H20: Audi leads as showers hit Le Mans

Having briefly ceded the lead to Simon Pagenaud after making a routine pitstop, Treluyer assumed the position again when Pagenaud refuelled and handed the #9 Peugeot over to Bourdais 10 minutes into the hour.

With the track conditions seemingly favouring the Audi, Treluyer pulled out a lead of just over a minute before making a routine fuel stop 40 minutes into the hour. Fresh tyres were wheeled out but not fitted, and Treluyer emerged from the pit just behind Bourdais.

It quickly became clear that the Audi's tyres had given their best, and Bourdais slowly but inexorably expanded the gap from 1.5s to 5.9s before diving into the pits himself just before the turn of the hour. He too departed without taking on new tyres.

The #8 and #7 Peugeots are out of the immediate battle for the lead but continue to circulate, in third and fourth one lap and six laps down respectively after their various misfortunes. Eight laps further adrift, the ORECA Peugeot continues to lap at close to frontrunning pace in the hands of Nicolas Lapierre.

The #41 Greaves Zytek of Tom Kimber-Smith continues to lead in LMP2, three laps ahead of Soheil Ayari's ORECA. The #33 Level 5 Lola coupe has moved up to third after the #49 Oak Racing car made an extended visit to the garage.

Halfway through the hour the GTE Pro-leading #51 Ferrari of Giancarlo Fisichella caught up to Antonio Garcia in the #73 Corvette with a view to putting an additional lap on him. Erstwhile third place man Dirk Muller lost a position to the #77 Felbermayr-Proton Porsche of Richard Lietz during his #56 BMW's routine pitstop and returned to the fray 27s down. At the turn of the hour he had reduced that margin to 19.3s

The #50 Larbre Chevrolet still leads in GTE Am, now driven by Julien Canal.

NOTES:

- Jan Magnussen lost control of the GTE Pro-leading #74 Chevrolet Corvette and crashed into the #63 Proton Porsche during the 17th hour, putting both cars out.

- Jean-Christophe Boullion crashed the Rebellion Lola-Toyota in the 14th hour at the Porsche Curves. He had been running eighth at the time of the shunt.

- Mike Rockenfeller was taken to hospital following a frightening accident that totally destroyed the #1 Audi in the seventh hour of the race. The German had been running third when he made contact with a GTE Ferrari at kink after Mulsanne. Audi later confirmed that the German would be kept in overnight for observation but that he was okay.

- The #3 Audi of Allan McNish crashed out of the race in the first hour having just taken second position. The Scot collected the #58 Luxury Racing Ferrari in the right-hander after the Dunlop Bridge. The heavy impact destroyed the car and McNish was taken to hospital for precautionary checks, but was later released with an all-clear.

- Both Aston Martin AMR Ones ran into trouble on the first lap of the race. Darren Turner spinning with mechanical trouble and Adrian Fernandez stopping out on the Mulsanne. The #007 car of Turner was recovered to the pits where it was discovered an alternator belt tensioner was to blame.

POSITIONS AFTER 20 HOURS

Pos  Car            Team                      Class   Gap
 1.  #2  Audi       Audi Sport Team Joest     (LMP1)  
 2.  #9  Peugeot    Team Peugeot Total        (LMP1)  +   59.135
 3.  #8  Peugeot    Peugeot Sport Total       (LMP1)  +    1 Lap
 4.  #7  Peugeot    Peugeot Sport Total       (LMP1)  +   4 Laps
 5.  #16 Pescarolo  Pescarolo Team            (LMP1)  +  11 Laps
 6.  #10 Peugeot    Team Oreca-Matmut         (LMP1)  +  11 Laps
 7.  #12 Lola       Rebellion Racing          (LMP1)  +  12 Laps
 8.  #22 Lola       Kronos Racing             (LMP1)  +  17 Laps
 9.  #41 Zytek      Greaves Motorsport        (LMP2)  +  20 Laps
10.  #26 Oreca      Signatech Nissan          (LMP2)  +  23 Laps
11.  #33 Lola       Level 5 Motorsports       (LMP2)  +  25 Laps
12.  #51 Ferrari    AF Corse                  (GTEP)  +  32 Laps
13.  #73 Corvette   Corvette Racing           (GTEP)  +  32 Laps
14.  #49 OAK        OAK Racing                (LMP2)  +  32 Laps
15.  #36 HPD        RML                       (LMP2)  +  33 Laps
16.  #77 Porsche    Team Felbermayr-Proton    (GTEP)  +  34 Laps
17.  #56 BMW        BMW Motorsport            (GTEP)  +  34 Laps
18.  #55 BMW        BMW Motorsport            (GTEP)  +  35 Laps
19.  #76 Porsche    IMSA Performance Matmut   (GTEP)  +  35 Laps
20.  #40 Oreca      Race Performance          (LMP2)  +  35 Laps
21.  #80 Porsche    Flying Lizard Motorsports (GTEP)  +  36 Laps
22.  #75 Porsche    Prospeed Competition      (GTEP)  +  38 Laps
23.  #35 OAK        OAK Racing                (LMP2)  +  40 Laps
24.  #50 Corvette   Larbre Competition        (GTEA)  +  41 Laps
25.  #70 Porsche    Larbre Competition        (GTEA)  +  42 Laps
26.  #83 Ferrari    JMB Racing                (GTEA)  +  48 Laps
27.  #65 Lotus      Lotus Jetalliance         (GTEP)  +  48 Laps
28.  #66 Ferrari    JMW Motorsport            (GTEP)  +  54 Laps
29.  #68 Ford       Robertson Racing          (GTEA)  +  56 Laps
30.  #44 Norma      Extr                      (LMP2)  +  98 Laps
31.  #74 Corvette   Corvette Racing           (GTEP)  +  77 Laps
32.  #81 Porsche    Flying Lizard Motorsports (GTEA)  +  77 Laps
33.  #48 Oreca      Team Oreca-Matmut         (LMP2)  +  88 Laps
34.  #63 Porsche    Proton Competition        (GTEA)  +  89 Laps
35.  #13 Lola       Rebellion Racing          (LMP1)  Retired
36.  #61 Ferrari    AF Corse                  (GTEA)  + 100 Laps
37.  #59 Ferrari    Luxury Racing             (GTEP)  + 105 Laps
38.  #71 Ferrari    AF Corse                  (GTEP)  + 110 Laps
39.  #88 Porsche    Team Felbermayr-Proton    (GTEP)  + 119 Laps
40.  #42 HPD        Strakka Racing            (LMP2)  Retired
41.  #60 Aston      Gulf AMR Middle East      (GTEA)  Retired
42.  #39 Lola       PeCom Racing              (LMP2)  Retired
43.  #89 Ferrari    Hankook Team Farnbacher   (GTEP)  Retired
44.  #58 Ferrari    Luxury Racing             (GTEP)  + 152 Laps
45.  #64 Lotus      Lotus Jetalliance         (GTEP)  Retired
46.  #57 Ferrari    Krohn Racing              (GTEA)  Retired
47.  #24 OAK        OAK Racing                (LMP1)  Retired
48.  #1  Audi       Audi Sport Team Joest     (LMP1)  Retired
49.  #5  Oreca      Hope Racing               (LMP1)  Retired
50.  #62 Ferrari    CRS Racing                (GTEA)  Retired
51.  #15 OAK        OAK Racing                (LMP1)  Retired
52.  #79 Aston      Jota                      (GTEP)  Retired
53.  #20 Zytek      Quifel-ASM Team           (LMP1)  Retired
54.  #3  Audi       Audi Sport North America  (LMP1)  Retired
55.  #007  AMR-One  Aston Martin Racing       (LMP1)  Retired
56.  #009  AMR-One  Aston Martin Racing       (LMP1)  Retired