Le Mans Virtual Hour 12: Rebellion Williams 1-2 at half-distance, Verstappen/Norris out

Haas F1 reserve and Formula 2 race-winner Louis Deletraz - the current SRO GT Esports championship leader - was able to build on the race lead attained by his team-mate in the #1 Rebellion entry, Mercedes GT factory driver Raffaele Marciello, when the Redline entry driven by Max Verstappen hit trouble in hour 10.

Verstappen, sharing the #20 car with fellow F1 driver Lando Norris, encountered technical issues and ended up with damage as the glitching caused a series of incidents.

He handed the car over to Redline director Atze Kerkhof, who also encountered technical issues and the team was forced to retire before the halfway mark.

Norris tweeted: "Hard work pays off. That's for sure. But some things are out of our control. We did our best but, doesn't always work out."

They became the first official retirement of the event, organised by the World Endurance Championship, Automobile Club de l'Ouest and Motorsport Games, after Fernando Alonso and Rubens Barrichello's entry was reinstated into the race after the red flag period in hour five, despite Alonso having initially stopped on track with no fuel in the first hour.

Redline's woes left Rebellion Williams' #1 entry as the clear race leader ahead of the sister #13 car, which features Williams F1 reserve Jack Aitken and Argentine sportscar racer Agustin Canapino, also an avid sim racer.

The top three was completed by the pole-sitting ByKolles car, which has recovered from a jump-start penalty for the team's Le Mans regular Tom Dillmann and its sim racer Jesper Pedersen also hitting technical woes.

That car is running on an alternative pitstop strategy to the two leading Rebellion Williams cars in third place.

The 2 Seas Motorsport entry enjoyed spells at the front of the field with Formula E driver Oliver Rowland earlier in the race but slipped down to fourth place after 12 hours.

Arthur Rougier ensured there were three Rebellion Williams cars in the top five in the #3 car he shares with fellow Renault junior refugee Yife Ye, ahead of the leading Veloce #24 car, with two-time Formula E champion Jean-Eric Vergne and current AlphaTauri driver Pierre Gasly amongst its drivers.

Team Penske's difficult return to Le Mans for the first time since 1971 with one of only two all-pro line-ups in the field continued, with further problems leaving the car as the last-running LMP entry at the halfway stage.

The #93 Porsche's domination of the GTE class continues with its lead in the class standing at almost half a lap over the Corvette entered by Romain Grosjean's Esports team, which recovered from an earlier collision with Katherine Legge's Richard Mille prototype.

Third and fourth place was occupied by the #92 and the #91 Porsche cars respectively.

You can follow all of the action live on Autosport.com and Motorsport.TV.