2015 24 Hours of Le Mans: Hour 10 Update – Hour of the falling Nissans

Britain’s Nick Tandy led at the end of the tenth hour of the 2015 24 Hours of Le Mans in the #19 Porsche 919 as the lead is finely balanced between the #19 and the #7 & #9 Audis. Unfortunately, the Nissans all hit problems – not all of their own making – during the same hour.

The very first incident took place five minutes into the hour as the #22 of Harry Tincknell struck a rather large chunk of previously unspotted debris on the Mulsanne and damaged the front left corner extensively. The car would stay in the pits for the rest of the hour.

As that was happening, as if by some freak curse, the issues spread to the #23 of Olivier Pla as he ground to a halt at Arnage. Thankfully he got going again after a short trip to the pit lane.

At this point, other events happened so we’ll save the fate of the #21 until later because like much of the last few hours, the pit lane saw the lead change.

Although, it is worth noting that it was the #7 Audi Sport of Andre Lotterer that took up the lead of the race with Marco Bonanomi behind in the sister #9. Of course that would change when the pit lane welcomed both the Audis so Nick Tandy became the leader as the clock ticked to 1.00am.

In LMP2, it is hardly surprising to let you know that the KCMG Oreca 05 was in the lead of the class for the whole hour as Matthew Howson kept on weaving his magic and keeping the car insanely quick round the circuit, with Pierre Thiriet in the Thiriet by TDS Racing car unable to keep up.

Third in class, thanks to issues with the Signatech Alpine, is the #26 G-Drive Racing Ligier who is being hounded by the Team SARD Morand Morgan Evo.

GTE Pro saw the #99 Aston Martin continue their hold on the front as the #64 Corvette slipped down to third place in class with the #91 Team Manthey Porsche taking full advantage in second place.

Aston Martin’s good GTE form also carried on in GTE Am, as the #98 of Paul Dalla Lana kept the SMP Racing Ferrari at bay, which got past the #83 AF Corse Ferrari early on in the tenth hour.

Finally in the hour was the saga of the #21 Nissan with Tsugio Matsuda behind the wheel which experienced right front suspension failure coming out of the second chicane on the Mulsanne Straight. He limped it round to Arnage before pulling over, but after much gesticulating with marshals that wanted him to go no further, he ignored their instructions and tried to get it back to the pits.

Unsurprisingly, he made it all of one hundred years and had the car lifted off the track by JCB into what will probably be retirement.

Top 3 positions in each class after Hour 10 of the 83rd 24 Hours of Le Mans

LMP1

• #19 Porsche 919 Hybrid – Hulkenberg/Bamber/Tandy
• #7 Audi R18 e-tron quattro – Fassler/Treluyer/Lotterer
• #9 Audi R18 e-tron quattro – Albuquerque/Bonanomi/Rast