Le Mans 24 Hours: #2 Audi in trouble as sister car closes in
The leading #2 Audi R18 e-tron quattro was in its garage at three-quarters distance and on the brink of losing the lead to the sister machine of Marc Gene
Marcel Fassler, who had a lead of more than two laps, was pushed into the garage after taking on fuel.
The car's front and rear bodywork was removed and then replace and pushed back onto the pit apron, before failing to restart and being taken back into the garage.
The problem was with the turbo, which was being changed at the the top of the hour.
The #1 R18 moved into second place in Lucas di Grassi when the #20 Porsche swapped from Brendon Hartley to Mark Webber and took on tyres.
Di Grassi was able to pull away from Webber despite the Porsche driver's fresh rubber and built up enough of a gap for Marc Gene to hang onto second when he took over the #2 Audi.
In LMP2, the G-Drive-backed OAK Racing Ligier continues to dominate the class, with Brundle leading from the #36 Alpine Signatech ORECA.
The #46 TDS Ligier, driven by Badey, is third with the #34 Race Performance ORECA of Frey.
Toni Vilander took over from Gianmaria Bruni in the GTE Pro-leading Ferrari 458 Italia and enjoyed a clear lead from the #97 Aston in which Stefan Mucke set a lap quicker than the car's qualifying mark.
Kristian Poulsen continues to lead the GTE Am class in the #95 Aston Martin, chased by the #88 Proton Porsche.
POSITIONS AFTER 16 HOURS Pos Cl Car Drivers Laps Gap 1. LMP1 #2 Audi Fassler/Lotterer/Treluyer 252 2. LMP1 #1 Audi Di Grassi/Gene/Kristensen 249 + 3 Laps 3. LMP1 #20 Porsche Bernhard/Webber/Hartley 249 + 34.711s 4. LMP1 #8 Toyota Davidson/Lapierre/Buemi 241 + 11 Laps 5. LMP1 #14 Porsche Dumas/Jani/Lieb 240 + 12 Laps 6. LMP2 #35 Ligier Brundle/Mardenborough/Shulzhitskiy 235 + 17 Laps 7. LMP2 #36 Alpine Chatin/Panciatici/Webb 235 + 2m12.514s 8. LMP2 #46 Ligier Thiriet/Badey/Gommendy 234 + 18 Laps 9. LMP2 #34 Oreca Frey/Mailleux/Lancaster 233 + 19 Laps 10. LMP1 #12 Rebellion Prost/Heidfeld/Beche 233 + 1m47.855s 11. LMP2 #38 Zytek Dolan/Tincknell/Turvey 232 + 20 Laps 12. LMP2 #24 Oreca Rast/Charouz/Capillaire 231 + 21 Laps 13. LMP2 #43 Morgan Klien/Hirsch/Brandela 230 + 22 Laps 14. LMP2 #33 Ligier Cheng/Tung/Fong 227 + 25 Laps 15. LMP2 #42 Zytek Kimber-Smith/McMurry/Dyson 224 + 28 Laps 16. GTEP #51 Ferrari Bruni/Vilander/Fisichella 223 + 29 Laps 17. GTEP #97 Aston Turner/Mucke/Senna 223 + 1m19.949s 18. GTEP #92 Porsche Holzer/Makowiecki/Lietz 222 + 30 Laps 19. LMP2 #29 Morgan Schell/Leutwiller/Roussel 221 + 31 Laps 20. GTEP #73 Chevrolet Magnussen/Garcia/Taylor 221 + 2m36.050s 21. LMP2 #50 Morgan Ragues/Taylor/Ihara 220 + 32 Laps 22. LMP2 #27 Oreca Zlobin/Salo/Ladygin 220 + 1m48.435s 23. GTEP #74 Chevrolet Gavin/Milner/Westbrook 220 + 2m31.381s 24. GTEA #95 Aston Poulsen/Heinemeier-Hansson/Thiim 220 + 2m48.755s 25. GTEA #88 Porsche Ried/Bachler/Al Qubaisi 217 + 35 Laps 26. GTEA #61 Ferrari Perez-Companc/Cioci/Venturi 216 + 36 Laps 27. GTEA #90 Ferrari Montecalvo/Roda/Ruberti 216 + 1m09.806s 28. GTEA #57 Ferrari Krohn/Jonsson/Collins 216 + 2m07.885s 29. GTEA #77 Porsche Dempsey/Foster/Long 215 + 37 Laps 30. GTEA #70 Ferrari Nakano/Ehret/Rich 215 + 1m57.156s 31. GTEA #58 Ferrari Barthez/Pons/Ayari 214 + 38 Laps 32. GTEA #66 Ferrari Al Faisal/Neiman/Pumpelly 213 + 39 Laps 33. GTEA #76 Porsche Narac/Armindo/Hallyday 213 + 3m18.606s 34. GTEA #98 Aston Dalla Lana/Lamy/Nygaard 212 + 40 Laps 35. GTEA #67 Porsche Maris/Merlin/Helary 210 + 42 Laps 36. GTEP #79 Porsche MacNeil/Curtis/Bleekemolen 208 + 44 Laps 37. GTEA #53 Ferrari Mowlem/Patterson/Hamilton 205 + 47 Laps 38. GTEA #72 Ferrari Bertolini/Shaitar/Basov 196 + 56 Laps 39. GTEP #91 Porsche Pilet/Bergmeister/Tandy 193 + 59 Laps 40. GTEA #62 Ferrari Mallegol/Bachelier/Blank 188 + 64 Laps 41. GTEA #75 Porsche Perrodo/Collard/Palttala 180 + 72 Laps 42. GTEP #52 Ferrari Griffin/Parente/Leo 140 + 112 Laps 43. LMP1 #7 Toyota Wurz/Sarrazin/Nakajima 219 Retired 44. LMP2 #26 Morgan Rusinov/Pla/Canal 120 Retired 45. GTEA #60 Ferrari Mann/Case/Giammaria 115 Retired 46. LMP2 #47 Oreca Howson/Bradley/Imperatori 87 Retired 47. LMP1 #13 Rebellion Kraihamer/Belicchi/Leimer 73 Retired 48. LMP2 #48 Oreca Berthon/Gonzalez/Chandhok 73 Retired 49. LMP2 #41 Zytek Munemman/Latif/Winslow 31 Retired 50. GTEP #71 Ferrari Rigon/Kaffer/Beretta 28 Retired 51. LMP1 #3 Audi Albuquerque/Bonanomi/Jarvis 25 Retired 52. GTEA #81 Ferrari Wyatt/Rugolo/Bird 22 Retired 53. LMP2 #37 Oreca Ladygin/Minassian/Mediani 9 Retired 54. CDNT #0 Nissan Ordonez/Reip/Motoyama 5 Retired
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments