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WEC 24 Hours of Le Mans

The 78th Le Mans 24 Hours

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17h13m Meantime, the #2 Peugeot that went up in smoke and flames while leading the race is finally back with the team in the pits.
17h12m Tyres, fuel and a driver change for the #7 Audi and McNish rolls away.
17h12m Allan McNish is down in the #7 Audi pit waiting to receive Dindo Capello. Indeed, he comes in and the Scot climbs aboard. Capello straps him into the fourth placed car as the tyres are changed.
17h07m The #9 Audi rejoins still in charge at La Sarthe with the #8 Audi in second and Davidson charging as hard as he can for Peugeot in third. The #1 908 is two laps down still, but lapping on average two to three seconds faster than the leaders.
17h07m

The #2 Peugeot about to retire © LAT
Here's a shot of the #2 Peugeot expiring from the lead an hour ago, which is the big overnight development from Le Mans.
17h05m Anthony Davidson continues his stunning pace in the #1 Peugeot but in the pits we see the leader is in. Timo Bernhard hands over to Romain Dumas. Tyres and fuel this time and he's away still in the lead.
17h02m In further GT2 action, the #75 has just about survived a wild spin on the run down to Tetre Rouge. Niek Hommerson is driving that Porsche at the moment and may need to pit to check the radiators after pranging the Armco.
17h02m We tick through the 17 hour mark and the #007 Aston Martin is still in the garage with gearbox problems. It is shown as still in sixth position, but will surely be sliding down the order towards ninth or tenth at this time.
17h00m The #76 IMSA Performance Porsche has been garaged in recent minutes.
17h00m The #4 Oreca Peugeot pits from fifth position in the race.
16h59m Davidson is instantly on the pace and posts 3m22.836s - five seconds faster than the #8 Audi in second and two seconds faster than the #9 leading car.
16h56m Interesting action on the circuit - the third placed #1 Peugeot has caught the #7 Audi to put another lap on it.

Suddenly there is a lot of team radio chatter to Dindo Capello ... but it's to no avail as Davidson moves past the #7 and can now continue charging after the leading two Audi cars unhindered.
16h54m Aston say it is a gearbox issue for the garaged car: "007 been taken into garage - checks being made to gearbox"
16h52m More problems at the front of the field - this time for the sixth placed #007 Aston Martin piloted by Harold Primat. He has toured slowly back to the pits and has spent several minutes in the garage.
16h51m The #40 was fifth in LMP2 before that series of incidents for Amaral, who has now made it back to the pits and in to the garage.
16h50m Amaral has extracted the #40 from the fence at Arnarge but was too quick through the Porsche Curves and has now done much more damage to the Ginetta.
16h48m Miguel Amaral is the next man to run straight on into the welcoming tyre wall at Arnarge in the #40 Quifel ASM Racing Ginetta.
16h47m Tyres and fuel for the #1 car and Davidson heads off to try and chase down the Audis. He will hope to avoid another spin like he suffered a few laps into his night-time stint.
16h46m Richard Westbrook in the #97 BMS Scuderia Porsche trails down the pitlane with a puncture.
16h46m Car #1 peels into the pits as Gene slows down the rip-roaring pace. He climbs out of the Peugeot after another good stint and hands over to Anthony Davidson.
16h45m No such drama in GT1 as the #50 Larbre Competition holds - as it has done for about five hours now - a two lap lead over the #73 Luc Alphand Aventures Corvette.

The #52 Young Driver AMR entry is still third and now ten laps behind.
16h43m Marc Gene is continuing to lap extremely quickly in car #1. The remaining factory Peugeot has consistently been the fastest car in the field for the last six hours. Gene clocks 3m21.005s.
16h43m The #64 Corvette holds a lead of over a lap in GT2, with the #77 Felbermayr-Proton Porsche now heading the chase with Marc Lieb at the wheel.
16h40m Benoit Treluyer is in the pits with the second placed #8 Audi. He hands over control to Marcel Faessler and it roars off back into the action.
16h39m Suddenly the #009 Aston Martin is recovering from a moment early in the lap. That car is in seventh position.
16h39m Corvette's Doug Fehan on 63 Corvette retirement: "Our first engine problem in 11 years at #LeMans. No indication leading up to it."
16h38m The #39 KSM Lola-Judd is finally trailing back into the pits after that off at Arnarge around half an hour ago.
16h35m The #11 Drayson Racing Lola is undergoing further repair work in the pits. Jonny Cocker has been in the car for a good while but now the engine cover is off as the team investigates a mechanical problem.
16h31m Dindo Capello comes into the pits in the #7 Audi. Looks like routine service and he heads back out in fourth place.
16h29m Montagny has arrived back with his team and the post-mortem begins, as he describes to team members what he felt as the #2 began to blow out smoke and flames on that lap out of the pits.
16h28m Timing and scoring has the gap between the front-running Audis at 2m12s, with Marc Gene and the #1 Peugeot shown as one lap down.
16h24m Timo Bernhard brings the leading Audi #9 into the pits. Fuel only and he rejoins with less than one lap's advantage over the #8 car.
16h21m The wonders of communication send Montagny into despair. He phones the garage from his position at Tertre Rouge and is told that it's game over.

He had stayed with the car searching for some kind of silver lining for some minutes, but he's trudged away and is heading back to the pits on the back of a motorbike.
16h19m Nicolas Lapierre remains in the cockpit of the #4 entry and resumes in fifth.
16h18m Here's Audi's view on the demise of the #2 Peugeot - "Dr. Ulrich: "We will not change anything...not take unnecessary risks."
16h18m The #7 is up to fourth position and Dindo Capello is behind the wheel, with the #4 Oreca Peugeot now fifth ... and in the pits for routine service.
16h16m The order at the front of the race is now like this: Audi is one-two with the #9 leading by 2m15s ahead of #8. The #1 Peugeot that has been the fastest car through the night is third with Marc Gene at the wheel.
16h16m Jean de Pourtales is at the wheel of that car, which is being pulled out of the escape road by marshals.
16h12m The unfortunate Montagny looks absolutely gutted. The #2 was holding a two-lap lead very comfortably, but suddenly the victory bid is over.

By: Emlyn Hughes, Geoff Creighton, Steven English, Sam Tremayne

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