McNish takes lead at race start

McNish converted his pole position at the first corner and pulled out a 1.479-second lead after two laps from the sister R10, driven by Frank Biela.

The two Pescarolo cars of Emmanuel Collard and Franck Montagny followed, but are already five seconds behind the pair of Audis.

Former winner Jan Lammers was perhaps the most aggressive at the start, moving up a place to fifth by the end of the first lap.

LMP2 pole-sitter Thomas Erdos maintained his pole position.

Pedro Lamy got the advantage in GT2 in the No. 009 Aston Martin, however Oliver Gavin's No. 64 is only fractionally behind.

Problems hit two cars immediately.

The No. 35 G-Force, driven by Ed Morris, pulled into the pits with transmission problems.

The 20 Pilbeam Judd of Marc Rostan also pulled into the pits to receive a stop/go penalty for failing to get away on time from the dummy grid. However he had not been awarded such penalty and it proved a wasted stop.

The race began in glorious sunshine with ambient temperatures approaching 30 degrees Celsius. The race is beginning an hour later this year so it doesn't clash with any World Cup matches for the benefit of television viewers.