That extra row on the grid might have made all the difference to the way the race started out for Erdos. Driving the opening stint in the MG, he took the rolling start from the left hand side of the grid and powered down the main straight towards Copse directly behind the Goh Audi and with Rollcentre Dallara alongside him to the right. This trio made a clean entry into the right-hander, with the Dallara just nosing ahead of Erdos as they started to turn. Then, out of the corner of his eye, Erdos caught sight of the red and white nose of the Lister. “I’d started turning in, and he came from nowhere,” said the aggrieved Brazilian. “I took avoiding action as soon as I could, but he still made heavy contact with my front right wheel. To be honest, it was totally unnecessary to attempt a move like that into the first corner of the first lap of a six hour race.” The handling changed, becoming far less positive. “I thought something was broken at first,” insisted the Brazilian. “The steering was difficult, and the car started to understeer badly. I lost a lot of confidence in the car after that.”

By the end of the opening lap Erdos was satisfied that he could continue, but had already lost 3 places. “There were no noises or anything, although I had this ongoing understeer, but I decided I could still drive round it.” He pressed on, and started to recover some of the lost ground, rising to sixth once more before making his first pitstop on lap 35. “I got a new set of tyres and the car immediately felt better,” he said. The MG rejoined in ninth, but Erdos was rejuvenated by the stop and his times improved dramatically.