We’re chasing, but we’re going to chase to the chequered flag. We’re all fighters in our team, that’s why I picked them. We’re never going to give up, we’re frustrated and disappointed, but we’re resolute and we’re going to fight with everything we’ve got.”
Source : Murphy Prototypes