19hrs: Kristensen ups ante

But that advantage has crept up from 90 seconds not so long ago. In the last hour Kristensen has consistently lapped one to two second quicker than Smith, who took over the Audi UK car from Johnny Herbert. Kristensen banged in his car's best lap of the race in 1m35.6s, showing that the car has rediscovered its sweet spot.

Interestingly, the Team Goh machine's quickest lap of the race is still slower than that of any other Audi. Although the Herbert/Smith/Jamie Davies R8 is giving hard chase, the other two Audis are not contesting for a win in spite of lapping very fast. The Champion car is still third but ten laps adrift, and Frank Biela has fought back as far as eighth in the second Audi UK entry.

Benoit Treluyer is back up to normal speed in the Pescarolo-Judd after the dramas earlier in his stint, but the Frenchman is four laps behind the Champion Audi and several ahead of the other Pescarolo car. Behind that, in sixth overall, is the lead GTS Ferrari in the hands of Tomas Enge, so the order in the top five looks stable apart from the scrap for the lead.

LMP2 is still led by Intersport Racing's Lola-Judd, driven by Clint Field, Rick Sutherland and William Binnie. It is nearly twenty laps ahead of the Yojiro Terada/Patrice Roussel/Olivier Porta Welter Racing entry WR-Peugeot. The category has been the usual battle of attrition this year.

In the GT division, the leading Porsche is up to thirteenth in the overall standings. And that is the Freisinger car of Romain Dumas, Stephane Ortelli and Timo Bernhard. It will have to stay vigilant because it has the chasing Petersen Motorsport example just a couple of laps behind.

Ara/Capello/Kristensen Audi R8 LM1 298 laps completed
Davies/Herbert/Smith Audi R8 LM1 297 laps
Lehto/Werner/Pirro Audi R8 LM1 289 laps
Ayari/Comas/Treluyer Pescarolo-Judd LM1 285 laps
Collard/Bourdais/Minassian Pescarolo-Judd LM1 278 laps
Enge/Kox/Menu Ferrari 550 GTS 276 laps
Gavin/Beretta/Magnussen Corvette GTS 271 laps
Biela/Kaffer/McNish Audi R8 LM1 269 laps
Andre/Leuenberger/Vanni Lola-Judd LM1 266 laps
Fellows/O'Connell/Papis Corvette GTS 264 laps
Lammers/Dyson/Kaneishi Dome-Judd LM1 263 laps
Kelleners/Ortelli/Dumas Porsche GT 259 laps
Coronel/Wilson/Firman Dome-Judd LM1 258 laps
Maasen/Bergmeister/Long Porsche GT 256 laps
McRae/Rydell/Turner Ferrari 550 GTS 256 laps
Bouchut/Goueslard/Dupard Ferrari 550 GTS 254 laps
Kurosawa/Nishizawa/Oriodo Porsche GT 253 laps
Burgess/Collin/Bagnall Porsche GT 249 laps
Alphand/Laveille/Almeras Porsche GT 248 laps
Wilson/Montain/Hugenholtz Ferrari 360 GT 247 laps
Donaldson/Fisken/Nielsen Porsche GT 247 laps
Stirling/Lupberger/McGarrity Nasamax-Judd LM1 247 laps
Newton/Erdos/Kinch Lola-MG LM1 242 laps
Berridge/Caine/Stockton TVR GT 240 laps
Khan/Smith/Sugden Porsche GT 233 laps
Tomlinson/Greensall/Evans TVR GT 228 laps
Nielsen/Elgaard/Moller Lister LM1 224 laps
Binnie/Field/Sutherland Lola-Judd LM2 222 laps
Terada/Roussel/Porta WR LM2 203 laps
Sharpe/Hyde/Cunningham Morgan GT 177 laps
Short/Barff/Barbosa Dallara-Judd LM1 230 laps
Hindery/Lieb/Rockenfeller Porsche GT 223 laps
Katoh/Michigami/Fukuda Dome-Mugen LM1 206 laps
Hezemans/Deletraz/Barde Ferrari 575 GTS 200 laps
Bosch/Sullivan/Biagi Ferrari 575 GTS 167 laps
Wallace/Brabham/Shimoda Zytek LM1 163 laps
Rosa/van Merkstein/Caffi Porsche GT 148 laps
Bouvet/Gommendy/Briere WR LM2 137 laps
Melo/Daoudi/de Fournoux Ferrari 360 GT 133 laps
Frei/Gounon/Hancock Courage-AER LM2 127 laps
Jeanette/Pickering/Derlot Courage-Willman LM2 124 laps
Maurylaribiere/Boulay/Besson Reynard-Lehman LM1 122 laps
Belmondo/Gosselin/Saviozzi Courage-AER LM2 80 laps
Vasiliev/Fomenko/Nearn Porsche GT 65 laps
Bourdais/Blanchemain/Berville Panoz LM1 54 laps
Andrews/Lockie/Kumpen Lola-Caterpillar LM1 35 laps
Field/Dayton/Connor Lola-Judd LM1 29 laps
Warnock/Matthews/Daniels Porsche 27 laps