Boutsen's Kremer, the Giroix Jacadi McLaren (running on a synthetic-alcohol fuel distilled from beets) and Kunimitsu Honda in GT2, had to start from the pit-lane because of last minute issues. At flag-fall the two WR's, and Wollek's Courage, took off and quickly put distance to the rest of the field - nearly half a lap at the end of the first hour. Because of the ACO equivalency regulations, their laps were nearly 30 seconds off Eddie Irvine's quickest laps in his Toyota in 1993. John Nielsen in the #49 Dave Price McLaren, and Henri Pescarolo in the #11 Courage led that pursuit battling for fourth. Massimo Sigala in the Ferrari prototype had made rapid progress from its lowly starting position, even passing Nielsen into 4th until stone damage stopped the engine at Arnage on only lap 7. The rain arrived at the end of the first hour. It stayed all night and well into Sunday morning, with scattered showers right to the finish. Many cars spun or skated off, caught out on their slick tyres. Both the WRs pitted losing time with faulty windscreens, proving again to be fast but fragile. Worse was to follow in the 5th hour when Gonin aquaplaned off at speed and somersaulted at the Mulsanne kink into a big accident. He was taken to hospital with 4 broken ribs and a broken shoulder-blade and bringing out the safety cars for 37 minutes. In the heavy rain, the WSC cars lost their power advantage and upon the restart four of the McLarens were dueling with Wollek's Courage. But when Mario Andretti tangled lapping a Kremer in the Porsche curves and crashed (taking 30 minutes and losing 6 laps to get repaired) it appeared to be a GT1 benefit with a McLaren 1-2-3. The Ferrari was out, Pescarolo's Courage had stopped at Arnage with a flat battery, and the Kremer was proving diabolical to drive in the wet (even regenmeister Hans-Joachim Stuck put it in the wall at the first chicane). The Larbre team's Porsche 911 Evos were both running well, keeping up with the McLarens and getting up to fourth. Terrific driving from Toshio Suzuki had got his Nissan Skyline up to an excellent 7th overall until the car's gearbox broke at 11pm. Both Honda GT1s were out: one with a broken clutch and the other crashed heavily in the rain, needing extensive repairs. In GT2,