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LM24 H4: Audi continues to keep Toyota out of top three

Audi continues to hold the top three positions as the Le Mans 24 Hours reached the four-hour mark

Following triple-stints for the starting drivers of three R18 e-tron quattros, Benoit Treluyer has taken over Andre Lotterer's #1 car and leads by over three minutes from Oliver Jarvis in the #3 car.

Audi's Loic Duval and Toyota driver Nicolas Lapierre had a brief, but terrific, battle for third during the overlapping period between pitstops; Lapierre far quicker on the damp parts of the circuit due to his intermediate tyres.

Following a stop for Lapierre to hand over to Alex Wurz, Duval resumed second, only to lose it to Jarvis when he stopped for the fifth time as the race crossed into the fifth hour.

Jarvis, who had taken over the #3 car from Lucas di Grassi, spectacularly locked-up and rain straight on at the first Mulsanne chicane, but lost almost no time in doing so.

Wurz holds fifth, one place behind team-mate Sebastien Buemi and one ahead of Neel Jani, who took over the #12 Rebellion Lola-Toyota shortly after Nick Heidfeld spun at Tertre Rouge.

Alex Brundle has kept the lead in LMP2, the #24 OAK Morgan-Nissan driver increasing his advantage over Mike Conway when the #26 G-Drive/Delta-ADR man went into the gravel at Mulsanne corner as he lapped Stuart Hall's GTE Am Aston Martin.

The closest battle in the class was the one for fifth, with less than a second separating Nicolas Minassian's Pecom ORECA-Nissan and Lucas Luhr's Jota Zytek-Nissan.

The fight ended when Luhr spun approaching Tertre Rouge and then pitted to have any potential damage checked out.

Alexander Rossi's #41 Greaves ORECA-Nissan has lost seven laps so far as a result of a suspension problem while the #39 DKR Lola was delayed when Romain Brandela spun at the Ford chicane.

The #31 Lotus-Praga of Kevin Weeda is currently stuck out on the circuit after spinning at the first Mulsanne chicane and stopping.

Aston Martin, which had to deal with news of the death of its driver Allan Simonsen during the hour, continues to hold the top two positions in GTE Pro. Stefan Mucke in the #97 Vantage is now nine seconds ahead of the Manthey-run factory Porsche of Romain Dumas.

Frederic Makowiecki in the #99 car is right behind Dumas in third.

Matt Griffin has now taken over the leading #61 AF Corse Ferrari in GTE from Marco Cioci. Paolo Ruberti is now second in the Proton Porsche.

POSITIONS AFTER FOUR HOURS

Pos Cl      Car       Drivers                         Laps  Gap
 1. P1  #1  Audi      Lotterer/Treluyer/Fassler       57    
 2. P1  #3  Audi      Gene/Jarvis/di Grassi           56    +     1 Lap
 3. P1  #2  Audi      Kristensen/McNish/Duval         56    +    1.434s
 4. P1  #8  Toyota    Davidson/Sarrazin/Buemi         56    + 1m25.666s
 5. P1  #7  Toyota    Wurz/Lapierre/Nakajima          56    + 1m37.708s
 6. P1  #12 Lola      Prost/Jani/Heidfeld             55    +    2 Laps
 7. P1  #13 Lola      Beche/Belicchi/Cheng            55    +   37.554s
 8. P1  #21 HPD       Leventis/Kane/Watts             54    +    3 Laps
 9. P2  #24 Morgan    Pla/Brundle/H Hansson           54    + 2m35.770s
10. P2  #26 Oreca     Rusinov/Martin/Conway           53    +    4 Laps
11. P2  #35 Morgan    Baguette/Plowman/Gonzalez       53    +   12.756s
12. P2  #46 Oreca     Thiriet/Badey/Martin            53    +   42.982s
13. P2  #49 Oreca     P-Companc/Kaffer/Minassian      53    +   45.319s
14. P2  #34 Oreca     Frey/Niederhauser/Bleekemolen   53    + 1m05.451s
15. P2  #33 HPD       Tucker/Franchitti/Briscoe       53    + 1m07.533s
16. P2  #38 Zytek     Dolan/Turvey/Luhr               53    + 1m23.815s
17. P2  #42 Zytek     Krumm/Mardenborough/Ordonez     53    + 3m01.030s
18. P2  #32 Lotus     Holzer/Kraihamer/Charouz        52    +    5 Laps
19. P2  #43 Morgan    Gachnang/Mailleux/Lombard       52    + 1m10.633s
20. GTP #97 Aston     Mucke/Turner/Dumbreck           52    + 2m18.122s
21. GTP #92 Porsche   Lieb/Richard Lietz/Dumas        52    + 2m27.293s
22. GTP #99 Aston     Makowiecki/Senna/Bell           52    + 2m27.328s
23. P2  #30 Lola      Mowlem/Burgess/Hirschi          51    +    6 Laps
24. GTP #91 Porsche   Bergmeister/Pilet/Bernhard      51    + 1m10.575s
25. P2  #48 Oreca     Hartley/Chandhok/Patterson      51    + 1m34.671s
26. GTP #51 Ferrari   Bruni/Fisichella/Malucelli      51    + 2m01.955s
27. GTP #98 Aston     Dalla Lana/Lamy/Auberlen        51    + 2m23.182s
28. GTP #73 Corvette  Garcia/Magnussen/Taylor         51    + 2m25.353s
29. GTP #71 Ferrari   Beretta/Kobayashi/Vilander      51    + 2m42.852s
30. GTP #74 Corvette  Gavin/Milner/Westbrook          51    + 2m49.413s
31. GTP #53 SRT       Farnbacher/Goossens/Dalziel     50    +    7 Laps
32. GTA #61 Ferrari   Gerber/Griffin/Cioci            50    +   22.324s
33. P2  #47 Morgan    Imperatori/Howson/Tung          50    + 1m10.115s
34. P2  #45 Morgan    Nicolet/Merlin/Mondolot         50    + 1m27.919s
35. GTA #55 Ferrari   Perazzini/O'Young/Case          50    + 2m44.477s
36. GTA #67 Porsche   Gibon/Milesi/Henzler            50    + 2m58.118s
37. GTP #93 SRT       Wittmer/Kendall/Bomarito        50    + 3m27.104s
38. GTA #88 Porsche   Ried/Roda/Ruberti               49    +    8 Laps
39. GTA #77 Porsche   Dempsey/Foster/Long             49    +    3.702s
40. P2  #25 Oreca     Graves/Hamilton/Nakano          49    +    6.624s
41. GTA #96 Aston     Goethe/Campbell-Walter/Hall     49    +   23.474s
42. GTA #81 Ferrari   Potolicchio/Aguas/Bright        49    +   25.995s
43. GTA #76 Porsche   Narac/Vernay/Bourret            49    +   43.291s
44. P2  #40 Oreca     Dagoneau/Downs/Younessi         49    + 1m56.949s
45. GTA #50 Corvette  Bornhauser/Canal/Taylor         49    + 2m13.052s
46. GTA #75 Porsche   Collard/Perrodo/Crubile         49    + 2m20.894s
47. P2  #36 Alpine    Ragues/Panciatici/Gommendy      49    + 2m54.377s
48. GTA #57 Ferrari   Krohn/Jonsson/Mediani           48    +    9 Laps
49. P2  #39 Lola      Porta/Brandela/Raffin           48    + 1m20.763s
50. P2  #41 Zytek     Rossi/K-Smith/Lux               48    + 1m40.917s
51. GTP #66 Ferrari   Bertolini/Faisal/Qubaisi        47    +   10 Laps
52. GTA #70 Corvette  MacNeil/Rodrigues/Dumas         47    + 2m51.353s
53. GTA #54 Ferrari   Mallegol/Bachelier/Blank        46    +   11 Laps
54. P2  #28 Lola      Giroix/Haezebrouck/Ihara        19    +   38 Laps
55. P2  #31 Lotus     Weeda/Rossiter/Bouchut          17    +   40 Laps
56. GTA #95 Aston     Simonsen/Nygaard/Poulsen        2     Retired

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