Hour 4: Double Safety Car Period Slows Things Down
The fourth hour of the WEC 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps was interrupted by two safety car period after two accidents, the first a collision between the nr49 Pecom Racing Oreca and the nr57 Krohn Racing Ferrari at La Source and the second when the nr43 Extreme Limite Aric Norma span off at high speed in the middle of Eau Rouge and hitting the barriers at high speed. The car and tyre wall did their jobs and driver Philippe Haezebrouck climbed out of the wrecked Norma and walked away.
The hour ended with the nr3 Audi still leading the race by 50 seconds ahead of the nr1 R18, while the gap between the nr2 and nr4 Audis was just 0.2 seconds as Oliver Jarvis was challenging Allan McNish for the final podium position.
Sam Hancock, now at the wheel of the nr38 Jota Zytek, was at the head of LMP2 class, 6 seconds ahead of Tor Graves in the nr25 ADR-Delta Oreca but Hancock was handed a 30 second stop go penalty for speeding in the pitlane.
The nr77 Felbermayr-Proton Porsche of Marc Lieb continued to dominate the LMGTE Pro class, with the nr51 AF Corse Ferrari of Gianmaria Bruni still holding second place ahead of the nr59 Luxury Racing Ferrari of Jaime Melo.
The nr67 IMSA Performance Matmut Porsche of Raymond Narac finished the hour where they started at the head of the LMGTE Am class, well ahead of the nr88 Felbermayr-Proton Porsche of Gianluca Roda.
The top three cars in the Michelin Green X Challenge at the end of the fourth hour are nr2, nr3 and nr1.
Tweets from Twitter:
17:35 #15 Oak racing Oak Pescarolo pits and rejoins
17:35 At halfway #38 Jota Zytek leads LMP2 from #25 Oreca by 28 Secs
17:35 At halfway #77 Porsche leads #51 Ferrrari by 90 secs in GTE Pro
17:36 At halfway #67 IMSA Porsche leads #88 Proton Porsche by over a minute in GTE Am
17:38 Audis now have 1 lap lead over the rest of the field
17:40 #17 Dome into pits
17:47 21 second lead now for #3 Audi from #1 Audi
17:48 Black and White flag for #12 Lola after contact with #50 Corvette
17:49 #58 Luxury racing Ferrari has stop and go for causing collision with #3 Audi Sport Team Joest
17:55 Accident between #49 Oreca and #57 Ferrari at Turn 1
17:59 Safety Car
18:01 Both safety cars are being deployed
18:01 Both safety cars are deployed and the recover vehicles are in action
18:02 McNish seen pointing animatedly at the roof of the #2 Audi
18:02 #4 Audi stuck at pit exit red light
18:06 Safety car in at the end of this lap
18:09 #31 Lotus hit wall at turn 9
18:10 Safety car out due to accident at Eau Rouge for Norma #43
18:19 Circuit staff rebuilding the tyre wall at Eau Rouge
18:24 Back to green
18:25 #3 Audi leads by 52 secs after safety car from #1 Audi
18:27 #49 Pecom Racing Oreca 03 Nissan pits
18:29 #71 Ferarri spins and continues
Jeff Carter
Photo: FRANCORCHAMPS (LIEGE, BELGIUM), SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS CIRCUIT, 6 HOURS OF SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, RACE, 5th May, 2012. #58 LUXURY RACING Ferrari F458 Italia