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Lola at Le Mans; After 4 Hours

The first four hours of the 2010 Le Mans 24 Hours has seen Lola sports cars make a strong start to the worlds toughest endurance event. In cloudy and muggy conditions, the 55-car field blasted over the startline at 15.00cet this afternoon in front of an estimated 160,000 fans.

At the four-hour mark nine of the ten Lola designed and built LMP sports cars were lapping the 8.72-mile La Sarthe track. The brace of Lola Aston Martin B09/60’s were in 7th and 8th positions, leading the un-official petrol powered LMP1 class. Stefan Mucke drove an excellent triple stint, surviving a grassy moment coming in to the Porsche Curves when the ORECA Aim of Soheil Ayari moved over on the V12 powered Lola.

In 10th place, the Signature Plus Lola-Aston Martin, driven for the first three hours of the race by Frank Mailleux was in 10th position, just behind the #13 Rebellion Racing Lola of Boullion/Smith/Belicchi. Guy Smith completed a trouble free start to the race for the Swiss team, setting an excellent fastest lap of 3m29.202s. The sister Rebellion Racing Lola of Prost/Andretti and Neel Jani shook off some early contact with a GT2 car to complete the first four hours in 12th place overall.

Drayson Racing also had a solid start to the race with Paul Drayson fulfilling his dream of starting Le Mans in the premier LMP1 class. Holding a fine 14th place, Paul handed the car over to Jonny Cocker after a single stint only for the young British racer to feel a vibration on the car and asked the team to inspect the car. The rear tail bodywork section of the car was changed and Emanuele Pirro re-joined the race, instantly setting the cars fastest lap and climbing back up the field.

In LMP2, the RML Lola HPD held third place in the early stages after Tommy Erdos drove a faultless first three stints. Despite an un-planned pit stop to look at a dashboard issue, the Brazilian handed over to Mike Newton. The team were in 5th position in LMP2 after 4 hours but very much still in touch for the 3rd placed battle.

Racing Box had a trouble free first four hours at Le Mans with their Lola LMP2 Coupe. The all-Italian squad were in 9th place after 4 hours. The KSM Lola Judd was up to 5th place with Jonathan Kennard getting his first taste of race action at the 24 Hours. Earlier, Jean De Pourtales had survived a brief excursion and an auto shift compressor problem to complete a strong start for the Cologne based team.

Follow the race live at www.twitter.com/LolaRacer

For high quality and downloadable photography click on to www.jakobebrey.com/lola

Standings after 4 Hours of 24

1. Wurz/Davidson/Gene P1 Peugeot 908
2. Montagny/Sarrazin/Minassian P1 Peugeot 908
3. Panis/Lapierre/Duval P1 ORECA Peugeot 908
4. Kristensen/McNish/Capello P1 Audi R15
5. Bernhard/Dumas/Rockenfeller P1 Audi R15
6. Fassler/Lotterer/Treluyer P1 Audi R15
7. Mucke/Fernandez/Primat P1 AMR Lola-Aston Martin
8. Turner/Hancock/Barazi P1 AMR Lola-Aston Martin
9. Boullion/Belicchi/Smith P1 Lola-Rebellion
10. Jarvis/Albers/Bakkerud P1 Kolles Audi R10
11. Mailleux/Ragues/Ickx P1 Signature Lola-Aston
12. Watts/Kane/Leventis P2 Strakka HPD ARX-01
13. Bouchut/Tucker/Rodrigues P1 Kolles Audi R10
14. Ayari/Andre/Meyrick P1 ORECA 01-AIM
15. Prost/Andretti/Jani P1 Lola-Rebellion
16. Brabham/Franchitti/Werner P2 Highcroft HPD ARX-01
17. Hughes/Amaral/Pla P2 ASM Ginetta-Zytek
18. Charouz/Lahaye/Moreau P2 Oak Pescarolo
19. Erdos/Newton/Wallace P2 RML Lola HPD
20. Pirro/Cocker/Drayson P1 Drayson Lola
23. Noda/Pourtales/Kennard P2 KSM Lola-Judd

29. Pirri/Cioci/Perrazzini P2 Racing Box Lola
R. Lewis/Burgess/Willman P1 Autocon Lola-AER