Press Release N° 3
22:00 to Midnight

1-2-3 - Audi secures top three slots !
Thursday, June 14th, 2001
The official Audis didn't take long before they confirmed their status as big favourite in the second have of the practice session. Dome n°9, the Chryslers and the Bentleys also made a good impression.

After the one hour break from 21:00 to 22:00, the drivers were more than willing to get back in their cars and make the most of the last few moments of daylight. Less than 15 minutes after practice had resumed, the turmoil began. First, it was Martin
Brundle in Bentley n°7 who literally planted himself in the gravel pit at Mulsanne. With help from the marshals, the British driver, who was 6th at the time, soon managed to get back on the track.
After 7 minutes, the two official Audis had already each done a fast lap. Capello's n°2's time was 3:33.514. Next, n°1, driven by Tom Kristensen, did even better with 3:32.458, which relegated last May 6's best lap during the preliminaries to the rank of distant memory.
Olivier Beretta's Chrysler n°16 also put itself in the spotlight by setting the 3rd best lap, although over 3 seconds behind the provisional pole. It wasn't long, though, before the Driver from Monaco was beaten by Jan Lammers, who was in great shape with his Dome n°9. Racing for Holland are by now the «best of the rest", the best car behind the Audis. Indeed, in between, privateer Ralf Kelleners has completed the Audi trio and moved into 3rd place with 3:34.349.
Ron Fellows also tried to improve his time but went over the top. The Canadian damaged the rear of his Corvette n°63 on the piles of tyres on the Michelin chicane. Meanwhile, the MG saga went on. N°34 was slow on the Hunaudières, before it stopped 20 minutes later at Mulsanne, due to a problem with the fuel pressure. During that time, n°33 was a bit more lucky. Mark Blundell's car, which had done only one lap during the first two-hour session, finally began to clock up some miles, and lapped in 3:42.476, 4 tenths behind the other MG. No doubt about it, the two British "lightweights" are the fastest in their class (LMP675), but reliability just isn't there.
After 45 minutes, things became less hectic. The drivers began to set more homogenous lap-times than before, not necessarily trying to improve on the best laps. But the Playstation chicane was there to remind everyone that night-time at Le Mans isn't always simple and fun : many a car went straight on, spun, or braked a bit late there.
Team Freisinger Motorsport's Porsche n°77 got it's own share of problems. First of all, the engine broke, forcing the mechanics to change it, which they did in a record time : the gearbox was replaced too, all in under an hour !. But moments after having resumed practise, young American driver Gunnar Jeannette was slow on the Hunaudières.
The last hour of the session was very calm. Most of the drivers were trying to tune the car just right for the race. Team Pescarolo apparently had balancing  trouble with their Courage-Peugeot, but the local team hopes to be as good tomorrow as they were during preliminaries. At Cadillac's, the aim was to lap in 3:36. They have achieved that yet, though, since they are in 11th and 12th place with 3:39. Another deception came from team Johansson's Audi, which was only 8th, 5 seconds behind the best time. We now expect a reaction from the Suedish driver and, why not, a response from Bentley.