Press Release N° 9
18.00 to 19.00

The rain causes turmoil
Saturday, June 16th, 2001
After a relatively calm period in the weather and on the track, things became eventful towards the end of the hour.

Ni Amorim, at the wheel of the n°14 Chrysler from Viper team Oreca, and Jamie Davies, at the wheel of the n°11 Panoz, both experienced a slight hold-up near Tertre-Rouge. The two spins fortunately ended without any damage being caused  to either car.
In GTS, the French clan are having mixed lock. While Christophe Bouchut returned to the track after serious repairs on the n°58 Viper from Larbre Competition, the future is less certain for the n°57 FFSA Viper. Christophe Lecomte explains: "It's almost 100% certain that we'll have to withdraw the car now. It's a real shame, but it's much more serious than we at first thought. After examining it, it doesn't seem possible to get the car back in the race without compromising safety, so...".
After leading for a while, Paul Belmondo Racing's Viper n°55, with Vanina Ickx at the wheel, had to go back to the pits because of a starter motor problem. The Belgian driver was philosophical about it : " It's an encouraging beginning, and there's still a long way to go".
One had to wait for the 37th lap to see the two Audis in the lead. Indeed, thanks to a fair attack from Biela over Brundle, the Audi n°1 could settle in 2nd position behind Aiello's n°2.
As the rain started to fall hard again, Laurent Aiello went back to the pits and was unable to brake on time. He damaged the refuelling systems for Audis n°3 and n°4.  Audi n°1's mechanics were in for a good fright too, as they were standing in the pit lane waiting for their car as well. Fortunately, they managed to leap out of the way just in time, and only sustained minor bruising.
Tom Kristensen and Rinaldo Capello took the stint instead of Franck Biela and Laurent Aiello, who had been driving since the beginning of the race.
The small protos encountered their share of trouble too, with the Lola Nissan n°32 and WR n°30 going into spins, and brake pad problems for the MG n°34.
The rain and the sudden change of grip on the track obliged the pace cars to intervene once again.