Both Peugeots crash at Silverstone

The French manufacturer's points-leader Nicolas Minassian crashed out of the race spectacularly from third position, with 75 minutes of the race gone, having collided with the GT2 IMSA Performance Porsche on the exit Maggotts.

The Frenchman was lucky to escape injury when his 908 HDi FAP briefly became airborne in an accident that provoked a full-course yellow.

A lap after the restart, Stephane Sarrazin, in the sister Peugeot, which had fallen behind the two Audis at the restart, failed to complete a pass on Audi's Rinaldo Capello for second into Copse corner taking both cars off the track and into the barrier.

Capello recovered with nothing more than a puncture, but the No.7 Peugeot, which led comfortably in the early stages, was forced to pit for significant repairs to the rear-end which cost the team eight laps.

The incident handed the lead to the No.2 Audi, whose crew of Mike Rockenfeller and Alexandre Premat will clinch the drivers' title if they win the race - being just two points behind Minassian and Marc Gene in the standings.

Peugeot's misery has been compounded by the fact that should Capello fight his way back up to second (he is currently fourth), the Audi team could clinch the manufacturer's crown despite the French team's dominance of the first four races in the series.

As the Autosport 1000km reaches half distance, Rockenfeller leads the race by a lap from the Jan Charouz in the Lola Aston Martin with Nicolas Lapierre third in the Oreca a lap ahead of Capello.

Jos Verstappen leads the LMP2 category by two laps from the impressive Embassy Zytek driven by Warren Hughes.

Tomas Enge continues up front in GT1 in the Team Modena Aston Martin after a race-long fight with the Spartak Racing Lamborghini.

Robert Bell, in search of his second successive LMS GT2 crown leads the smaller GT class.