Hour 3: Penalty kick for Kristensen
Tom Kristensen's bid to win the Le Mans 24 Hours for a third successive time, along with team-mates Frank Biela and Emanuele Pirro, suffered a blow in hour three when he was called in for a stop/go penalty for overtaking under yellow flags
The stop cost Kristensen about 26secs, which is the advantage Johnny Herbert continues to hold in the lead. Herbert has driven for four consecutive stints, prompting partner Christian Pescatori - who has been expecting to take over during the last two stops - to say: "He doesn't want to stop. Maybe he does 20 hours in the car, I don't know!"
Pirro has taken over from Kristensen behind the wheel of the second placed Joest R8, as the Dane brought the car in early as he felt it had a slow puncture. Incidentally, Kristensen disagrees with the stewards about his stop/go penalty.
Marco Werner holds third place in the third of the Joest-run cars, but the Audi domination has been broken by the top MG of Warren Hughes, who overtook the Team Goh-run R8 of Yannick Dalmas in hour three. The second MG, in the hands of Julian Bailey, has dropped to 13th due to a repair on the fuel line, which has been affecting its consumption level.
The other British hope, the sole Bentley, is down in 11th after its earlier collision with an MG that led to a turbo wastegate problem.
The ORECA Dallara-Judds, which had a very quiet opening couple of hours, are slowly creeping up the leaderboard, with the car of Sarrazin/Montagny/Minassian up to sixth.
Stay tuned to Autosport.com for further hourly updates, but we will also report any major incidents as they happen.
Capello/Herbert/Pescatori Audi Sport Team Joest, Audi R8 48 laps
Kristensen/Biela/Pirro Audi Sport Team Joest, Audi R8 +4m33.072s
Krumm/Peter/Werner Audi Sport North America, Audi R8 47 laps
Reid/Hughes/Kane MG Sport, MG-Lola EX257 46 laps **
Ara/Dalmas/Katoh Team Goh, Audi R8 46 laps
Sarrazin/Montagny/Minassian Team ORECA, Dallara-Judd LMP 46 laps
Cottaz/Derichebourg/Bjork Courage Competition, Courage-Judd C60JX 46 laps
Lammers/Hillebrand/Coronel Racing for Holland, Dome-Judd S101 46 laps
Wallace/Leitzinger/van de Poele Team Bentley, Bentley EXP Speed 8 46 laps*
Beretta/Lamy/Comas Team ORECA, Dallara-Judd LMP 46 laps
Menu/Rydell/Enge Prodrive, Ferrari 550 Maranello 43 laps
Dumas/Maassen/Bergmeister Freisinger Motorsport, Porsche 911 GT3-RS 41 laps
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