Having handed over the car to Peter Dumbreck on lap 79, Karun settled down to get some rest. Peter meanwhile moved upto P7 after the two separate incidents involving Romain Dumas and Anthony Davidson. During the steady driving stint by Peter, Toyota’s #7 TS 030 – HYBRID racer had some issues and pit while Peter moved upto 5th, when the #13 Rebellion went into the pit. On lap 114 Peter Dumbreck had a puncture on the rear left tyre going into the gravel after the Dunlop curves and had to limp back to the pits, losing a lot of time and dropping to 17th position overall.
David Brabham took Peter’s place while the car was in the garage getting the tyres replaced. Brabham subsequently charged through the slower LMP2 cars and moved to 14th, 13th and was in position 9 before handing over to Karun on lap 159.
Karun soon went up to 8th and set about chasing the #44 Starworks car for 7th overall. However on a stop on lap 169 Karun reported a problem with the clutch and was pushed into the garage. He rejoined in 12th overall.
Karun Chandhok was in 9th position as he pulled into the pits handing over to Peter on lap 200 in the early hours of dawn. A successful stint for a first time driver at Le Mans during the night.
Peter then put in a long stint as the sun came up, completing 42 laps. When he came off shift a little after 07:30hrs the Scot had put the team back into 7th overall, clear of the LM2 cars and three laps from 6th. David Brabham took over from Dumbreck after 242 laps into the race.
As we finish this report at 9:52 Le Mans time, the team is planning on getting Karun into the car replacing Brabham.