the Corvettes, Panteras and Porsche 911s. Three of the Panteras blew their engines, traced to a faulty batch of pistons from the US. Fastest in the small GT class was the Kremer 911 which did manage an identical time to the Capri (despite reserve driver Bolanos rolling the car in practice). Last on the grid were the young NART drivers in the Dino (4:53.9), getting in when several faster cars were withdrawn. Race Start For the first time a French President was the honorary starter. In front of Georges Pompidou and a large partisan crowd, Matra started with all four of their French drivers. Pescarolo took the lead from Cevert on the first lap but things started going wrong straight away. On the second lap, Beltoise's engine expired on the front straight and then Bonnier cut through to take the lead on the third lap. During a short rain-shower, Bonnier's teammate de Fierlandt put in some quick laps to take the lead. But the Lolas’ smaller fuel-tanks meant they had to pit earlier, and more often, than the other prototypes. After that, it was the Alfa Romeos’ chance to take up the challenge as first Elford, then Stommelen moved up the order. In the GT class, Migault's French Ferrari had the lead until a jammed gearbox sidelined it, whereupon the sister car of Ballot-Léna/Andruet took over. Three of the Panteras had already retired due to the dodgy pistons – the remaining one of Claude Dubois being the only one that had not used a new American engine. At 6.20pm, the Jabouille/Hobbs Matra 660 ran out of fuel within reach of the pits. Someone had accidentally flicked it across to the reserve tank, which dropped them down to 12th and 5 laps down. After four hours, the two Matra 670s were being pursued by Larrousse in the Lola. Stommelen had been delayed by a fuel-pump change but the Alfas still ran fourth, fifth and seventh split by Joest's Porsche. Weigel's 908/02 was eighth followed by the Duckhams and the charging Matra 660. The Pozzi Ferrari led GT in 12th and the Glemser/Soler-Roig Capri was 15th. Another short shower wet the track and de Fierlandt put his car in the sandbank at the Mulsanne corner. He then burnt out an already weakened clutch trying to extricate himself. The Bonnier/van Lennep Lola had also been delayed by gear selection issues and when Bonnier