ILMC

1000 KM Zhuhai: Audi take over the lead at Zhuhai

© COPYRIGHTHERE

Having lost ground to the Peugeot’s in the first two hours the Audi drivers seemed unable to fight with their French rivals, but soon after Allan McNish had boarded the #7 Audi Sport Team Joest Audi R15 TDI the lap times improved and the Scot went after Pagenaud and Sarrazin. Despite knowing he would have to come in earlier than the Peugeot McNish kept pushing and had closed down the gap to just a few tenths of a second before making his pit stop. Double stinting at Audi was a problem and the team decided not to do it anymore.

Out on the track the GT2 battle also heated up again with Westbrook fighting Lieb, the two Porsches nose-to-tail while battling for fourth in the GT2 class. That would soon be a battle for third when the two cars caught Pierre Ehret, who went off the track at turn 14. Unfortunately the battle between the two Porsches did not last much longer as the ProSpeed Competition Porsche came into the pit a lap later.

Two hours and fifty minutes into the race Simon Pagenaud finally made his next regular stop, just before the halfway point of the race. As he returned to the track Allan McNish was already closing in again, the Audi now two seconds behind and rapidly closing the gap and soon McNish passed Pagenaud to move into second place.

Unfortunately for Peugeot McNish wasn’t to give up and kept pushing, now posting lap times between 3 and 4 seconds quicker than the Peugeot’s. At 3.12 pm local time the gap – fifteen minutes after passing Pagenaud the gap to the #1 Peugeot was already 22 seconds, while the gap to the leading Peugeot of Stephane Sarrazin was now down to 26 seconds.

As McNish gradually closed the gap to the leading Peugeot – and decided to do another stint rather than to hand over the car to Tom Kristensen – the ProSpeed Competition Porsche came into the pit and was pushed back into its pit box. Richard Westbrook was quick to explain that the clutch on the 997 GT3 RSR was gone and the team had a lot of work to do.

Sarrazin pitted after 3,5 hours of racing, handing over his car back to Franck Montagny. A phenomenal Allan McNish kept going after his pit stop and in no time he had reduced a 40-seconds disadvantage to nothing and after a brief look McNish decided it was time for action and passed Montagny for the lead. After 150 laps an Audi was finally leading at Zhuhai.

Now in third place Simon Pagenaud came in five laps later, allowing Rinaldo Capello to move into third. The top four had now completed four stops each, with McNish now leading the race by almost fourteen seconds. Capello was 56 seconds behind his team mate. In GT2 meanwhile the AF Corse Ferrari had closed the gap to the CRS Racing Ferrari and Phil Quife could see the headlights of the AF Corse Ferrari getting bigger and bigger, but Bruni was not yet able to attack Quaife.

Just before the end of the fourth hour Franck Montagny went straight into the gravel trap…fortunately not damaging the car, but certainly wrecking the tyres, much to the dislike of Peugeot Sport boss Olivier Quesnel.

After four hours of racing

After two hours. Race positions between (1)

LMP1: (1) #7 Audi Sport Team Joest – (2) #2 Team Peugeot Total – (3) #8 Audi Sport Team Joest
LMP2: (5) #35 OAK Racing
GTH: (6) #92 Porsche AG
GT2: (7) #78 BMW Team Schnitzer – (8) #77 Team Felbermayr Proton – (9) #95 AF Corse
FLM: (12) #47 Hope PoleVision Racing
GTC: (14) #96 United Autosports – (16) #98 KK Performance – (20) #91 Team Hong Kong Racing
GT1: (15) #50 Larbre Competition