Press Release N° 14
23.00 to Midnight

The gap is getting smaller in the lead
Sunday, June 17th, 2001
There's a duel going on between the two leading Audis. N°2 is close on the heals of the title-holders. Behind, Sébastien Bourdais has taken an honourable 3rd place in his n°17 Courage.

Thanks to a rather longer than usual pit stop for the n°1 Audi, the n°2 Audi is only 1.775 seconds away from the holders of the title after 100 laps. The technicians decided to replace the front of the bodywork on the leading car when Emanuele Pirro stopped to let Frank Biela take over. Behind this battle between team-mates, the 3rd place was the subject of a rough dispute.
A long stop by the n°8 Bentley, which completed the virtual podium at the time, let Olivier Beretta move up into the top three. But not for long, because his Chrysler was forced to make a pit stop, for the benefit of Sébastien Bourdais.
The driver of the n°17 Courage has enabled the Henri Pescarolo team to achieve the best ranking since the beginning of the race. Changing the tensiometer didn't even penalise the French driver.
Bentley wasn't too penalized by this long stop at the pits, with only one lap to catch up on the Courage. The English car, which has experienced problems with its electronic sequential gearbox, maintains its 4th position thanks to the a prolonged pit stop by Olivier Beretta's n°16 Chrysler, due to a change of water pump. Yannick Dalmas has also benefited from his team-mate's problems to regain the 5th position.
First of the LMP 675 class and 6th position of the general ranking, the Reynard Roc Auto still hasn't finished surprising us. Nevertheless, this car has also experienced problems that have, here again, required that the water pump be changed. It is therefore closely followed by the Ascari n°20, 7th.
A change has occurred in the lead of the GTS class. Johnny O'Connell's Racing Gary Pratt n°63 Corvette has overtaken its 'sister' car, n°64, while the latter missed a bend and took a side lane, resulting in a puncture. Nevertheless, the Goodyear tyres remain very good in rainy weather, seen as both Chevrolets occupy the 9th and 10th positions.
On the other hand, Vanina Ickx experienced many misfortunes while she was trying to get her Paul Belmondo Racing's team n°55 Viper back to the pits after having spun twice. Bad luck for the team Paul Belmondo Racing seen as the other Viper was also forced to withdraw.
In the GT class, the Seikel Motor Sport's team n°83 Porsche, driven by Luca Drudi, is still in 13th position. It should be noted that the n°74 Porsche driven by Luc Alphand is still in 4th position in its class.
Finally, midnight has definitively put an end to the hopes of Philippe Gache (Courage SMG n°19) : he won't be finishing the 24 Hours of Le Mans this year, he has had to withdraw.