Press Release N° 8
17.00 to 18.00

Audi afloat again
Saturday, June 16th, 2001
Things are getting very hectic in the lead!. Just like the first hour of the race, three different cars swapped places to claim the lead. But in the 22nd lap, Biela's Audi n°1 took the first place again.

Martin Brundle's Bentley n°7 couldn't hold out against Franck Biela's Audi n°1. At the entrance of the Michelin turn, last year's winner took the first position, which had been occupied until then by the British leader. On the whole, the Audis have made a nice recovery, as Aiello's n°2 came back into 3rd position, followed by Kelleners' Audi-Champion Racing.
Behind, the Chrysler Viper Team Oreca's succeeded in keeping their positions, two minutes behind the leaders, with Olivier Beretta and Yannick Dalmas in the 5th and 6th positions.
Although Panoz n°11 was able temporarily to keep the lead of the race, mostly thanks to the awful weather at the beginning of the race, Klaus Graf could not compete for very long against Audi n°1 and Bentley n°7, which lapped 15 seconds faster. Unfortunately, the car from Atlanta lost its left front wheel in the 25th lap, and was relegated to 22nd place. And coincidentally, a little while earlier, the other Panoz, n°12, had lost exactly the same wheel.
In the Courage camp, only Sébastien Bourdais in the n°17 are still in the top ten, whereas the other Pescarolo Sport is 42nd. Philippe Gache's SMG is in 38th place. Another disappointment : Racing for Holland's Dome n°9 hasn't managed to catch up with the fastest and is still in 39th place.
In LMP 675, MG n°33 made a brief appearance in 3rd place before moving down into 15th position, following a pitstop due to a brake problem. Yet, after his stint, Mark Blundell seemed quite happy with his car. Didier de Radigues' Reynard Team Barbour n°36 has done nicely up till now, and is 8th in the main provisional classification, after two hour's race.
Weather-wise, it wouldn't be surprising if it started raining again very soon.