Le Mans latest (21)

13.43 The Toyota of Suzuki starts his final lap before he is due to pit, and puts in a lap of 3.35.803, the car's best lap for the entire race, only slightly slower than Allan McNish's 3.35.591 best lap in the number two Toyota. The Panoz number 11 pits and Magnussen hands over driving duties to O'Connell.

13.40 The gap between the leaders is down to forty six seconds. Five laps behind in third place is the number 8 Audi.

13.30 With only fifty seconds between the BMW and the Toyota, the scene is set for one of the closest Le Mans finishes for years. Yannick Dalmas is still lapping four seconds slower than Suzuki, just as Toyota are set to pit.

Leaders after 21 and a half hours at 13.30 (CET):
1 15 BMW (Winkelhock, Martini, Dalmas) 326 Laps

2 03 Toyota (Katayama, Tsuchiya, Suzuki) 326 Laps

3 08 Audi (Pirro, Theys, Biela) 322 Laps

4 07 Audi (Alboreto, Capello, Aiello) 307 Laps

5 18 BMW (Bscher,Auberlen, Soper) 307 Laps

6 13 Courage (Montermini, Caffi, Schiattarella) 305 Laps

7 21 Nissan (Cottaz, Goosens, Ekblom) 303 Laps

8 12 Panoz (Brabham, Bernard, Leitzinger) 300 Laps

9 51 Viper (Beretta, Wendlinger, Dupuy) 292 Laps

10 14 Courage (Pescarolo, Ferte,Gay) 292 Laps

13.25 The leading BMW comes into the pits. Yannick Dalmas stays behind the wheel and the stop is routine. The BMW and the Toyota now have just three pitstops left each until the end of the race, but one of the BMW's stops will be faster as it's fuel consumption is slightly better. Meanwhile the Toyota is expected in within three laps.

13.15 The number 21 Nissan, currently running in sixth place drives into the Nissan pit garage for work to the car by the team.

13.14 The leading BMW is set to come to the pits in two laps time. After that, they have stopped an equal amount, and both the BMW and the Toyota both have to now stop an equivalent amount of times in the remainder of the race.

13.10 The number 12 Courage pits so that Schiattarella can hand over to co-driverAlex Caffi. Suzuki in the remaining Toyota closes the gap and goes more than four seconds a lap quicker than the leading BMW, despite carrying a full fuel load.

13.07 Audi pits for a regular stop as the leaders begin their 320th lap. The gap between the top two is one lap.

13.05 It has emerged that the chopped trees and bushes that broke Peter Dunbrek's fall yesterday in the warm-up were only cut back fifteen days ago, and the impact would have been worse if they had not have been chopped down.

13.02 The remaining Toyota pits for a regular stop, and Suzuki remains behind the wheel.

Leaders after 21 hours at 13:00 CET:

1 15 BMW (Winkelhock, Martini, Dalmas) 318Laps

2 03 Toyota (Katayama, Tsuchiya, Suzuki) 318 Laps

3 08 Audi (Pirro, Theys, Biela) 313Laps

4 07 Audi (Alboreto, Capello, Aiello) 299 Laps

5 18 BMW (Bscher,Auberlen, Soper) 299 Laps

6 21 Nissan (Cottaz, Goosens, Ekblom) 298 Laps

7 13 Courage (Montermini, Caffi, Schiattarella) 297 Laps

8 12 Panoz (Brabham, Bernard, Leitzinger) 292 Laps

9 51 Viper (Beretta, Wendlinger, Dupuy) 285 Laps

10 14 Courage (Pescarolo, Ferte,Gay) 284 Laps