JML Team Panoz hour 12 report

JML TEAM PANOZ - LE MANS UPDATE - 12 HOURS

JML Team Panoz and Beretta dodges a bullet in Le Mans

JML Team Panoz may have held their positions of 6th and 9th through to the half way point of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, but Olivier Beretta was lucky to escape after suffering a major incident at more than 300km/h at 1am.

Beretta ran over some debris and suffered a flat tire on the approach to the first chicane. After regaining control, the Panoz star limped the car back to the pits to hand over to Max Papis.

"I was flat in 6th gear leading up to the first chicane when it happened," Beretta said.

"The track was really dirty and there was a lot of debris around the place. I obviously ran over something which caused the problem.

"I was very lucky not to crash the car. It was completely sideways at more than 300km/h. It went left, right, then left again - I had a good look at the armco fence.

"| I was able to get the car back to the pits without any damage. It was a bit unfortunate because we had actually got up to fifth place.

"We just have to keep fighting now and see what happens in the second half of the race."

David Saelens, Scott Maxwell and Benjamin Leuenberger also continued to perform strongly - maintaining their ninth place in a good battle with a pair of Courages, one ahead, one behind.

"I have really enjoyed driving at night, the car hasn't skipped a beat and I am really feeling comfortable out there," David Saelens said.

"We have had a great run after 12 hours, but we still have a long way to go. Everybody on the team has done a great job so far and we just have to keep it up."

JML Team Panoz is attempting to equal or better the previous best result for a Panoz at Le Mans which was 5th in 2000.

-pmg-