Hour 17: Kristensen keeps the pace up
With seven hours of the Le Mans 24 Hours remaining, the number one Audi R8 of Tom Kristensen, Emanuele Pirro and Frank Biela continues to hold sway. Kristensen set the car's fastest lap of the race just before his stop to hand over to Pirro
The number one Joest-run car holds a two-lap lead over the number two cars of Capello/Herbert/Pescatori. The Audi Sport North America Joest R8 of Krumm/Peter/Werner is 1m30secs in arrears of the second placed car, while the sole Bentley continues to circulate in fourth position.
"The car is running like a dream, so fingers crossed for the rest of the race," said Kristensen. "I set the fastest time when I got a clear lap. The tyres are fantastic when you don't get punctures. We're going to try and pace ourselves from now on and be a little more conservative."
Team ORECA has cemented both its cars in the top six, ahead of the Racing for Holland Dome. The lead Cadillac, which lost time with a blow-out that caused an off, had battled its way back to sixth, but has now dropped to eighth again after another lengthy pit stop.
With the demise of the MG attack, the Welter Racing WR-Peugeot squad leads the LMP675 class.
In GTS, the Chevrolet Corvette squad holds a one-two. Although the Oliver Gavin car holds a four-lap lead, his team-mate Franck Freon is just 1m30secs ahead of the third placed ORECA-run Chrysler Viper of Jonathan Cochet.
Lucas Lohr has taken the lead of the GT class in the The Racers Group-run Porsche, ahead of the Freisinger entry.
The Morgan hit trouble in hour 17, stuttering around the lap after slowing on the Mulsanne straight. It is now in the pits.
Stay tuned to Autosport.com for further hourly updates.
Biela/Kristensen/Pirro Audi Sport Team Joest, Audi R8, 264 laps
Capello/Herbert/Pescatori Audi Sport Team Joest, Audi R8, 262 laps
Krumm/Peter/Werner Audi Sport North America, Audi R8, 261 laps
Wallace/Leitzinger/van de Poele Team Bentley, Bentley EXP Speed 8, 254 laps *
Sarrazin/Montagny/Minassian Team ORECA, Dallara-Judd LMP, 252 laps
Beretta/Lamy/Comas Team ORECA, Dallara-Judd LMP, 250 laps
Lammers/Hillerbrand/Coronel Racing for Holland, Dome-Judd S101, 250 laps
Taylor/Angelli/Tinseau Team Cadillac, Cadillac 2249 laps
Ara/Dalmas/Katoh Team Goh Audi, Audi R8, 248 laps
Bernard/Collard/Lehto, Team Cadillac, Cadillac 238 laps
*GTP class
Daoudi/Defournoux/Bouvet, Welter Racing, WR-Peugeot, 229 laps
Fellows/O'Connell/Gavin, Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette, 235 laps
Buckler/Lohr/Bernhard, The Racers Group, Porsche 911 GT3-RS, 225 laps
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