08:22: Have the French Lions been caged by the rain?

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The No. 2 Audi driven by Tom Krsitensen passed the No. 7 Peugeot of Jacque Villeneuve when both cars pitted at the same time. The R10 TDI only took tires, while the 908 HDI FAP took on fuel and a drivers change. Since the pass the Audi has been lapping quicker then the Peugeot. Jacques Villeneuve said about the 908 HDI FAP, ““We had an overheating problem, so we had to get our braking done early and then ‘roll’ the car into the corners. We solved that, but then it started raining. Our car is difficult – you get the power down coming out of corners and it snaps around, which makes it harder to overtake the slower cars. Tom Kristensen was my team-mate in Formula Three, and even back then he was bloody quick in the wet!”

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Currently the No. 2 Audi has a 16+ second lead over the Peugeot, however the Peugeot driven by Marc Gene has picked up speed and seems to be crawling back into contention, with a little over Eight hours to go.

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12:00: Half way home!

With a little more then half of the 2008 24 hours of Le Mans behind them, Teams are well into the night stints, where they pray that it is smooth sailing, and crew members can catch some much needed rest.

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There is always work to be caught up on in the late hours of the night…

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The No. 7 Peugeot pits and is taken into the garage.

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Current Standings are:

14:00: A little less than 14 hours to go… Peugeot pulled into garage briefly…

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With about two hours to go to the half-way mark, one of the Peugeot 908’s was pulled inside the garage briefly. Could this be the first fissure in what has so far been a very strong run?

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It is well into the night stints and the soft tires are coming out, as the temperature falls. Michelin Tires have seen triple stints on the medium compound, but are urging teams to wait until the track temperature is 26C or lower.

Tires

As Michelin’s 4-wheel competition manager Matthieu Bonardel explains. ” Things have changed a bit in LMP1. The diesels are still double-stinting. They are happy with the consistency and balance of the medium tires. It will be some time before they switch to the soft compounds. As for the Petrol prototypes, Pescarolo and Dome have been working on three stints for some time already, and Oreca followed suit, albeit with one difference. Oreca have switched to the soft compounds. These team’s third stint is slower then the other two , but they balance that out with one fewer visit to the pits.”

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