Release n°11 - Sunday 08h00 - 10h00

The no.29 Toyota and the no.26 Porsche battle it out at Grand Prix speeds !

The gaps between the first three cars never varied by more than a minute with four hours to go. Thus, in spite of the problems met during the night the no.29 Toyota of Boutsen-Kelleners-Lees and the two works Porsches no.26 in the hands of McNish-Aielllo-Ortelli leading the no.25 of Muller-Alzen-Wollek were locked in combat and the two leading cars exchanged first place as refuelling stops intervened.
At 08h00 the Japanese car was in front and between 08h45 and 09h00 it was back in second! Then Boutsen did some double stints to get back to the front but 40 minutes later he had to relinquish the leadership which he regained at 10h00. The pace had nothing to envy a grand prix and the steady and reliable Nissans, with no.30 in fourth place ahead of no.35, were awaiting an upset as they were obviously not quick enough to mix it up front...
The no.45 Panoz moved up the field slowly and was in eighth place in the early morning ahead of the no. 12 Ferrari of Taylor-Van de Poele leading the LMP1 Category. Up to sixth was the no.40 McLaren. The K8 Kremer of Augusta-Copelli-Pompidou was second in LMP1 ahed of the Terada-Freon-Thévenin Courage Porsche, the Grouilllard-Pescarolo-Montagny C36 and the no.3 Ferrari !.
The leading GT2, the Viper of Bell-Donahue-Drudi was up to 11th overall, and its direct challenger was the no.64 Roock Racing Porsche 911 GT2 ahead of the other Oreca Viper of Beretta-Lamy-Archer in 16th place.
At 10h00 there were still 26 cars running as the latest retirement: was the Courage-Nissan no.13. The no.27 Toyota was lapping as quickly as the leaders in spite of being 24 laps behind.