Race update 2: Audis rule at halfway

The remaining works R8 of Emanuele Pirro and Frank Biela heads the Gulf-backed example of Stefan Johansson and Patrick Lemarie and the Champion car of Johnny Herbert and Andy Wallace.

But it wasn't totally plain sailing for Biela, who had two close shaves during his opening stint, including a spin in the final corner and a lurid off-track excursion on the pit straight.

For Johansson, who was less than five seconds behind the leader with 500 miles completed, it was a good recovery after his early tribulations that included a stop-and-go penalty that pushed him down the order.

Panoz had looked like mixing it too, but when David Brabham made a mistake lapping a backmarker Viper, it was pretty much game over for the rumbling V8-powered LMP1 Roadster. The car limped back to the pits, and actually got back on track, but was still marooned in 22nd place at the 500-mile mark.

"It was more my fault than the guy in the Viper," said an honest Brabham. "I moved across and tagged him. I apologise to him and to the team."

Fourth overall and best of the non-Audis was the Cadillac of Angelelli, Taylor and Tinseau. As the miles wore on, the car became an ever-stronger package and was matching the Audis for pace at the 500-mile mark.

The second Cadillac, pedalled by Collard and Goossens was the team's bad luck magnet, with a pit fire, stop-and-go penalty and shed front bodywork among its maladies.

In the LMP675 class, Mika Duno was the best-placed woman in the field, holding on to an excellent fifth overall with Graham/Maxwell.

The high attrition at the front had allowed the best of the GTS and GT cars to get into the lower reaches of the top 10. Best of all was the GTS pole-winning Chevrolet Corvette of Pilgrim/Collins/Freon in sixth. But just one spot behind was the top GT car, BMW's 'Muller mobile' of Dirk and Jorg.

With the rain holding off as expected, the race is expected to last 1000 miles and come in at around nine hours, as opposed to the alternative scenario of being flagged after 10 hours of running.