Race update 1: Pirro is champion

Kristensen crashed out on the climb out of the circuit's sweeping esses. The Dane was uninjured, but the Joest-run R8 suffered severe damage to its left side. The safety car was dispatched as Kristensen's team mate Capello watched in resignation from his pit.

"The car went straight into the wall," shrugged Capello. "That's it for us now. But it's been these last few races that have done it for us, not just here. We've had so much bad luck."

As racing resumed at the one-hour mark, Pirro led the race, but was coming under increasing pressure from the Champion Audi of Johnny Herbert, with Stefan Johansson's Gulf-backed Audi in third. Johansson had made the most of the interruptions to claw back into contention after a stop-go penalty for jumping the first restart.

Panoz's challenge was halved at the hour mark when Klaus Graf was forced to retire with engine problems. In the other LMP1 Roadster, David Brabham looked capable of challenging for victory in the 1000km/10 hour event, but was hampered by an air gun exploding during his first pitstop. The Aussie dropped to fifth, but was quickly back up to second.

Further back, Prodrive's Ferrari 550 Maranello had the Banbury-based team scratching its head after developing a mystery vibration.