Courage started to get very fast, gradually pulling back laps on the McLarens. When Wallace had to pit for fresh brakepads, the lead dropped to less than a minute to the Kokusai McLaren. But then the 53-year-old, 5-time winner, Derek Bell showed why he is considered one of the world's best sports-car racers - with the pressure on, he matched and then beat Lehto's very rapid lap times. The three surviving WSC cars - the Courage, Kremer and Kudzu were chasing. Overshadowed by the McLarens, all the Ferrari F40s had had troubled races after promising so much. However Stéphane Ratel's Pilot Racing Ferrari had been holding 8th position overall for six hours when, just before midday, Michel Ferté connected with Blundell's Gulf McLaren and skidded on debris at the Dunlop chicane, beaching it in the gravel trap. Extracting it took 5 minutes and lost it three places. In GT2, after losing 6 laps at the start, the Kunimitsu Honda had run like clockwork and now its better fuel economy was paying dividends as it overtook the Callaways and settled into the top 10 overall. Finish and post-race With just 2 hours to go, the McLaren's feared delicate transmission struck the leading DPR McLaren which pitted with gear-selection problems. After a 5-minute delay in the pits, Bell Snr slammed it into 6th and rejoined the race. That was all Dalmas needed to take the lead and from there they were never headed. With less than an hour to go, Andretti passed the ailing Harrods McLaren for second place, and soon after overtook Lehto to get onto the lead lap. Handing over to Bob Wollek, they chased hard but in the end just came up short, barely 3 minutes behind. Wallace nursed the DPR McLaren home a lap further behind, five laps ahead of the Gulf and Giroix Jacadi McLarens, and the remaining two WSC cars: the Kremer and Kudzu-Mazda. In GT2, despite starting from the pitlane, the Kunimitsu Honda came home in front, in 8th overall, comfortably two laps ahead of the Jelinski Agusta Callaway, itself two laps ahead of its sister car. The new Porsche 993 GT2 customer car, despite winning 10 of the 12 BPR races this year, came away empty-handed from Le Mans. Official results Statistics Pole Position - William David, #9 Welter Racing - 3:46.05 Fastest Lap - Patrick Gonin, #8 Welter Racing - 3:51.41 Winner's Distance