Press Release N° 12
21.00 to 22.00

The Audis : the leading trio
Saturday, June 16th, 2001
Rain seems to definitively have settled over the Le Mans race track. But for the first time since the beginning of the race, incidents and withdrawals are getting fewer and further between.

The climatic conditions are still difficult although the night is falling. Two British cars have withdrawn. Indeed, the withdrawal of the n°7 Bentley has been confirmed. The team hoped at one point to manage to get the car back to the pits, but it was in vain. The other confirmed withdrawal is the n°34 MG's, because of oil pressure problems.
We knew that the reliability would cause problems to the British team, but we also knew that the performance was there. With their n°33 LMP 675, MG has achieved a comparable performance to some of the LMP 900s, such as the Chrysler or the Cadillac!. Mark Blundell was in 8th position for a long time, before he had to stop at the pits because of an ignition problem. It's 22.00, he is in 10th position and has just lost his leading position in that class to team Roc Auto's n°38 Reynard.
The two Audis are leading the race, with a difference of one lap between them. The German cars seem just as comfortable on wet as they do on dry. The two official cars respect the initial team indications and are going at the same speed, thereby providing equivalent timing.
The Courage Pescarolo is losing time because of a spin by Laurent Redon in the Dunlop chicane, but the Frenchman was able to resume racing. The same goes for Vanina Ickx, who has lost control of her n°55 Viper on two occasions in the Tertre-Rouge curve.
Stephane Sarrazin has also made a mistake, but without any notable consequences. He can therefore let Yannick Dalmas drive the n°15 Chrysler. The Frenchman's experience can be useful to the Oreca team in these conditions.
The Dome, which were so impressive during the practice sessions, are now greatly overlapped. At 22.00, the n°9 is 25th at 12 laps, whereas the n°10 is once again in the pits.
In the GTS category, the n°64 Corvette is in the lead, and it is even in 9th position in the general ranking. Also a very good performance for the n°83 Porsche: leader in the GT class, but already 14th in the main provisional classification.
The night has definitively fallen and in these conditions the visibility is poor, the drivers prefer not to take any risks and to wait for better weather.