Audi move ahead as Peugeot falter

Peugeot had dominated the opening part of the race, with Nicolas Minassian and Pedro Lamy establishing a 35-second lead over the Tom Kristensen, Dindo Capello and Allan McNish Audi.

But when the leaders came in for scheduled stops under yellow just before the three-hour mark, the Peugeot mechanics had to remove the 908's rear bodywork to attend to a leak in the transmission.

The car spent 14 minutes in the pits before rejoining in 10th position with Stephane Sarrazin at the wheel. But having carried out the entire repair under yellow, Peugeot only lost three laps to the leading Audis.

The pace car period - called after Paul Drayson crashed the GT2 Aston Martin at Turn 1 - allowed the No.2 Audi crew to close back in on their teammates, having fallen 20 seconds behind due to three separate trips off the road under braking for Turn 10.

When racing resumed following 20 minutes under caution, McNish led teammate Mike Rockenfeller by less than a second with nine hours remaining.

The Andretti-Green Acura continues to lead the LMP2 class in third overall thanks to Marco Andretti's superb opening stint charge. The IndyCar driver has now handed over to co-driver Christian Fittipaldi, who has a 20-second advantage over Romain Dumas' chasing Penske Porsche.

Dumas had earlier dropped back due to a pit lane speeding penalty, then closed on the AGR car under yellow only to have to return to the pits for a nose change when bodywork damage was spotted.

The second Penske Porsche is out of the race, having developed a water leak at the end of the first hour. The car briefly rejoined after 18 minutes behind the wall, but only managed one lap before returning to the paddock.

The Dyson Porsches now hold fifth and sixth overall, ahead of the Fernandez and Highcroft Acuras.

The Johnny O'Connell/Ron Fellows/Jan Magnussen Corvette is now dominating the GT1 class after teammates Oliver Gavin, Olivier Beretta and Max Papis lost 18 minutes with a driveshaft problem. That has allowed the Bell Aston Martin to move up to second in the slim class, two laps behind the lead Corvette.

In GT2, the Risi Ferrari has maintained its lead over the chasing Flying Lizard and Farnbacher Loles Porsches throughout the first quarter of the race.

Leading positions after three hours:

Pos  Driver                Car                Laps/gap
 1.  Allan McNish          Audi R10 TDi       88 laps
 2.  Mike Rockenfeller     Audi R10 TDi       +   0.809
 3.  Christian Fittipaldi  Acura ARX-01B      +    57.2
 4.  Romain Dumas          Porsche RS Spyder  +1:19.426
 5.  Guy Smith             Porsche RS Spyder  +1:29.872
 6.  Marino Franchitti     Porsche RS Spyder  +   1 lap
 7.  Adrian Fernandez      Acura ARX-01B      +   1 lap
 8.  Scott Sharp           Acura ARX-01B      +   1 lap
 9.  Didier Theys          Porsche RS Spyder  +  3 laps
10.  Stephane Sarrazin     Peugeot 908        +  3 laps