McNish completes first hour in lead

Allan McNish and Marco Werner surged to the front at the start in wet conditions, with McNish quickly pulling away from his team-mate, who in turn dropped the Peugeots.

The track has now dried sufficiently for slick tyres, with McNish changing from wets at an ideal time and remaining nearly a minute clear of the field.

Pedro Lamy is up to second in the #07 Peugeot, the #1 Audi having fallen back to fourth behind the De Ferran Acura after staying on wets too long.

The repaired Highcroft Acura is already in fifth, ahead of the Intersport Lola, the Drayson Lola and the ORECA, which was delayed by an additional early tyre stop, and the second Peugeot - which stayed on wets at its first stop and had to come in again for slicks soon afterwards.

The Fernandez Acura holds a lonely lead in LMP2 as disasters have struck the faster Dyson Lola-Mazda and Cytosport Porsche. Klaus Graf was the hero of the opening hour in the latter car - charging through the field to run fifth overall, ahead of the #08 Peugeot, and even lapping the Fernandez machine.

But Graf then spun off the road on his first lap on slicks and struggled to get the Porsche going again, stopping repeatedly in the following laps.

Marino Franchitti had to make a very early stop for Dyson to change a gearshift actuator, costing the car seven laps.

Corvette is dominating in GT2, with Oliver Gavin's #4 car ahead of the #3, which Johnny O'Connell spun just after his stop for slicks.