Car 48:

Currently Running: 17th in class

Lap: 71

Sadly, the first reports from Le Mans will be dominated by the news that Danish racer Allan Simonsen died shortly after crashing on lap four of the race. The GTE-Am Aston Martin racer was 34.

The crash meant a lengthy clean-up operation, and when the Safety Car went in, Toyota attempted to sustain their early charge, but could not sustain the pace of Audi, with defending winners Andre Lotterer/ Benoit Treluyer/ Marcel Fassler out in front.

In LMP2, the Oak Racing no. 24 has been dominant in the hands of Olivier Pla/ Alex Brundle/David Heinemeir-Hansson with team-mates Bertrand Baguette/ Martin Plowman/ Ricardo Gonzaelz running second, while the GT battle has ebbed and flowed between Aston Martin and Porsche, with Darren Turner/ Stefan Mucke/ Peter Dumbreck, Marc Lieb/ Romain Dumas/ Richard Leitz and Rob Bell/ Fred Makowiecki/ Bruno Senna the protagonists in the early stages

For Murphy Prototypes, a problem with a faulty sensor meant an earlier-than-scheduled pit stop for Brendon Hartley, who had started the race for us. He was followed by Mark Patterson – who had a short trip over the gravel early on – and third up was Karun Chandhok who is currently out on track.

Greg Murphy Team Principal (IRL) : “This is Le Mans, we had a problem with the fuel pressure sensor. Oreca were very keen for us to change the ECU to solve the problem, we did that and its dropped us back in the field. But as we know there’s a long way to go.

Brendon Hartley (NZL) : It was a bit of a shame, we’ve had a fuel pressure issue form lap one. I came in and we changed the ECU we lost almost a lap from that. Clearly we are losing straight line speed and we are using up too much fuel, there’s some kind of issue with the engine. Conditions are very tricky out there from one lap to the next. I didn’t take any risk during my stint and its now just about bringing it home to the end of the race.

Source : Murphy Prototypes