Le Mans 2013 81st Le Mans 24 Hours
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1h17m GTE Am: Before that stop for McNish - who stayed in the car - the #81 8Star Ferrari span but continued.
1h18m GTE Am: ...And shortly afterwards, Rodrigues spins the #70 Larbre Chevrolet.
1h18m LMP2: The #31 Lotus-Praga of Christophe Bouchut is in the pits with the team investigating the rear of the car.
1h18m LMP1: Andre Lotterer gets the call to box this lap - that's after setting two fastest laps, and then a new fastest middle sector, in the #1 Audi.
1h19m LMP1: Which means Anthony Davidson leads in the #8 Toyota. How much longer can he stay out for?
1h20m What's happening with the Toyotas? Lapierre, who led the team's challenge early on, is now lapping three or four seconds slower than team-mate Davidson. A split fuel strategy perhaps?
1h21m GTE Pro: Marc Lieb has snatched the lead of the class; the Porsche man overtaking Darren Turner's Aston Martin since the safety car came in.
The GTE cars have much better fuel-consumption than the LMPs, so it will be another lap or two before we start seeing most of the front-runners stipping.
The GTE cars have much better fuel-consumption than the LMPs, so it will be another lap or two before we start seeing most of the front-runners stipping.
1h21m LMP1: The safety car allowed Lotterer to run 13 laps. He pit for fuel only. If they're to match their pre-race prediction, Toyota will hope to finish this lap and then pit at the end of the next.
1h23m LMP1: Davidson does indeed complete the 14th lap, but Lapierre is in. He'd just set a personal best in the middle sector.
1h25m LMP1: Davidson's just finding traffic on the Mulsanne straight and lost quite a bit of time in the middle sector - and then again at the beginning of the third sector.
1h25m 
LMP2: Bad news for the Lotus team. After the effects of a burning smell were investigated, Christophe Bouchut's car caught fire briefly and has now been pushed back into the garage.
Le Mans 2013
LMP2: Bad news for the Lotus team. After the effects of a burning smell were investigated, Christophe Bouchut's car caught fire briefly and has now been pushed back into the garage.
1h26m LMP1: Davidson pits in the #8 Toyota - so he runs two laps longer than Lotterer and three laps longer than McNish.
1h28m Here's a full report on the opening hour of the race, including the full running order at the 60-minute mark.
1h28m LMP1: He rejoins behind the trio of Audis - so the #3 car of di Grassi is now second, fractionally ahead of McNish and being forced to defend at the end of the Mulsanne straight.
1h30m LMP1: McNish is really hounding di Grassi for second. As they make their way through traffic at Indianapolis and Arnage he closes right up, but the #3 holds firm for now.
1h32m Maxime Martin goes straight on at the second Mulsanne chicane in the #46 TDS ORECA-Nissan. He's eighth.
1h33m GTE Am: The #67 Imsa Porsche in the hands of Wolf Henzler leads GTE Am, with Darryl O'Young in the #55 AF Ferrari second.
1h34m Olivier Pla is flying – no less than you would expect. He's increasing his lead in P2 over Bertrand Baguette in the battle of the OAK Morgans. It's up to nine seconds now.
1h34m LMP1: Lotterer in the #1 Audi now has an 18s advantage of the squabbling di Grassi and McNish. Davidson is five seconds behind that pair, while Lapierre is holding station a further 10s in arrears.
1h34m GTE Pro: Ooh. Toni Vilander and Jorg Bergmeister collide in the pitlane. That's not the way to do it.
Bergmeister was minding his own business in the pits when Vilander's #71 AF Corse Ferrari was released into his path.
The collision has prompted the message: "Team manager car 71 immediately to race director" to be shown on the timing screens.
Bergmeister was minding his own business in the pits when Vilander's #71 AF Corse Ferrari was released into his path.
The collision has prompted the message: "Team manager car 71 immediately to race director" to be shown on the timing screens.
1h37m GTE Am: Henzler pits the #67 Imsa Porsche, so the #61 Ferrari takes over the lead. Marco Cioci is driving that.
1h37m Baguette responds on the next lap in the internecine OAK Morgan battle to bring the gap down by a more than a second.
1h38m LMP1: McNish passes di Grassi for second.
1h39m LMP2: Briscoe has a nibble at Imperatori at Arnage; the #33 Level 5 HPD tagging the rear of the #47 KCMG car.
Briscoe runs wide, allowing Tom Kimber-Smith to breeze by in the #41 Greaves Zytek-Nissan, and the Brit - a two-time P2 class winner here - makes up further ground at the Ford chicane as he slices inside Imperatori in traffic.
Kimber-Smith is now fifth in class.
Briscoe runs wide, allowing Tom Kimber-Smith to breeze by in the #41 Greaves Zytek-Nissan, and the Brit - a two-time P2 class winner here - makes up further ground at the Ford chicane as he slices inside Imperatori in traffic.
Kimber-Smith is now fifth in class.
1h39m The Scot hauled the #2 Audi in front at the start of the Porsche Curves - he's 25s behind Lotterer now.
1h40m GTE Am: Rodrigues' stint - and the #70 Larbre Chevy's in general - gets worse as he's reported to be travelling slowly on the second half of the Mulsanne straight.
Crash
1h41m LMP2: Imperatori is in the gravel at Arnage. He had been sixth in class but appears to have made contact with one of the Imsa Porsches on his way in.
1h41m Very slow lap there from Lapierre, eight seconds shy of team-mate Davidson. What's going on? Probably traffic, but the #7 car appears a little shy of the pace of its sister car.
1h43m 
Baguette is closing down Pla — he's only just over a second behind now.
Le Mans 2013
Baguette is closing down Pla — he's only just over a second behind now.
1h45m GTE Pro: The top three are pulling away from the rest with Turner, Lieb and Bell separated by only 10s and Bruni a minute behind in his AF Corse Ferrari.
1h45m LMP1: 21 laps completed by Lotterer, who has seen his lead cut to 19.6s - that's the first time it's been under 20s for a few laps. McNish set the #2 Audi's best lap of the race that time around.
1h47m LMP1: And having said that, McNish loses a bit of time in the first sector to traffic, and again in the second, and now has di Grassi on his tail once more.
1h50m LMP2: The #28 Gulf Lola is in the garage and is having significant repairs being made to the front end. Looks like something wrong internally.
1h51m GTE Pro: The battle for second in class is raging between Lieb and Bell; just a tenth of a second separating them as they cross the line for the 21st time. A slow Larbre Corvette being lapped helped bunch them up through the Ford chicane.
1h52m LMP1: McNish - who was the first of the leaders to stop first time around - pits the #2 Audi.
Rain
1h54m It's drizzling on the front straight. Toyota had reported during the safety car period that they didn't foresee rain for a couple of hours, but that's not what our eyes are telling us.
1h55m LMP1: Lotterer brings the #1 Audi in to the pits.
1h56m LMP1: Now di Grassi is also in - with rain reported at Porsche Curves.
Rain
1h58m Rain reported across the circuit - but it's not enough to warrant a change of tyres, we reckon, so the Toyotas - who haven't made their second stops yet - don't quite have an ace card.
1h59m GTE Am: The AUTOSPORT team has just seen video footage from on-board one of the Corvettes on the third lap.
There was no contact between Simonsen and any other car. Visually the Dane got on the kerb at the exit of Tertre Rouge, got a slide on and then turned sharp left towards the barrier.
We still wait to hear from Aston Martin for an update on his condition.
There was no contact between Simonsen and any other car. Visually the Dane got on the kerb at the exit of Tertre Rouge, got a slide on and then turned sharp left towards the barrier.
We still wait to hear from Aston Martin for an update on his condition.
By: Jamie O'Leary, Gary Watkins, Sam Tremayne, Scott Mitchell, Geoff Creighton, Matt Beer
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