24H Le Mans, H+18 : ORECA 03 teams chasing the podium…
As the 24 Hours of Le Mans enters the final six hours, three ORECA 03 cars are currently running in the top six in the LM P2 class. Leaders in the first third of the race, the trio of Martin/Conway/Rusinov are fighting to rejoin the leading three competitors in the No. 26 G-Drive Racing by Delta-ADR. Having avoided the various traps of the Sarthe night, he ORECA 03 of Pecom Racing is also on the hunt after losing several minutes during the numerous safety car periods. Kaffer/Perez Companc/Minassian currently run in fifth place, ahead of Thiriet by TDS Racing, who were forced to service the brakes in the early morning hours.
Thanks to a very quick Brendon Hartley, who has been clocking times consistent with the leaders, Murphy Prototypes continues to move up the classification. The Irish team is in ninth place. After an off in the middle of the night that cost the team about 15 minutes, Race Performance is currently in 13 position in class behind the Alpine A450. Boutsen Ginion Racing runs in 15th position.
Reactions.
Mike Conway (G-Drive Racing by delta-ADR, ORECA 03-Nissan #26), 4th LM P2 : « The beginning of my night stint was a bit difficult : it was my first stint under those conditions and I had to get used to it and find my marks. The rest of the triple stint was quite good. As for my morning stint, it was positive. We simply lost a bit of time during one of the safety car periods, but we’re still in the fight to catch the cars ahead of us. We’re aiming for the podium and we are pushing accordingly. »
Xavier Combet (Thiriet by TDS Racing, ORECA 03-Nissan #46), 6th LM P2 : « Generally, the night went well, but it showed that we missed track time during the week after our incident on Wednesday. We were unable to work as we wanted to on the setups of the car, and it shows from the laptimes. Early this morning, we had a bit of a scare with the brakes so we decided to be safe and purge them. We found a tiny fluid leak – probably related to the rebuild of the car. Now, we will try to optimize our strategy by saving fuel. We are in sixth place, four laps from third position. We’ll see what happens in front of us. »