H2: #2 car leads Peugeot formation
As expected Peugeot established itself in control of the 2010 Le Mans 24 Hours at a relatively early stage of the race as Franck Montagny led the trio of factory 908 HDi FAPs - their nearest competitor the privateer ORECA example 20 seconds further down the road
The second hour ran safety car-free which allowed the three French machines to run in tandem, with Montagny's #2 machine having moved to the front during the first pitstops.
The Frenchman diced momentarily with Pedro Lamy in the #3 car, halfway through the hour, while Marc Gene kept a watching brief further back in third. All three cars though ran between two-three seconds away from a represenatative 'fast' pace suggesting that the team is managing its advantage at the moment.
The cars have now pitted for a second time with no change of position - the leader recording a 12-lap stint between fuel requirements, the same as the Audis.
ORECA's Nicolas Lapierre remains fourth, running out of sync on strategy with the factory cars, and enjoyed another intense battle with an Audi during the second hour - this time driven by Timo Bernhard, but only until the pitstops.
Allan McNish remains fifth in what is the leading Audi, some 80s behind the leader and nearly a minute behind Lapierre. The Scot remains 10s ahead of Bernhard with the third Audi of Marcel Faessler seventh a further 19s back.
Stefan Mucke and Darren Turner ran tandem in the two factory Astons - still on the lead lap - while Oliver Jarvis completed the top ten in the Kolles Audi R10.
Further back Soheil Ayari had an eventful hour in the ORECA - making contact with Jean-Francois Yvon's Oak Racing Pescarolo Judd. The Frenchman recovered only to then bang panels with Mucke in the first Mulsanne chicane two laps later. He currently runs 16th and last in class.
Strakka's Danny Watts led LMP2 throughout the second hour in an impressive performance run ahead of David Brabham's Highcroft Acura.
Thomas Erdos is third in the HPD-powered RML Lola.
Thomas Mutsch remained in the lead of the GT1 class in the Matech Ford ahead of the Luc Alphand Corvette - with five seconds between them. Also in class, one of the early pace-setters Bas Leinders crashed heavily just after the Dunlop Chicane.
The Marc VDS Ford took some severe rear-end damage and as the hour turned was trailing slowly back to the pits.
Corvette's Oliver Gavin led throughout the hour in GT2, but thanks to pitstops, Jaime Melo is now second in the Risi Ferrari - a stirling effort considering the car was forced to start from the back.
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