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Le Mans 24 Hours: #7 Toyota leads frantic opening hour

Alexander Wurz turned pole position into a commanding early lead for the #7 Toyota in the first hour of the Le Mans 24 Hours

The ex-Formula 1 driver controlled the race from the beginning, extending his lead with relative ease as a frantic battle developed behind him.

Nicolas Lapierre, who made short work of Neel Jani's Porsche in the early laps, found himself fighting with the Audis of Andre Lotterer and Marco Bonanomi after the first pitstops.

As the first hour drew to a close both Audis had got the better of the Toyota, despite the Japanese car clearly enjoying a straightline speed advantage.

Their scrap was a thriller, with the cars trading blows - and positions - on several occasions as neither manufacturer wanted to give an inch in the early part of the race.

Further back, Tom Kristensen and Timo Bernhard had just as lively a scrap over fifth place, repeatedly swapping positions, while Jani dropped out of contention when the #20 Porsche slowed just after the half-hour mark and had to spend nine minutes in the garage while a fuel pressure issue received attention.

There was a moment of drama in the pits when Wurz was released just ahead of Lotterer as the Audi came in, and the #7 Toyota was placed under investigation for the incident.

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Alexander Imperatori leads the LMP2 class after charging from seventh to first in the #48 KCMG ORECA.

He holds a lead of 16 seconds over the OAK-run G-Drive Racing Ligier of Jann Mardenborough, with the Zytek of Harry Tincknell, which took the lead at the start, now running fourth behind pole position starter Tristan Gommendy's #46 TDS Ligier.

The SMP Racing squad had a tough start, with Mika Salo having to bring in the #27 car for repair to the left-rear suspension. Nicolas Minassian then brought the sister #37 car into the pits, where it remains, with an engine problem.

The Nissan ZEOD RC, running in the Garage 56 slot for experimental cars with green credentials, became the first retirement after completing only five laps.

The car lost drive and stopped at the Porsche Curves with Wolfgang Reip at the wheel, with the team stating it had suffered a suspected gearbox failure.

A request was made to be able to recover the car to race control on the basis that as a Garage 56 entry it is running outside of the overall classification, but this was turned down.

AF CORSE LEADS GTE FIELD

Gianmaria Bruni leads in GTE for the AF Corse Ferrari team, having regained the advantage from the Corvette of Jan Magnussen.

Bruni led from pole initially as Sam Bird's Am-class 458 Italia held back Magnussen, the Aston Martin Vantage of Darren Turner and Oliver Gavin in the second C7.R.

Once Magnussen had cleared Bird though, he slashed Bruni's two-second advantage to nothing and got past on the run down towards Indianapolis just before the 45-minute mark.

Before the pitstops, Bruni jumped back in front, and after the first hour led the #74 Corvette driven by Gavin, which jumped its sister car courtesy of an earlier pitstop.

The #81 AF Ferrari leads the Am division, even though Bird has fallen behind the leading quartet of Pro cars. The Briton was almost a dozen seconds clear of the first of the Astons, with Nicki Thiim's #95 Vantage well clear of the #72 SMP Ferrari driven by Andrea Bertolini.

POSITIONS AFTER 1 HOUR

Pos Cl       Car       Drivers                              Laps  Gap
 1. LMP1 #7  Toyota    Wurz/Sarrazin/Nakajima               16  
 2. LMP1 #2  Audi      Fassler/Lotterer/Treluyer            16  +   36.391s
 3. LMP1 #3  Audi      Albuquerque/Bonanomi/Jarvis          16  +   38.701s
 4. LMP1 #8  Toyota    Davidson/Lapierre/Buemi              16  +   39.577s
 5. LMP1 #1  Audi      Di Grassi/Gene/Kristensen            16  + 1m16.613s
 6. LMP1 #20 Porsche   Bernhard/Webber/Hartley              16  + 1m17.368s
 7. LMP1 #12 Rebellion Prost/Heidfeld/Beche                 15  +     1 Lap
 8. LMP1 #13 Rebellion Kraihamer/Belicchi/Leimer            15  + 1m26.536s
 9. LMP2 #47 Oreca     Howson/Bradley/Imperatori            15  + 1m55.616s
10. LMP2 #35 Ligier    Brundle/Mardenborough/Shulzhitskiy   15  + 2m10.757s
11. LMP2 #46 Ligier    Thiriet/Badey/Gommendy               15  + 2m15.179s
12. LMP2 #38 Zytek     Dolan/Tincknell/Turvey               15  + 2m16.947s
13. LMP2 #34 Oreca     Frey/Mailleux/Lancaster              15  + 2m17.769s
14. LMP2 #24 Oreca     Rast/Charouz/Capillaire              15  + 2m19.281s
15. LMP2 #26 Morgan    Rusinov/Pla/Canal                    15  + 2m22.092s
16. LMP2 #48 Oreca     Berthon/Gonzalez/Chandhok            15  + 2m23.750s
17. LMP2 #36 Alpine    Chatin/Panciatici/Webb               15  + 2m26.955s
18. LMP2 #33 Ligier    Cheng/Tung/Fong                      15  + 2m48.507s
19. LMP2 #43 Morgan    Klien/Hirsch/Brandela                15  + 2m49.754s
20. LMP2 #41 Zytek     Munemman/Latif/Winslow               15  + 2m58.335s
21. LMP2 #50 Morgan    Ragues/Taylor/Ihara                  15  + 3m10.372s
22. LMP2 #29 Morgan    Schell/Leutwiller/Roussel            14  +    2 Laps
23. LMP2 #42 Zytek     Kimber-Smith/McMurry/Dyson           14  +    1.959s
24. GTEP #51 Ferrari   Bruni/Vilander/Fisichella            14  + 1m39.361s
25. GTEP #74 Chevrolet Gavin/Milner/Westbrook               14  + 1m41.271s
26. GTEP #73 Chevrolet Magnussen/Garcia/Taylor              14  + 1m42.973s
27. GTEA #66 Ferrari   Al Faisal/Neiman/Pumpelly            14  + 1m46.558s
28. GTEA #76 Porsche   Narac/Armindo/Hallyday               14  + 1m47.156s
29. GTEP #97 Aston     Turner/Mucke/Senna                   14  + 1m54.429s
30. GTEA #81 Ferrari   Wyatt/Rugolo/Bird                    14  + 1m55.225s
31. GTEP #92 Porsche   Holzer/Makowiecki/Lietz              14  + 1m57.136s
32. GTEA #72 Ferrari   Bertolini/Shaitar/Basov              14  + 2m04.794s
33. GTEA #95 Aston     Poulsen/Heinemeier-Hansson/Thiim     14  + 2m05.054s
34. GTEP #91 Porsche   Pilet/Bergmeister/Tandy              14  + 2m11.179s
35. GTEA #90 Ferrari   Montecalvo/Roda/Ruberti              14  + 2m13.785s
36. GTEA #98 Aston     Dalla Lana/Lamy/Nygaard              14  + 2m23.957s
37. GTEP #52 Ferrari   Griffin/Parente/Leo                  14  + 2m26.268s
38. GTEA #60 Ferrari   Mann/Case/Giammaria                  14  + 2m27.148s
39. GTEA #88 Porsche   Ried/Bachler/Al Qubaisi              14  + 2m30.213s
40. GTEP #71 Ferrari   Rigon/Kaffer/Beretta                 14  + 2m33.689s
41. GTEA #77 Porsche   Dempsey/Foster/Long                  14  + 2m34.429s
42. GTEA #53 Ferrari   Mowlem/Patterson/Hamilton            14  + 2m43.853s
43. GTEA #58 Ferrari   Barthez/Pons/Ayari                   14  + 2m46.397s
44. GTEA #67 Porsche   Maris/Merlin/Helary                  14  + 2m50.045s
45. GTEA #57 Ferrari   Krohn/Jonsson/Collins                14  + 3m11.042s
46. GTEA #61 Ferrari   Perez-Companc/Cioci/Venturi          13  +    3 Laps
47. GTEA #75 Porsche   Perrodo/Collard/Palttala             13  + 2m35.022s
48. GTEA #70 Ferrari   Nakano/Ehret/Rich                    13  + 2m51.506s
49. GTEA #62 Ferrari   Mallegol/Bachelier/Blank             13  + 5m35.566s
50. GTEP #79 Porsche   MacNeil/Curtis/Bleekemolen           12  +    4 Laps
51. LMP1 #14 Porsche   Dumas/Jani/Lieb                      11  +    5 Laps
52. LMP2 #37 Oreca     Ladygin/Minassian/Mediani            9   +    7 Laps
53. LMP2 #27 Oreca     Zlobin/Salo/Ladygin                  8   +    8 Laps
54. CDNT #0  Nissan    Ordonez/Reip/Motoyama                5   +   11 Laps

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