Le Mans Hour Thirteen:
Ahh, the number thirteen. A number oozed in folklore and superstition. Would the superstitions come to the forefront at La Sarthe? Well, early into the thirteenth hour, maybe they would. Marc Lieb spoke over the radio, telling the team that he was having an issue with his door. So, he pitted for a door change, costing him a little bit of time as he tried to chase the LMP1 leaders down.
However, the #1 Audi was now back out on track, following a change of fuel injector, which apparently caused the issue for Tom Kristensen. It was now Lucas Di Grassi behind the wheel in the #1 Audi, who now had to chase down Timo Bernhard, who’d moved up to third in the #20 Porsche.
Andre Lotterer had closed up to the Toyota of Sarrazin, now only 90 seconds down on the #7. Could he continue to chase down the Japanese manufacturer on behalf of Ingolstadt?
Elsewhere, the #20 gets handed to Brendon Hartley during a smooth pitstop. However, things were not going so well for the #14 of Marc Lieb. The car was crawling, much like it was early in the race. However, Lieb stated the Fuel pressure was low, so perhaps it was a different issue this time. Either way, the car was crawling back to the pits, with worried faces in the Porsche garage.
The #2 Audi comes back into the pits, with Lotterer making way for Benoit Treluyer in a routine stop. The #20 was also in the pits, for what was never going to be a routine stop. It was pushed into the garage, and the work began. One team this could benefit in particular would be the #8 Toyota; Sebastien Buemi could take fifth, knocking the #14 Porsche down the order once more, but fortunately to a lesser extent than earlier, when the race was bunched up further.
As the hour came to a close, the Porsche was taken out of the garage, but the place had already been taken by the #8 Toyota. Hour 13 was definitely unlucky for the #14 Porsche…
So after 13 hours, the #7 Toyota still leads with Stephane Sarrazin behind the wheel. Jann Mardenborough leads LMP2 in the OAK Racing Ligier, while Giancarlo Fisichella now leads by 12 seconds over Darren Turner in GTE PRO. David Heinemeier-Hansson leads GTE AM in the #95 Aston Martin; their main competition, the SMP Racing #72 Ferrari is currently in the garage with problems and falling down the order...
EDIT: Thank you for your kind words @
NotThePrez