Team Bentley after sixteen hours

Le Mans, 15 June 2003, 08.00am ... Sunrise at Le Mans and the two Team Bentley's Speed 8 prototypes continue to run at the head of the field, improving their already pacesetting speed in the cooler, lapping consistently below the 3min 40sec mark and proving capable of running for 14 laps between pitstops.

There was a minor problem for Mark Blundell driving the number 8 Bentley, when the low voltage light came on, necessitating a change of battery, executed by the crew in four minutes while Johnny Herbert also hit trouble when the team detected a puncture.

Johnny Herbert: "The team told me they had a low pressure tyre warning come on - I didn't notice anything until I went through the Porsche curves and found the car was unstable so I had to make a brief unscheduled stop. This has been the story of our race so far - little things costing us valuable track time."

Guy Smith: "I had a good session in the car, I was focusing on consistent laps while being very careful in traffic. It's quite hard to look after the car and keep clear of other competitors while still driving hard, but happily the car is running as well as it did when I first drove it."

Brian Gush, Director, Bentley Motorsport director: "We are leading but by no means are we relaxed. The front four cars are within seven laps of one another, so we plan to run as hard as we can to the end."