The #17 entry of Harold Primat, Christophe Tinseau and Benoit Treluyer is upholding honours for the Pescarolo team heading into darkness in eighth place overall in Le Mans 24 Hours – currently second of the petrol powered cars.
Primat took the start and did a fine job during his double stint and ater holding his eleventh place off the line, he fought hard with the ORECA-Courage of Olivier Panis and stayed ahead during the opening stages.
Strong triple stints from Tinseau and Treluyer followed, and the #17 car began to steadily climb the order as others hit trouble. They gained positions after problems for the #8 Peugeot 908 HDi and #10 Lola Aston Martin dropped them down the order and then passed the Dome Judd S102.
With the #8 Peugeot recovering through the field, the slipped down a place but remains on the same lap as the leading petrol car, which is currently the #5 ORECA-Matmut entry.
“I made sure I had no problems at the start as the last thing you want in a 24 hour race is contact off the grid!” Primat said. “From then on I pushed, but safely and within my limits. I enjoyed the fight with Panis and I was able to keep him behind me for a long time. He used the draft and was faster in certain parts of the track, while I was faster in others. Eventually he got past through the Dunlop Chicane as my car was a bit twitchy and I thought it was better to let him go as he was very close behind.
“After my first pit stop, the traffic was a lot worse and there were a lot of GT cars fighting each other which meant it was difficult to pass them. I had to go offline to get past and as a result got my tyres dirty which affected my lap times a little.
“We have a very consistent pace and everything is going according to plan at the moment. There is still a long way to go though and it's hugely important we stay focused on the race.”
The sister car lies just outside the top ten after losing time with an electrical problem.
