Le Mans latest (3)

Although it is only spotting, it seems heavier around the Mulsanne Straight. But, none of the teams has reverted to wet weather tyres.

After 39 laps, Muller leads ahead of Collard and McNish.

McNish led briefly on Lap 36, overtaking Muller on the stretch between Mulsanne and Indianapolis, but then he pitted.

On the same lap Pedro Lamy, who was in third, messed up his pitstop, which allowed his Mercedes team-mate, Nick Heidfeld, who had also pitted to rejoin ahead of him.

Whilst Muller was leading just after 1800CET, McNish started catching him up because of heavy traffic, but then the Mercedes driver responded to increase his lead again. When McNish overtook him, perhaps it was to remind Muller whose car had been fastest all weekend!

Leading positions after 39 laps:

Muller

McNish

Collard

Heidfeld

Lamy

Martini

1800CET BMW Jorg Muller is leading Le Mans after 32 laps, just over six seconds ahead of charging Toyota driver Allan McNish.

McNish, who took over from Thierry Boutsen, has cut Muller's lead to six seconds and as the race reached its two hour mark was gaining on the German.

He is followed by Mercedes number six car and Toyota team-mate Emmmanuel Collard.

On lap 31 car number 60, the Porsche 911 GT2 of Manfred Jurasz crashed out after hitting the wall.

The car stopped on the track, just after its shunt at the Porsche curves, but officials opted not to introduce the pace car.

Martin Brundle, who swapped with Collard just after the 90 minute mark, was happy with his performance, despite dropping from first to third.

'We had a problem leaving the pits,' he said.

'We had trouble with the fuel injection as we tried to move off. Unfortunately it cost us the lead.'

The top positions after two hours.

Muller

McNish

Lamy

Collard

Heidfeld

Martini