WR and Courage unlucky, 47 minutes neutralization
The rain which began at 18h00 made driving conditions very difficult, and in these circumstances there were few driver changes.
The main incident was Gonin(IU(Bs accident on Les Hunaudieres in the no.8 WR due aparently to aquaplaning. The driver was taken to hospital in Le Mans for a complete check-up. This accident brought out the safety car and the race was neutralized between 18h55 and 19h42. Obviously, several teams refuelled during this period. The Mach One McLaren (no.51) had an accelerator cable problem which allowed the Courage into second place. However, just before refuelling Mario Andretti went off in the new section as he was catching Jchen Mass, and damaged the right rear end which had to be changed by the team losing thirty minutes. In the no.11 Courage, Frank Lagorce tried in vain to return to the pits from Arnage by pushing his car as he was unable to carry out repairs on the spot.
Thevinin was penalised five minutes for passing under the yellow flags.
The first retirements were the Ferrari 333SP (no.1,blown engine), the Honda (no47, clutch) and the no.82 Franco-Swiss 911 GT.
At 20h00, the first three places were occupied by the McLaren F1 GTRs, the first WSC prototype being in seventh position (the Kremer K8 no.3). The other K3 was down in 24th position and the drivers were complaining of bad road-holding.
