April - June
Porsche 911 RSR still in the top groupSports Car World Championship WEC, round 3, Le Mans 24 Hours/France - GT
Stuttgart. The
When a heavy rainshower set in at 5.30pm and water lay on many parts of the 13.629 kilometre Circuit des 24 Heures, the
The best-placed
Drivers comments
Frédéric Makowiecki (911 RSR, #92): “The start of the race was difficult. At first things went smoothly but then I lost a little time. Not a lot, but I couldn’t maintain the pace of the leaders. When rain set in the passage near Tertre Rouge was like a lake. I saw the Toyota in my rear vision mirror approaching really fast and wanted to swerve to the right to make some room. But water was lying there as well and my car began to fishtail and touched the barriers. Luckily the car is virtually undamaged.”
Patrick Pilet (911 RSR #91): “The car’s not easy to drive in the dry, the tyres didn’t have a lot of grip. When the rain started we had a good strategy. I talked a lot with the pit crew and we decided to stay out. The problem was that I didn’t have enough fuel. If I could have stayed out for two more laps I could have changed directly to wet tyres. But I had to pit again shortly afterwards. The speed of the Aston and Ferrari on the straights is incredible. But it’s early yet and we’ve just got a little taste of what can happen. We’re going well.”
Patrick Long (911 RSR # 77): “That was an eventful first stint. Unlike several of the others, we didn’t fly off the track so that was lucky. Our tyres were great, we stayed out for three and a half hours on one set of rubber.”
Klaus Bachler (911 RSR, #88): “Things went really well in the beginning. I tried to keep out of trouble and I succeeded. I tried as best I could to conserve the tyres over my double stint and because of this I was a little off the pace.”
Status after 5 hours
GTE-Pro class
1. Gavin/Milner/Westbrook (GB/USA/GB), Chevrolet Corvette, 61 laps
2. Bruni/Vilander/Fisichella (I/SF/I), Ferrari 458 Italia, 61
3. Turner/Mücke/Senna (GB/D/BRA), Aston Martin Vantage, 61
4. Bergmeister/Pilet/Tandy (D/F/GB),
5. Holzer/Makowiecki/Lietz (D/F/A),
6. Magnussen/Garcia/Taylor (DK/E/USA), Chevrolet Corvette, 61
GTE-Am class
1. Dalla Lana/Lamy/Nygaard (CAN/P/DK), Aston Martin, 61 laps
2. Mowlem/Hamilton/Patterson (GB/GB/USA), Ferrari 458 Italia, 60
3. Bertolini/Shaitar/Basov (I/RUS/RUS), Ferrari 458 Italia, 60
4. Poulsen/Heinemeier-Hansson/Thiim (DK/DK/DK), Aston Martin, 60
5. Dempsey/Foster/Long (USA/USA/USA),
6. Ried/Bachler/Al Qubaisi (D/A/UAE),
Please note: Photo and video material of the Le Mans 24 Hours and the Sports Car World Endurance Championship WEC are available for accredited journalists from the
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14.06.2014