Audi on top at quarter distance

Dindo Capello has taken over the lead car from Allan McNish, and has to been able to edge away from Peugeot's Nicolas Minassian at each restart - currently holding an advantage of 12s. The team held the lead at the driver change despite McNish briefly losing control in the slippery pitlane and missing his marks.

The #08 Peugeot is back up to third ahead of the #1 Audi, and has got back onto the lead lap thanks to the cautions. Peugeot's second car had earlier dropped two laps down having stayed on wets at its first stop as all its rivals opted for slicks - forcing an out of sequence return to the pits soon after.

The Highcroft Acura has fallen to sixth behind the ORECA, but remains in great shape for the American Le Mans Series LMP1 title as its rival De Ferran Motorsports has fallen further behind due to a crash by Scott Dixon. The IndyCar champion slid into the tyres at Turn 5, and is running 25 laps down in 23rd - 10th in class - following repairs.

Dyson's #16 Lola-Mazda is the top LMP2 car, but as it running on new bio-butanol fuel this weekend it is ineligible for class points - so the sister #20 entry leads the field thanks to the hitherto dominant Fernandez Acura having to come into the pits for attention a few laps ago.

The yellows allowed Corvette's rivals to catch up in GT2, but Jan Magnussen and Olivier Beretta soon pulled away again. The #92 Rahal Letterman BMW is third, with its sister car a long way down the order following a stop to attend to an oil leak.

The Flying Lizard Porsche, Farnbacher Loles Porsche and Risi Ferrari continue to hound BMW's Dirk Muller for third in class.