By breakfast time, the rain started to come down very heavily and the stage was set for a heroic chase. González and Trintignant could afford to take things cautiously, but any unnecessary delays would enable the pursuing Jaguar to open up a chink the Ferrari's armour, and as the rain intensified, the sole remaining D-type piled on the pressure. But Trintignant responded and both cars roared round doing sub-4'30" lap-times. By 9.30am, after González's fuel stop when the Ferrari hesitated in restarting, the Jaguar team got more motivation and the lead was down to 3 minutes. But at 10am, Rolt glanced the bank coming out of Arnage lapping a slower car, and 2 minutes were lost in the pits for a bout of impromptu panelbeating.