Lola Aston rejoins after Charouz crash

The front and rear of the car were damaged in the shunt, which happened when Charouz lost control of the car under braking for the Dunlop chicane.

The team had the car back out in around half an hour, but it has fallen out of contention of the unofficial petrol class battle in LMP1.

There is still a problem with the car's steering and the team are expected to continue the repairs at the next stop.

Tomas Enge, who shares the car with Charouz and Stefan Mucke, said: "There's still something not right with the steering, it's quite offset, so we'll have to change the steering column.

"We can only run as a test now, which is a shame because we were comfortably running around the front of the other petrol cars, but what can you do? That's racing."

Enge is now at the wheel of the car and lapping quicker than any other non-diesel on the track, although he is in 45th place, 12 laps off the lead.