Le Mans 24 Hours, Hour 9

Race Control say the Safety Car wil be out for most of this hour.

The ACO website say that Dr Wolfgang Ullrich says Mike Rockenfeller got out of the car unaided and climbed over the barriers.

We'll use the time to catch up with some paddock reaction to events so far.

Anthony Davidson

“The track isn’t is not in great condition and the car hasn’t got the best of balance, we won’t be making any adjustments so it will be like that for the whole race.  I hope the circuit improves but in my experience of this race that won’t start until the morning so it will be a tough night.  The temperature coming down isn’t playing into our hands, the tyres are fine but we just aren’t keeping them alive in terms of temperature.  We think Audi have more downforce than us.  Spa was slightly warmer and you have a higher tyre loading there so we had the upper hand there but we aren’t quite there at the moment.  Soft tyres in the night might turn the tables, but we’ll have to see.  If nothing goes wrong we can at least salvage first if not go for the win.”

Casper Elgaard

“We had a few problems in the beginning of the race, mostly engine related but we have changed a lot of stuff and the car is going well now so hopefully it will be working this way for some time.    We aren’t pushing the hybrid element 100% as everything is so new, we are trying to be safe with it, but it is working.”

Gabriel Gardel

“To be leading right now is a good thing, but the track is getting more and more difficult.  Our team mates [Porsche] are right behind us but for sure we won’t fight with them, the most important thing is to get a Larbre win.”

Sam Hancock

“The engine went in during the day on Thursday before qualifying in the evening, it was a strategic decision because we could discover any problems before the race and the crew could get more rest.  The car was perfect in qualifying until I became aware about halfway through that it was a bit rumbly on the overrun, a bit harsh and aggressive.  I thought it was the throttle blipper, we still had great power, even into the race, but that characteristic continued. 

"Chris [Buncombe] was following the Evora and smelled something and then was getting oil on his windscreen, he thought it was the Evora until he pulled out and found it was still coming, then the oil light came on.  He had to loosen his belts to peer round the oil on the screen and brought the car back really carefully but we have just found out it was a cylinder failure, so that is it, we are out.  Gutted.”

Jan Charouz

“We were hoping to get more out of the tyres than this, the car is quick but we can’t get heat into the tyres.  We lost a few laps with a puncture but we are looking quite OK now.”

Doug Fehan

“There is one particularly fast Ferrari and both BMWs are quick, as we saw from practice and qualifying, and our strategy right now is to keep both cars on the lead lap through to the morning and if we can do that it should be good for a result.  Everything is going as well as I could possibly expect at the moment, other than an issue with a tyre.”

Tracey Krohn

“There was a lot of carnage in the last stint, as the sun started to set dew started forming on the track and a lot of guys were messing up so I just had an exercise in patience and trying not to follow them off!  We are just making laps and looking after the car and it is really close at the front.  I made a little mistake coming into the pits earlier and did a bit of damage to the undertray so we need to be careful but it is great fun running against these guys in GTE Am.”

Tim Sugden

“We’re kind of doing alright, Xavier has flat-spotted a few sets of tyres which we could do without but he is just getting used to braking in this car, which is the one last thing we need to sort.  I was being really careful on the brakes but still had a few lock-ups and then on my third lap of my second stint the clutch went, which makes braking even harder, just when I was getting used to it!  I am being careful because I haven’t driven anything since January and I’ve never driven this car before.”

There have been recent problems for both BMWs, the #56 car with a misfire and now at 23:11, the sister #55 car is into the gargae with attention to the front end - the team opting to do a brake change!

Jean Christophe Boullion

"We had a bit of a vibration earlier, which we seem to have fixed now, and I’m quite happy. The handling is good, particularly through the curves. The pace car situation helped us quite a lot. It’s good to be doing these times and we can still push. OK, it’s true we are off the pace of the diesels but actually I am happy to sit at this pace , hope for reliability which I think we will have, and hopefully if some of those cars have problems we will be waiting. "

Jan Lammers

"It’s kind of three steps forward, two steps back. We have to take it as it comes; we knew we would be in at the deep end and that we weren’t ready, but it you don’t start somewhere you can’t go forward.

"It’s a number of things, mainly electronic, but not just that. The KERS is OK, but there’s a vacuum problem in the gyro system that is affecting the resistance. And the throttle control unit gave us a problem. I was slow off the line on the formation lap because the clutch didn’t release properly.

"We are capable of 3:50’s, but our top speed is putting us 8 seconds off that, we are 50 kph too slow. I hope they find the cause of the latest problem, in the meantime I’m sitting waiting. But I’d much rather be sitting here than having a huge accident somewhere."

The #62 CRS Ferrari is a confirmed retirement - The car got away from Shaun Lynn in the Ford Chicane and made heavy contact with the barrier - Lynn made heroic efforts to get the car back cutting away bodywork that had jammed the rear right hand wheel against the fuel cell - After further efforts the team ascertained that the tram would not be allowed to take the car back across to the pitlane from its position, it was also dropping oil - Lyn then worked (successfully) to fix the oil leak and finally got the car moving (to huge cheers from the crowd) only to have the clutch burn out - Game over after a valiant effort - "The end of a dream" said a rueful Lynn - For this year maybe Shaun!

As we pass midnight the screens predict a Safety car end at 00:15.