Pit confusion adds to Herbert's woes, still trails Capello

Bentley survived another scare during the Le Mans 24 Hours with a misunderstanding in the pit lane during the eighth hour. Further down the field, meanwhile, there were several spinners and incidents as drivers experienced night race conditions for the first time.

Anthony Davidson spun off into the gravel at the Playstation chicane in his Veloqx Prodive Ferrari 550 Maranello on his 102nd lap. He was running in second place in his class at the time just behind the sister car of Peter Kox. He was able to continue and returned to the pit lane for fresh rubber and a precautionary check.

The closest battle on the track was for eight place with David Saelens in the JML Team Panoz, Jean Marc Gounon in the Courage Competition Judd and Christophe Tinseau in the Riley & Scott Ford were all covered by just twenty seconds. Tinseau pitted on his 106th lap leaving Saelens and Gounon just 18 seconds apart.

Luis Marques then spun off in his Scorp Motorsport Communications Chrysler Viper on his 89th lap at Virage du Tetre Rouge. Also the Konrad Motorsport Saleen of Walter Brun spun off under the Dunlop Bridge into the gravel and had to be rescued by the marshals. He then coasted to a halt a few corners later.

Confusion delayed Herbert’s pit stop on lap 116. There was a misunderstanding between the man on the jack and the wheelman and some unneeded work was carried out. This was swiftly rectified and Herbert rejoined quickly having lost ten seconds, valuable time to the #8 Bentley that had already suffered a series of small and misfortunate incidents.

Capello meanwhile tried to squeeze out the maximum from his tyres and was lapping at least the same pace as, and sometimes faster than, Herbert despite being on tyres that were on their third stint. Capello eventually pitted on lap 119 for fuel and tyres and rejoined still in the lead, 45 seconds in front of Herbert.

The Scorp Motorsport of Chrysler Viperof Luis Marques had another dramatic spin his 96th lap, this time at the Dunlop Bridge. At the same time the Dewalt Racesports TVR Tuscan of Michael Caine lost drive approaching Indianapolis on his 94th lap and coasted to a halt. Also the Pescarolo Courage Peugeot of Nicholas Minassian, which was in seventh place, slowed on the circuit.

At midnight Capello’s Bentley was leading the sister car of Herbert by 33 seconds, with Johansson’s Champion Racing Audi R8 further back in third place.