Aston Martin Racing: Le Mans 21 hour update

With only three hours remaining, Aston Martin is poised for another top result at the Le Mans 24 Hours. Aston Martin 009 is currently sixth in the hands of Darren Turner, as the race draws to a thrilling conclusion in front of an enthusiastic crowd.

The Englishman is putting in another rock solid run, having taken over from Juan Barazi at just after 10:00 this morning. Turner reported no major problems during his stints and he is concentrating on bringing 009, along with his team mates to the end in order to seal the accolade for Aston Martin of being the fastest petrol-powered car at Le Mans for the second consecutive year.

Barazi's earlier stint did not go quite as smoothly as he had hoped, when he had a straight-on and was briefly delayed at the Mulsanne Chicane. However, he quickly recovered from this minor setback and handed over to Turner, who continued the car's solid progress.

"The track was really slippery this morning," said Barazi. "I didn't feel that I had the grip that I wanted, which made the driving very difficult."

Stefan Mucke drove 007, after it emerged from the pits following an hour's delay earlier this morning to fix a gearbox problem. The German strung together the sort of quick laps that have become his speciality, in order to drive the Gulf-liveried LMP1 car up the field.

"We just want to get to the finish now so this is what we are aiming for," said Mucke, having placed the 007 car as high as fifth overall at one point during the race. He too avoided problems and is currently lying 10th with less than three hours to go.

Unfortunately the 008 Aston Martin, run by French team Signature, was unable to build upon the excellent progress it had made so far in the race. Just after 10:00, Vanina Ickx went off on her out lap after taking over the car from Franck Mailleux.

Ickx was unhurt, but her Aston Martin LMP1 car was too badly damaged to continue. The Signature team were consequently forced to retire with less than a quarter of the race remaining.

There were no such problems for the AMR Young Driver GT1 DBR9, which is holding firmly onto its second place in class thanks to Tomas Enge and the team.

Many seasoned campaigners say that the final stints of the Le Mans 24 Hours are always the hardest -- so none of the Aston Martin crews can afford to relax until the very end.