H1: Capello leads Audi 1-2-3

Frank Biela currently occupies second place, ahead of Lucas Luhr in the Audi Sport team Joest car.

Peugeot have appeared to have little answer for the pace of the Audis thus far, but they are still in contention, with Nicolas Minassian running fourth ahead of the sister car of Sebastien Bourdais.

The latter's race got off to an embarrassing start when he tripped over a chicane on the first lap and dropped three places.

There has been little revealed about how the two marques compare on fuel mileage yet, with the five leading cars all completing their first stop within a two-lap window.

First of the petrol-powered LMP1s is the Pescarolo driven by Emmanuel Collard, although it has already lost touch with the leaders and is more than two minutes back down the road.

Warren Hughes has passed Adrian Fernandez to take the LMP2 lead in his Quifel entry. Michael Vergers was also in contention until he spun 20 minutes into the race while battling Hughes for second, and lost 40s.

The main action is currently in GT1, where David Brabham leads in his Aston from the similar cars of Peter Cox and Christophe Bochut.

Richard Lietz leads the GT2 class in the IMSA Porsche.

Virtually the entire first hour was run under dry conditions, although rain was starting to fall just as the second hour began, prompting a Safety Car.