Communiqué n°6 - Saturday 12/6/99 - 20h00

After only 2 hr 18 mns 30 secs, the leaders had already covered 500 kms and the battle continued between the no.2 Toyota and the no.17 BMW which had swapped places twice.
Six cars were still on the same lap after 4 hours racing.
Audi ran into fresh problems and no.7 was immobilised at its pit for a gearbox change and the replacement of a damaged diffuser while the coupé driven by Ortelli-Johansson-Abt stopped at the entry to Les Hunaudières.
The Terada-Fréon-Donovan Autoexe was stopped out on the track with a clutch problem.Once the clutch cooled he managed to bring the car back to the pits. The Ferrari was back in the race after changing its gearbox in 52 minutes. Henri Pescarolo's Courage-Porsche lost 4 minutes due to an accelerator problem. The brakes pads were changed on the Kremer Lola in 15 minutes.
In the LM GTS Category the first retirement was officialised and the unhappy victim was the no.50 Porsche entered by Freisinger Motorsport. In this category the Oreca Vipers had a much better start to the race than in 1998 and filled the first 3 places. The no.57 Viper of Chamberlain Racing lost over an hour as the sump had to be changed on its V10 engine.
The no.65 Porsche of Chereau Racing and the Estoril entry both lost 30 minutes due to electronic problems and an oil leak respectively. The gearbox change on the Rook 911 GT2 no.62 cost it over an hour.