Hour 20: Pescarolo Down to 1 Car

The Frenchman complained of a puncture, losing control before he entered the corner, straight-lining the chicane and hitting the tyre wall hard, to damage both the front and rear of the car.

Ayari limped back to the pits, however the Pescarolo Sport team chose to pull down the garage door and retire the car.

Upfront, JJ Lehto handed over the leading Champion Racing Audi R8 to Marco Werner. However, the car was still being reeled in by the other Pescarolo Sport car of Emanuel Collard. At present pace, the Audi could be caught in the final hour of the race and the crowd is gearing up for a nail-biting finish.

Lehto said: "Speedwise we can't compete but reliability-wise anything can happen. We need to push now."

In GT1, David Brabham had the #59 Aston Martin chasing the leading Corvette hard, with the gap being down to just over a minute.

In GT2 the Alex Job racing Porsche of Marc Lieb continued to dominate. However, the hour was bad for Panoz Motor sport, the #78 car of Marino Franchitti retiring on the run down to Indianapolis.

In LMP2, the Paul Belmondo Racing Courage C65 of Didier Andre enjoyed a six-lap lead over the #25 Lola MG however, with all leading runners having been wheeled into the garage at one point during the race, the class is not yet decided.