All three cars are running well and staying out of trouble. Car #22 sits in 20th spot, having stopped to change drivers â€" Alex Buncombe taking over from Krumm.
Car #21 pits from position 40 with Shulzhitskiy at the helm, while Olivier Pla â€" making his front-wheel-drive racing car debut â€" holds 43rd in car #23.
Midnight arrives and with nine hours of racing already completed, Tincknell, back in car #22, collects a piece of debris at 340km/h on the approach to Turn 11’s banked Indianapolis.
With front-end damage, no bonnet and no lights, Tincknell makes it back to the pits for repairs. Tsugio Matsuda in car #21 is also in the pits, while Pla has moved car #23 up a place into 42nd spot.
Half an hour later car #22 is still in the pits with damage, car #23 has dropped to 43rd after Mardenborough traded places with Pla and Matsuda holds 46th in car #21. Car #23 and #21 are now 32 and 38 laps behind the leaders.
It’s 44 minutes past midnight and the Le Mans 24 Hours is fast approaching its 10th hour. It’s dark, there’s no rain and it’s 18 degrees.
And while some cars continue to reach speeds in excess of 330km/h down Mulsanne, at the Nissan garage, the big white roller door that had been mostly open since the race started, is now all but closed.
With the mood already downbeat, it becomes clear that, sitting stationary to the side of the track, car #21 has a terminal problem. Matsuda tries his best to limp the car back to the pits but, having lost a wheel, that’s race over. Car #21 retires with 115 laps under its belt.
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