American Le Mans Series

Sebring after 6 hours

At the next round of stops Andy Wallace again goes further than the Audis and leads before his stop. The Lola looks as if it might just be able to beat the Audi Steam roller. Wallace at last stops and hands over to Leitzinger who leaves now third but 1 minute 20 seconds behind the leading Werner Audi #1, the #2 Audi of Biela is 40 seconds behind its team mate.

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In GT1 the Maserati is stopped and so far has lost seven laps so far but both Astons are still running fast on the same lap as the class leading Corvettes. The other Prodrive car the 550 and the Acemo Saleen is a couple of laps behind battling for 5th in class. The Astons appear to be losing in the pit lane to the slick Corvette crews.

The GT2 battle is no holds barred between the #23 Job car and the #31 White Lightning car which in particular looks very uncomfortable over the bumps, it reminds of the old CLR Mercedes. The Job car has just broken, the #31 is back in the lead for the first time since Pirro punted it off in the first hour.

After early troubles the Dallara Nissan is running quickly and up to 13th lapping faster than all the GT1 cars in front. Peter Kox in the #58 Aston is slowly closing the gap to the Corvettes in front. Borcheller has passed Golin

At one third distance the battle continues to rage in three classes, in P1 the three leaders are on the same lap still and time intervals only change with lapping and the Lola is going further on each fuel load. The GTI battle still has the Gavin #4 Corvette leading as it has from the start. Fellows #3, Kox #58 and Turner #57 are all within 57 seconds.

The unthinkable has happened in GT2 in that the Job Porsche has blown an engine and is out. Bergmeister #31 leads from Fogarty #45 and Burgess #43. The Leading Panoz Jeannette #51 is 5th and the Hynes #41 TVR is now 6th

Kristensen takes over the lead Audi and briefly loses the lead to Biela who is yet to stop and Leitzinger is half a second behind Kristensen but despite his light fuel load cannot get past the Audi. This could be critical at the end of the race. Leitzinger takes the lead and Biela stops and resumes third, can Leitzinger open a gap before his stop. He is pulling away at a second a lap. Theys # 88 is up to 11th having passed the GT2 and P2 class leaders.

Leitzinger stops 5 laps after Biela, Leitzinger stays in and is now 70 seconds behind the leader, 20 seconds less than before the last round of stops. Theys has stopped in The Dallara, it’s a long stop and he is falling back down the order now 21st and still stopped. The Lamy Aston #58 had a long stop at the last refuel and it has lost 4 laps to the class leaders and is now 7th in class but running quickly once more. Brabham in the 57 car is 1 minute 8 seconds behind the #4 Corvette which continues to lead the class.

The GT2 class has spread out a little still in the same order and the Maserati is out again but now 22 laps behind the leading Corvette. Its best lap is 1:59.371 compared to best Corvette lap the #3 car 1:56.915 and best Aston lap #57 1:57.045.

The Dallara is back out Krumm now at the wheel but comes back in next lap, so far only four official retirements.

Kristensen stops on lap 156, stays on board and resumes second, Biela stops lap 158 and McNish takes over. Leitzinger is back up to 2nd 36 seconds away fro m the lead. After five and a half hours there is less than a minute covering the top three. It’s just as close in GT1 with just 85 seconds between the top three. Chris Dyson in the #20 Lola is flying and back up to 12th as he hands back to Smith. They are keeping pace with the leaders, shame about their early problems. Leitzinger pits on lap 164 and Weaver resumes in third off the lead lap for the first time in the race.

In GT2 the Sellers Panoz #51 is still in the pits, which means the #41 TVR is now 5th.
Just before half distance the Yellow comes out again. The 58 Aston had suspension problems. This is a long yellow and the two leading Audis are separated by 6 seconds and Weaver a lap behind. James is between the Audis and James will be pushing to get past the leader.

On the green the Lola is between the Audis trying to get his lap back. The P2 leader Primat #27 has a stop go for speeding in the pit lane

So at 6 hrs we have Audi #1 Kristensen from McNish #2 and Weaver in the #16 Lola. The Corvettes are close together leading GT! From the #57 Aston and the Petersen White Lightning Porsche continues to lead its class

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