[woodcote]

Hour Two

All six teams had to divide the twelve stints equally between their drivers. Apart from Gearzilla, the teams changed drivers every twenty minutes and kept to the same rotation. Meanwhile, Rob was starting his fourth (and last) stint in the Gearzilla Mercedes. He still sat fourth, the car not as fast as AIM-9 and Shift Happens! - and heavier on the fuel consumption than the Escargot Aston. Going into the first stop of the hour, Ollie had a ten lap lead over John - Écurie Escargot's fuel saving strategy getting them up to second place. Right behind was Dean in the Shift Happens! Mercedes, Rob and Gearzilla seven laps adrift after another long pit stop. Simon and Ash were running neck and neck at the back.

Fifteen minutes into the stint, it stopped raining. The track was still wet and with overcast skies, track conditions wouldn't change very rapidly, if at all. Only Gearzilla took the gamble to change early to Intermediate tyres. Otherwise, the race continued, Ollie handing the lead car over to Mike...

   

Mike immediately had problems. Some rapid tweaks to the car off the track saw the lead evaporate, but the car seemed to be sorted and back at its previous best. Jeremy had closed to just a lap behind for Shift Happens! Both AIM-9 and ASTCOM-One went for Intermediate tyres as the track conditions started to move away from monsoon conditions. Was it too early?

   

By the end of the stint, Mike had stretched the lead back to 6 laps, thanks in part to an off-sequence pit stop for Jeremy, when Intermediates were added and fuel topped up to 75%. Gearzilla were up to third, Isaac's no-stop 80 laps way better than everyone else. Second to fourth (Écurie Escargot) was covered by just six laps - and this would continue to develop into a classic battle.

Écurie Escargot were last to change to Intermediates, letting the last set of Wets run out before pitting. The sun was out just before the end of the second hour, accelerating the track drying process and tempting ASTCOM-One to try a set of Soft tyres - which Alex would enjoy at the start of the next hour. The standings at the end of 120 minutes were...

AIM-9 472 laps 
Écurie Escargot 464 laps (-8)
Gearzilla 461 laps (-11)
Shift Happens! 461 laps (-11)
Laps in Concentration 449 (-23)
ASTCOM-One 442 (-30)

Hour Three

   

Ollie was back in the leading AIM-9 Aston Martin and putting in another blistering stint. Behind, the three-way battle for second was tightening as Dean clawed back some laps to lead John and Isaac. Alex didn't enjoy the Soft tyres as much as he hoped and dropped back from Ash's Porsche. Nonetheless, the track was drying and two teams - ASTCOM-One and Shift Happens! gambled with a change to Hard tyres.

   

Oilver was now on a four stint run for Gearzilla. His first stint had the same impact as Isaac's - making up time on his rival with a no-stop twenty minutes. That saw Gearzilla leapfrog up to second place, twelve laps behind Mike in the leading AIM-9 Aston Martin Vantage. Jeremy followed three laps behind, with Rob steering a rough-sounding Écurie Escargot Aston to fourth, another four laps back. 

That three-way battle for second became a head-to-head between Shift Happens! and Gearzilla when Andy brought the Escargot's Aston to the pits for a lengthy stop to re-seat the motor. Returned to its super-smooth best, the Aston rejoined in fifth, having lost nearly 20 laps and any hope of a podium position.

The race situation going into the final hour was...

AIM-9 713 laps
Gearzilla 697 laps (-16)
Shift Happens! 694 laps (-19)
Laps in Concentration 677 (-36)
Écurie Escargot 674 laps (-39)
ASTCOM-One 650 laps (-63)