Hour 19: Aston Lose Lead in GT1

The #64 Corvette C6-R inherited the place when the leading #58 Aston Martin car of Tomas Enge had to take a five minute repair job in the garage to repair the front splitter.

The Corvette now holds a one-lap advantage over the other Aston Martin, the number 59 car being driven by Stephane Sarrazin. The Subaru WRC driver suffered a left-rear puncture during the hour, but team boss Doug Fehan believes that the advantage gained in the last hour might not be enough to hold on to GT1 victory.

Fehan said: "They are faster than us so this is only the beginning of the fight."

The #58 car fell back to third in the class when it rejoined, only 12 seconds behind its teammate.

Upfront, the #16 Pescarolo Sport of Emanuel Collard continued to gain time on the #3 Champion Racing Audi, now being driven by JJ Lehto. The gap between the pair remains at two laps, but Collard is still lapping five seconds quicker than the seemingly bullet proof Audi. With five hours to go, the race for victory could yet be a close run thing.

The LMP2 class is proving to be a race of attrition, with the highest car in the class way down the overall order in 22nd position. The #37 Paul Belmondo Racing Courage took the lead when its sister car, the #36, had to wheeled into the pits for more repairs.

In GT2 the #71 Alex Job Racing Porsche led for its 13th consecutive hour, now being driven by Marc Lieb.

The Cirtek Motorsport Ferrari 360 retired from 27th overall and 7th in class after being stranded out on the circuit having lost a wheel at the beginning of the lap.