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H19: Pagenaud leads, Wurz shunts

Simon Pagenaud heads the field at Le Mans for Peugeot after Benoit Treluyer made a routine pitstop from the lead in the #2 Audi R18

Having passed the #9 and #7 Peugeots during the 18th hour, Treluyer continued to pull away as he sought to build up a gap before making his routine pitstop. This done, he shuffled back to third until the Peugeots made their own synchronised stops. He was running 30 seconds ahead of Pagenaud's second-placed #9 Peugeot when an incident dropped the third-placed #7 car out of the fight.

Alex Wurz ran straight on at Indianapolis 15 minutes before the turn of the hour, nosing the #7 Peugeot into the barrier. It was towed out of the gravel and Wurz was able to return to the pits with heavy damage to the front-right corner, and the right-front wheel wobbling on its hub. Anthony Davidson took over the car and left the garage four laps later, now lying in fourth place.

The #8 Peugeot, which had been delayed earlier in the race while a stuck brake balance control was fixed, lost more time when Stephane Sarrazin was called in to observe a stop-go penalty because the man on the refuelling hose did not have his visor in place during a refuelling stop.

Treluyer made a routine stop just before the turn of the hour, dropping to second behind Pagenaud.

Loic Duval lies fifth overall in the year-old ORECA Peugeot 908, while Julien Jousse leads the petrol-powered LMP1s in the #16 despite an extended stop earlier in the race. Jousse is sixth, a lap ahead of Nicolas Prost in the Rebellion Lola.

Karim Ojjeh leads LMP2 in the Greaves Zytek by four laps from the #26 ORECA currently driven by Soheil Ayari.

In GTE Pro the #51 Ferrari of Giancarlo Fisichella enjoys a one-lap margin over the Antonio Garcia in the #73 Corvette, which now carries the hopes of Corvette Racing after Jan Magnussen crashed the #74 car out of the class lead.

The #56 BMW is third in class despite a brief off when it ran wide at Indianapolis, kicking up gravel which the #55 BMW then slid off on.

It is a case of last man standing in the GTE Am class since only four of the 10 starters are still running. Larbre Competition are running 1-2 with the #50 Corvette driven by Patrick Bornhauser a lap ahead of Jean-Phillippe Belloc in the team's #70 Porsche, which is in turn five laps clear of Jean-Marc Menahem's #83 Ferrari.


NOTES:

- Jan Magnussen lost control of the GTE Pro-leading #74 Chevrolet Corvette and crashed into the #63 Proton Porsche during the 17th hour, putting both cars out.

- Jean-Christophe Boullion crashed the Rebellion Lola-Toyota in the 14th hour at the Porsche Curves. He had been running eighth at the time of the shunt.

- Mike Rockenfeller was taken to hospital following a frightening accident that totally destroyed the #1 Audi in the seventh hour of the race. The German had been running third when he made contact with a GTE Ferrari at kink after Mulsanne. Audi later confirmed that the German would be kept in overnight for observation but that he was okay.

- The #3 Audi of Allan McNish crashed out of the race in the first hour having just taken second position. The Scot collected the #58 Luxury Racing Ferrari in the right-hander after the Dunlop Bridge. The heavy impact destroyed the car and McNish was taken to hospital for precautionary checks, but was later released with an all-clear.

- Both Aston Martin AMR Ones ran into trouble on the first lap of the race. Darren Turner spinning with mechanical trouble and Adrian Fernandez stopping out on the Mulsanne. The #007 car of Turner was recovered to the pits where it was discovered an alternator belt tensioner was to blame.

POSITIONS AFTER 19 HOURS

Pos  Car            Team                      Class   Gap
 1.  #2  Audi       Audi Sport Team Joest     (LMP1)  
 2.  #9  Peugeot    Team Peugeot Total        (LMP1)  +   25.686
 3.  #8  Peugeot    Peugeot Sport Total       (LMP1)  +    1 Lap
 4.  #7  Peugeot    Peugeot Sport Total       (LMP1)  +   4 Laps
 5.  #10 Peugeot    Team Oreca-Matmut         (LMP1)  +  10 Laps
 6.  #16 Pescarolo  Pescarolo Team            (LMP1)  +  11 Laps
 7.  #12 Lola       Rebellion Racing          (LMP1)  +  12 Laps
 8.  #22 Lola       Kronos Racing             (LMP1)  +  16 Laps
 9.  #41 Zytek      Greaves Motorsport        (LMP2)  +  19 Laps
10.  #26 Oreca      Signatech Nissan          (LMP2)  +  23 Laps
11.  #33 Lola       Level 5 Motorsports       (LMP2)  +  24 Laps
12.  #49 OAK        OAK Racing                (LMP2)  +  26 Laps
13.  #51 Ferrari    AF Corse                  (GTEP)  +  29 Laps
14.  #73 Corvette   Corvette Racing           (GTEP)  +  30 Laps
15.  #77 Porsche    Team Felbermayr-Proton    (GTEP)  +  32 Laps
16.  #76 Porsche    IMSA Performance Matmut   (GTEP)  +  32 Laps
17.  #56 BMW        BMW Motorsport            (GTEP)  +  32 Laps
18.  #36 HPD        RML                       (LMP2)  +  32 Laps
19.  #55 BMW        BMW Motorsport            (GTEP)  +  33 Laps
20.  #40 Oreca      Race Performance          (LMP2)  +  33 Laps
21.  #75 Porsche    Prospeed Competition      (GTEP)  +  34 Laps
22.  #80 Porsche    Flying Lizard Motorsports (GTEP)  +  34 Laps
23.  #35 OAK        OAK Racing                (LMP2)  +  35 Laps
24.  #50 Corvette   Larbre Competition        (GTEA)  +  38 Laps
25.  #70 Porsche    Larbre Competition        (GTEA)  +  39 Laps
26.  #83 Ferrari    JMB Racing                (GTEA)  +  45 Laps
27.  #65 Lotus      Lotus Jetalliance         (GTEP)  +  45 Laps
28.  #66 Ferrari    JMW Motorsport            (GTEP)  +  50 Laps
29.  #68 Ford       Robertson Racing          (GTEA)  +  53 Laps
30.  #44 Norma      Extr                      (LMP2)  +  96 Laps
31.  #74 Corvette   Corvette Racing           (GTEP)  +  61 Laps
32.  #81 Porsche    Flying Lizard Motorsports (GTEA)  +  61 Laps
33.  #48 Oreca      Team Oreca-Matmut         (LMP2)  +  72 Laps
34.  #63 Porsche    Proton Competition        (GTEA)  +  73 Laps
35.  #13 Lola       Rebellion Racing          (LMP1)  Retired
36.  #61 Ferrari    AF Corse                  (GTEA)  +  84 Laps
37.  #59 Ferrari    Luxury Racing             (GTEP)  +  89 Laps
38.  #71 Ferrari    AF Corse                  (GTEP)  +  94 Laps
39.  #88 Porsche    Team Felbermayr-Proton    (GTEP)  + 103 Laps
40.  #42 HPD        Strakka Racing            (LMP2)  Retired
41.  #60 Aston      Gulf AMR Middle East      (GTEA)  Retired
42.  #39 Lola       PeCom Racing              (LMP2)  Retired
43.  #89 Ferrari    Hankook Team Farnbacher   (GTEP)  Retired
44.  #58 Ferrari    Luxury Racing             (GTEP)  + 136 Laps
45.  #64 Lotus      Lotus Jetalliance         (GTEP)  Retired
46.  #57 Ferrari    Krohn Racing              (GTEA)  Retired
47.  #24 OAK        OAK Racing                (LMP1)  Retired
48.  #1  Audi       Audi Sport Team Joest     (LMP1)  Retired
49.  #5  Oreca      Hope Racing               (LMP1)  Retired
50.  #62 Ferrari    CRS Racing                (GTEA)  Retired
51.  #15 OAK        OAK Racing                (LMP1)  Retired
52.  #79 Aston      Jota                      (GTEP)  Retired
53.  #20 Zytek      Quifel-ASM Team           (LMP1)  Retired
54.  #3  Audi       Audi Sport North America  (LMP1)  Retired
55.  #007  AMR-One  Aston Martin Racing       (LMP1)  Retired
56.  #009  AMR-One  Aston Martin Racing       (LMP1)  Retired

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