Le Mans Hour 21: McNish assumes lead in tense battle with Benoit Treluyer
Allan McNish assumed the lead of the 2012 Le Mans 24 Hours as a tense battle between the Scot and Benoit Treluyer in the sister Audi R18 e-tron quattro culminated in the Frenchman spinning on the entry to the pitlane on the turn of the hour
Treluyer had built a small advantage over McNish as the two hybrid machines alternated strategies.
When he pitted Treluyer had a 15s advantage over the Scot, but spun as he braked down to speed limit speed, costing him precious seconds to add to his stop time.
All this ensured that McNish completed the hour with a 47s lead over the #1 car.
Behind them Oliver Jarvis continued in third, three laps down on the leader but still ahead of the second R18 ultra driven by Marc Gene.
Neel Jani continues to lead the race for privateer honours in fifth with Rebellion ahead of Karun Chandhok in the JRM HPD.
Tom Kimber-Smith took over from Ryan Dalziel in the LMP2 leading Starworks HPD which continued to run unabated at the front of the class. Behind the battle for second raged on between Christophe Tinseau and Pierre Kaffer.
Gianmaria Bruni was still in charge of GTE Pro ahead of Frederic Makowiecki's Luxury car and Stefan Mucke in the still charging Aston.
The battle for the lead of GTE Am was heating up at the turn of the hour as Nicolas Armindo's IMSA Porsche trailed Julien Canal's Corvette by mere seconds.
POSITIONS AFTER 21 HOURS Pos Car Drivers Class Laps Gap 1. #2 Audi McNish/Capello/Kristensen LMP1 333 2. #1 Audi Lotterer/Fassler/Treluyer LMP1 332 + 1 Lap 3. #4 Audi Jarvis/Bonanomi/Rockenfeller LMP1 330 + 3 Laps 4. #3 Audi Gene/Dumas/Duval LMP1 324 + 9 Laps 5. #12 Lola Prost/Heidfeld/Jani LMP1 322 + 11 Laps 6. #22 HPD Brabham/Dumbreck/Chandhok LMP1 313 + 20 Laps 7. #44 HPD Potolicchio/Dalziel/K-Smith LMP2 311 + 22 Laps 8. #46 Oreca Thiriet/Beche/Tinseau LMP2 310 + 23 Laps 9. #49 Oreca Perez Companc/Kaffer/Ayari LMP2 310 + 22.433s 10. #26 Oreca Ragues/Panciatici/Rusinov LMP2 308 + 25 Laps 11. #13 Lola Belicchi/Bleekemolen/Primat LMP1 305 + 28 Laps 12. #41 Zytek Zugel/Julian/Gonzalez LMP2 305 + 19.226s 13. #25 Oreca Martin/Charouz/Graves LMP2 304 + 29 Laps 14. #21 HPD Leventis/Kane/Watts LMP1 302 + 31 Laps 15. #35 Morgan H Hansson/Leinders/Martin LMP2 297 + 36 Laps 16. #42 Zytek Brundle/Brundle/Ordonez LMP2 297 + 1m54.596s 17. #23 Oreca Tresson/Mailleux/Lombard LMP2 297 + 3m01.397s 18. #51 Ferrari Fisichella/Bruni/Vilander GTEP 295 + 38 Laps 19. #59 Ferrari Makowiecki/Melo/Farnbacher GTEP 292 + 41 Laps 20. #97 Aston Mucke/Fernandez/Turner GTEP 291 + 42 Laps 21. #50 Corvette Bornhauser/Canal/Lamy GTEA 288 + 45 Laps 22. #67 Porsche Pons/Armindo/Narac GTEA 288 + 0.332s 23. #73 Corvette Garcia/Magnussen/Taylor GTEP 286 + 47 Laps 24. #71 Ferrari Bertolini/Beretta/Cioci GTEP 285 + 48 Laps 25. #45 Oreca Briere/Nakano/Petersen LMP2 284 + 49 Laps 26. #57 Ferrari Krohn/Jonsson/Rugolo GTEA 283 + 50 Laps 27. #40 Oreca Frey/Hirschi/Meichtry LMP2 278 + 55 Laps 28. #79 Porsche Neiman/Pumpelly/Pilet GTEA 274 + 59 Laps 29. #70 Corvette Bourret/Gibon/Belloc GTEA 270 + 63 Laps 30. #55 Porsche Daniels/Palttala/Camathias GTEA 269 + 64 Laps 31. #43 Norma Rosier/Haezebrouck/Thirion LMP2 268 + 65 Laps 32. #61 Ferrari Kauffman/Aguas/Vickers GTEA 264 + 69 Laps 33. #83 Ferrari Rodrigues/Illiano/Ferte GTEA 253 + 80 Laps 34. #74 Corvette Gavin/Westbrook/Milner GTEP 204 + 129 Laps 35. #17 Dome Minassian/Bourdais/Ara LMP1 201 + 132 Laps 36. #38 Zytek Hancock/Dolan/Kurosawa LMP2 271 Retired 37. #33 HPD Tucker/Bouchut/Diaz LMP2 240 Retired 38. #30 Lola Sims/Buurman/Iannetta LMP2 239 Retired 39. #88 Porsche Ried/Roda/Ruberti GTEA 222 Retired 40. #15 OAK Montagny/Kraihamer/Baguette LMP1 219 Retired 41. #66 Ferrari Walker/Cocker/Wills GTEP 204 Retired 42. #48 Oreca Firth/Hartley/Hughes LMP2 196 Retired 43. #77 Porsche Lietz/Lieb/Henzler GTEP 184 Retired 44. #75 Porsche al Faisal/Curtis/Edwards GTEA 180 Retired 45. #31 Lola Holzer/Schultis/Moro LMP2 155 Retired 46. #58 Ferrari Ehret/Jeannette/Montecalvo GTEA 146 Retired 47. #24 Morgan Nicolet/Lahaye/Pla LMP2 139 Retired 48. #7 Toyota Wurz/Lapierre/Nakajima LMP1 134 Retired 49. #80 Porsche Bergmeister/Long/Holzer GTEP 114 Retired 50. #28 Lola Giroix/Badey/Johansson LMP2 92 Retired 51. #8 Toyota Davidson/Buemi/Sarrazin LMP1 82 Retired 52. #0 DeltaWing Franchitti/Krumm/Motoyama CDNT 75 Retired 53. #81 Ferrari Perazzini/Cadei/Griffin GTEA 70 Retired 54. #99 Aston Nygaard/Poulsen/Simonsen GTEA 31 Retired 55. #16 Pescarolo Collard/Bouillon/Hall LMP1 20 Retired 56. #29 Lola Ihara/Deletraz/Rostan LMP2 17 Retired
LM H20: McNish and Treluyer run together at the front of the field
Le Mans Hour 22: McNish suffers crash, handing Treluyer the race lead
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