Hour 3: Audi Takes Top 3

The number two Champion Audi racing car of Emanuele Pirro led the other Champion Racing entry of Marco Werner and the Team Oreca car of Stephane Ortelli.

Erik Comas' Pescarolo Sport had looked comfortable in the lead, however he came into the pits after 40 laps with gear selection problems. The Pescarolo mechanics took the bodywork off and started working on the transmission.

The number 16 car briefly got out again before losing drive on the Mulsanne Straight. Comas managed to find enough drive to get it back to the pits for further work but the car ended the hour in 13th.

The hour ended calmly behind the safety car, after race organisers chose to clear up oil dropped by the number 39 Chamberlain-Synergy Lola, with Peter Owen driving.

Martin Short's number 18 Rollcentre Dallara Judd was still running strongly in fourth, while the sister Nissan-powered car was still only completing enough laps to keep it in the race while the engineers worked on firing the engine up to racing performance.

In LMP2 the Krusse Motorsport Courage of Ian Mitchell continued to dominate, a lap ahead of Paul Belmondo's number 37 Courage.

Elsewhere in the category, Juan Barazi outbraked himself at the top of the hour, damaging the LMP2 front body-work by out-braking himself into Arnage. The car continued to fall down the order as repair work was done in the pits.

The DBA Creation managed to get going again after losing 25 minutes due to having to change the waterpump, after Jamie Campbell-Walter noticed the temperature going through the roof.

Aston Martin led the GT1 category with the number 58 car driven by Tomas Enge ahead of the number 63 Corvette driven by Johnny O'Connell.

The sister Aston Martin DBR9 continued to have problems. After Darren Turner had been given two pitlane stop-go penalties for cutting sections of the circuit in the first two hours, the problems were compounded when Stephane Sarrizin was forced to come into the pits to repair the front splitter.

Oliver Beretta suffered the number 64 Corvette's second puncture, on the GT1 car's left-right hand corner. Unfortunately the team suffered the puncture at the same corner of the car, at the same corner on the track, an hour earlier.

The White Lightening Porsche of Jorg Bergmeister led GT2.

The biggest action in the category occurred for Anthony Reid, who spun his GT2 Ferrari 360 Modena at the Mulsanne Corner into the tyre wall, but despite what looked like a fierce trip through the gravel, the Scot continued without a trip into the pits. Tom Coronel also spun the number 85 Spyker.

Pos	#	Drivers	Make	Class	On Hour 3
1	2	Biela, Pirro, McNish	Audi R8	LM P1
2	3	Lehto, Werner, Kristensen	Audi R8	LM P1
3	4	Montagny, Gounon, Ortelli	Audi R8	LM P1
4	18	Short, Barbosa, Ickx	Dallara Judd	LM P1
5	17	Loeb, Helary, Ayari	Pescarolo Judd	LM P1
6	10	Lammers, Julian, Bosch	Dome Judd	LM P1
7	5	Michigami, Ara, Kaneishi	Dome Mugen	LM P1
8	12	Schwager, Frei, Vann	Courage Judd	LM P1
9	58	Enge, Kox, Lamy	Aston Martin DBR9	LM GT1
10	9	Hignett, Stack, Kurosawa	Zytek 04S	LM P1
11	63	Fellows, O'Connell, Papis	Corvette C6-R	LM GT1
12	64	Gavin, Beretta, Magnussen	Corvette C6-R	LM GT1
13	30	Bennett, Mitchell, Mullen	Courage Judd	LM P2
14	16	Collard, Boullion, Comas	Pescarolo Judd	LM P1
15	50	Goueslard, Dupard, Vosse	Ferrari 550 Maranello	LM GT1
16	61	Fomenko, Vasiliev, Bouchut	Ferrari 550 Maranello	LM GT1
17	37	Belmondo, Andre, Sutherland	Courage C65 Ford	LM P2
18	51	Pescatori, Gollin, Ramos	Ferrari 550 Maranello	LM GT1
19	32	Fisken, Halliday, Hancock	Lola AER	LM P2
20	59	Brabham, Sarrazin, Turner	Aston Martin DBR9	LM GT1
21	36	Gosselin, Ojjeh, Sharpe	Courage C65 Ford	LM P2
22	90	Bergmeist., Long, Bernhard	Porsche 911 GT3 RSR	LM GT2
23	31	Amorim, Iannetta, Pillon	Courage - CG	LM P2
24	69	Fournoux, Daoudi, Matthews	Ferrari 575 GTC	LM GT1
25	71	Hindery, Rockenfell., Lieb	Porsche 911 GT3 RSR	LM GT2
26	93	Kinch, Kirkaldy, Reid	Ferrari 360 Modena	LM GT2
27	76	Dumas, Dumez, Narac	Porsche 911 GT3 RSR	LM GT2
28	72	Policand, Campbell, Alphand	Porsche 911 GT3 RS	LM GT2
29	52	Bartyan, Malucelli, Seiler	Ferrari 550 Maranello	LM GT1
30	89	Nielsen, Thyrring, Ehret	Porsche 911 GT3 RSR	LM GT2
31	35	Hillebrand, Hahn, Pickering	Courage C65 Judd	LM P2
32	91	Pompidou, Blanchema., Yamagishi	Porsche 911 GT3 RS	LM GT2
33	80	Overbeek, Pechnick, Neiman	Porsche 911 GT3 RSR	LM GT2
34	85	Coronel, Crevels, Merksteijn	Spyker C8 Spyder	LM GT2
35	34	Macaluso, James, Lally	Courage AER	LM P2
36	7	Minassian, CampbellW., Wallace	DBA Judd	LM P1
37	83	Collin, Felbermayr, Shep	Porsche 911 GT3 RSR	LM GT2
38	92	Macari, Eriksson, Wilson	Ferrari 360 Mo. GTC	LM GT2
39	25	Erdos, Newton, Hughes	Lola MG	LM P2
40	20	Rostan, Haezebrou., Bruneau	Pilbeam JPX	LM P2
41	23	Bouvet, Boulay, Julien	WR	LM P2
42	33	Zlobin, Briere, Barazi	Courage AER	LM P2
43	39	Evans, Berridge, Owen	Lola AER	LM P2
44	95	Hartshorne, Stanton, Johnson	TVR Tuscan 400 R	LM GT2
45	24	Terada, Roussel, Binnie	WR Peugeot	LM P2
46	78	Sellers, Franchitti, Bourdais	Panoz Elan	LM GT2
47	77	Auberlen, Liddell, Maxwell	Panoz Elan	LM GT2
48	13	Cochet, Nakano, Jouanny	Courage Judd	LM P1
49	8	Verdon Roe, Krumm, Primat	Dallara Nissan	LM P1