Aston Martin concede defeat

Ortelli pulled into the pits with three hours to go after developing gearshifting problems out on circuit, while the car had more than a lap's lead in the class from the No. 64 Corvette.

The car is still stationary in the pits while the clutch is being changed. The car took the lead on the seventh hour and held it comfortably until this problem, however is continuing to drop places.

"We lost the clutch. Nothing more to say, because it is nothing instantly fixable," Ortelli told autosport.com.

"We can fix it, which is what we are doing now, and the team are very quick at doing that. But we just lost the race.

"I lost the clutch on the downshifting, but I thought I could finish the race without the clutch, but it started one lap after to do it on upshifting too. That was on acceleration, and there is nothing you can do about that. You have to come in and replace it.

"I am in love with this race, and I accept this is what happens in Le Mans. We were quite sure that we would be going to the end."

It is the second year in a row that victory has been snatched from the British marque late on due to reliability problems. Last year, Darren Turner lost the lead on the 19th hour with a broken splitter.

Prodrive owner David Richards admitted he still doesn't know what the problem was.

"We're not worried about the diagnosis, we just want to get the car back in the race," he said. "We are going to put Pedro Lamy in the car for the last stint until the finish."

Lamy was disappointed with the outcome.

"We had a very fast car and the possibility to win but this is Le Mans and the race is 24 hours long, not 21," he said. "We knew this could happen."

The only chance for Aston remains with the No. 007 car, which has been promoted to second in class a result of the No. 009's problems.