1hr: Davies leads

Pole-sitter Davies led away from the sister Veloqx-run R8 of Allan McNish at the start, with Andy Wallace moving into third in the Zytek, ahead of the other two R8s. However, it took less than a lap for JJ Lehto and Rinaldo Capello to move into third and fourth respectively, setting up an Audi 1-2-3-4.

Davies built his lead through the first round of stops, and currently leads McNish by over 20 seconds, with Lehto a further three seconds in arrears. But the Team Japan Goh Audi encountered trouble early on, with Capello losing a lot of time after a spin at the Dunlop chicane. To compound matters, the Italian lost further time with a slow pit-stop.

Capello wasn't the only front-runner to hit trouble, with Jan Lammers losing time after an off in his Racing for Holland Dome. However, the team's second entry is providing some compensation for the team, with Tom Coronel running in a strong fourth ahead of the lead Pescarolo entry of Soheil Ayari.

But the most intense battle for honours can be found in the GTS class, where the two Prodrive Ferrari 550s and the pair of works Chevrolet Corvette C5-Rs spent much of the hour running nose-to-tail. The Ferraris led early on, with Peter Kox leading team-mate Darren Turner. But the Corvettes turned things round in the pits, with Oliver Gavin emerging with the class lead.

However, the second Covette of Ron Fellows hit trouble shortly after its stop, running wide into the tyre barriers at Arnage. The machine is currently still being worked on in the pits.

Jean-Marc Gounon has a healthy edge in LM2 in the lead Courage, while Marc Lieb heads the GT category for BAM/Orbit Racing.

The first hour proved tough for several of the Britons in the GT class. The TVR T400R of Nigel Greensall lost several laps in the pits with an intermittent power cut problem, while the works Morgan made a precautionary early stop after an oil problem in the warm-up. Finally, Tim Sugden lost ground with a puncture in the Perrier/Perspective Porsche 911 GT3.

Davies/Herbert/Smith Audi R8 LM1 16 laps completed
Biela/Kaffer/McNish Audi R8 LM1 +23.241s
Lehto/Werner/Pirro Audi R8 LM1 +28.369s
Coronel/Wilson/Firman Dome-Judd LM1 15 laps
Ayari/Comas/Treluyer Pescarolo-Judd LM1 15 laps

Short/Barff/Barbosa Dallara-Judd LM1 15 laps
Wallace/Brabham/Shimoda Zytek Audi R8 LM1 15 laps
Collard/Bourdais/Minassian Pescarolo-Judd LM1 15 laps
Katoh/Michigami/Fukuda Dome-Mugen LM1 15 laps
Lammers/Dyson/Kaneishi Dome-Judd LM1 15 laps
Frei/Gounon/Hancock Courage-AER LM2 15 laps
Nielsen/Elgaard/Moller Lister LM1 15 laps
Ara/Capello/Kristensen Audi R8 LM1 15 laps
Gavin/Beretta/Magnussen Corvette GTS 14 laps
Enge/Kox/Menu Ferrari 550 GTS 14 laps
McRae/Rydell/Turner Ferrari 550 GTS 14 laps
Andre/Leuenberger/Vanni Lola-Judd LM1 14 laps
Bouchut/Goueslard/Dupard Ferrari 550 GTS 14 laps
Maurylaribiere/Boulay/Besson Reynard-Lehman LM1 14 laps
Belmondo/Gosselin/Saviozzi Courage-AER LM2 14 laps
Newton/Erdos/Kinch Lola-MG LM1 14 laps
Field/Dayton/Connor Lola-Judd 14 laps
Bourdais/Blanchemain/Berville Panoz LM1 14 laps
Jeanette/Pickering/Derlot Courage-Willman LM2 14 laps
Maasen/Bergmeister/Long Porsche GT 14 laps
Hindery/Lieb/Rockenfeller Porsche GT 14 laps
Binnie/Field/Sutherland Lola-Judd LM2 14 laps
Rosa/van Merkstein/Caffi Porsche GT 14 laps
Kelleners/Ortelli/Dumas Porsche GT 13 laps
Hezemans/Deletraz/Barde Ferrari 575 GTS 13 laps
Bosch/Sullivan/Biagi Ferrari 575 GTS 13 laps
Burgess/Collin/Bagnalli Porsche GT 13 laps
Kurosawa/Nishizawa/Oriodo Porsche GT 13 laps
Terada/Roussel/Porta WR LM2 13 laps
Bouvet/Gommendy/Briere WR LM2 13 laps
Vasiliev/Fomenko/Nearn Porsche GT 13 laps
Alphand/Laveille/Almeras Porsche GT 13 laps
Wilson/Montain/Hugenholtz Ferrari 360 GT 13 laps
Donaldson/Fisken/Nielsen Porsche GT 13 laps
Warnock/Matthews/Daniels Porsche 13 laps
Andrews/Lockie/Kumpen Lola-Caterpillar LM1 13 laps
Berridge/Caine/Stockton TVR GT 13 laps
Fellows/O'Connell/Papis Corvette GTS 12 laps
Sharpe/Hyde/Cunningham Morgan 12 laps
Khan/Smith/Sugden Porsche GT 12 laps
Melo/Daoudi/de Fournoux Ferrari 360 GT 12 laps
Stirling/Lupberger/McGarrity Nasamax-Judd LM1 11 laps
Tomlinson/Greensall/Evans TVR GT 6 laps