H7: Audi and Corvette collide

The German tried to pass the No. 63 Corvette on the inside at the first corner, and he lost some rear bodywork as the pair collided at high speed.

Jan Magnussen did not come out of the collision without his own problems, as the Dane travelled across the gravel trap at high speed on the approach to the Dunlop Esses.

The Audi drivers have embarked on a fourth consecutive stint in their cars as they continue to dominate the race though.

Allan McNish and Werner had been running comfortably faster than everyone else on track, and before Werner's incident they had not had any problems.

The No. 7 Peugeot is still in third place with Jacques Villeneuve, while Romain Dumas is the sole Pescarolo in the top five.

Both of the Pescarolos had been running well in the early stages of the race, but the No. 17 car went into the garage for a long time with an oil leak, and it is now outside the top 20.

The No. 33 Zytek still leads the LMP2 class, while Aston Martin are still in control in GT1.

Risi Competizione are leading fellow Ferrari runners Scuderia Ecosse in GT2, but Tim Mullen is setting a strong pace in the British-run car.

The safety car came out at the end of the hour, as Shinji Nakano had a big crash in the Creation car at the Porsche Curves.

Felipe Ortiz had also crashed the car earlier in the race when he had brake failure approaching the first chicane on the Mulsanne straight.