H3: Audi's Werner takes the lead

While Audi's diesel-powered R10 DTIs continue to dominate the French classic, Capello, who took over from pole-sitter Allan McNish in the No. 7 car, has not enjoyed a drama-free run after he was also forced to take to the dirt at the final chicane halfway through his stint.

Having made hard work of passing one the Dutch Spykers, Capello banged side panels with an LMP2 Lola, allowing teammate Marco Werner to close the gap and eventually take advantage of the Italian's extra stop.

Capello is now 42 seconds behind the No.8 Audi of Werner, who happens to also currently be the fastest man on the track.

The No. 7 Audi's minor maladies have also raised French hopes as the third-placed Pescarolo driven by World Rally Champion Sebastien Loeb has closed to within two minutes of Capello.

The Judd V10-powered cars of Loeb and Eric Comas do not seem to have an answer to the fast and fuel economic diesels ahead of them.

Honourary Dutchman Stefan Johannson is fifth as Jan Lammers' Racing for Holland Dome continues to hold the upper hand over Jon Nielsen's Zytek.

Former Le Mans winner Andy Wallace leads the LMP2 class ahead of Stuart Moseley in the impressive Radical.

Corvette's Olivier Beretta continues to lead GT1, although the Subaru rally star is coming under pressure from Stephane Sarrazin in the factory Aston Martin.

The Spyker driven by Mike Hezemans, remarkably, leads GT2. The Dutch supercar currently runs ahead of Raymond Narac's Fiche Technique Porsche, which started at the back of the grid.

Other incidents during the hour included punctures for the Lister and Tim Sugden's Russian Racing Ferrari 550.

The No. 77 GT2 Panoz stopped out on the track near Arnage, while Shinji Nakano retired No. 13 factory Courage just before Indianapolis.