Team Bentley after four hours

Le Mans, 14th June 2003, 8.00pm... Four hours into the Le Mans 24 hour race and Bentley's two Speed 8 Le Mans GT prototypes have continued to extend their lead over the field, both currently running without serious problems.

The number 8 car, driven by David Brabham, did briefly call at the pits to discard a loose piece of interior trim, but this was purely a precautionary measure.

Both cars double stinted from the start with Dindo Capello and Johnny Herbert driving; they handed over to Tom Kristensen and David Brabham respectively, Tom electing to do a triple stint and David handing over to Mark Blundell at his second stop.

David said, "the car is very quick and going well, but I had a terrible time with the traffic. Sometimes Le Mans does that to you. It's pretty hot inside the car but not that uncomfortable. There's very little grip if you go off line but otherwise I'm pretty happy with the way it's going."

Dindo commented, "you can see from the times how well the car is going. The tyres were fine in my two stints and the only problem I had was a tendency for the car to lock its front tyres under braking."

Team director John Wickham said, 'It's a shame we lost a little time due to number 8's unscheduled stop, but otherwise all is going according to plan. It's a tribute to the fantastic work Michelin has done that our tyres, narrower than those used by other prototypes, have lasted three stints in this weather.'