Hour 4: Pirro Gives Lead to Werner
The Champion Racing Audi of Marco Werner took the lead of the Le Mans 24-Hours after the fourth hour of the race
Previous race leader Emanuele Pirro crashed into the tyre wall at Arnage just as the safety car was set to withdraw at the start of hour.
The Italian's Champion Racing R8 appeared simply to lock up and skid, wheels locked into the tyres. It was then pushed back out by marshals and Pirro drove back to the pits with the rear of the car dragging along the ground.
The Team Oreca Audi of Stephane Ortelli was promoted to second, but had to overtake the Rollcentre Dallara of Martin Short who briefly moved ahead after Ortelli completed a routine pitstop.
Allan McNish took over the driving of Pirro's car to end the hour in fourth, a lap behind Werner.
Early race leader Erik Comas' number 16 Pescarolo Sport rejoined the race after its transmission repairs, ending the hour in 16th.
However, the French team suffered more problems with their other car. Eric Helary suffered a puncture in the number 17 car, staying for several minutes in the pits to repair bodywork damage caused when the car limped home.
The JMB Racing 575 Ferrari was another car to suffer a puncture - it's the GT1 left rear tyre blowing out on the Mulsanne straight.
Leading the GT1 category remained Aston Martin, Tomas Enge complaining of the hot temperature inside the DBR9 before handing over to Portuguese teammate Pedro Lamy.
Corvette remained within touching distance with Max Papis being only one minute and 20 seconds behind the number 58 Aston.
The Kruse Motorsport Courage Judd continued to dominate LMP2 category ahead of the number 32 Lola.
The number 71 Porsche RSR of Mike Rockenfeller led a close battle for GT2 honours, ahead of the similar number 90 White Lightning Racing Porsche RSR.
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