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Andre Lotterer continued to lead the Le Mans 24 Hours in his hybrid-powered Audi diesel, with a comfortable but not insurmountable margin over his teammates running in second and third.
The pace up front eased up only slightly as Lotterer, Allan McNish and Mike Rockenfeller circulated in the mid 3m30s, mindful of assorted debris on the track as well as oil deposited by one of the GTE runners. Indeed, Rockenfeller made an unplanned stop at the beginning of the hour to have oil smears cleaned off his windscreen.
McNish pitted shortly before the turn of the hour for a routine stop, handing over to Tom Kristensen.
Rebellion's brace of Lola coupes led the petrol-powered contingent, with Nick Heidfeld comfortably ahead of Jeroen Bleekemolen, who in turn was watching his mirrors for the resurgent #3 Audi driven by Loic Duval.
David Brabham had to fight his way back up the order in the JMR HPD after the car suffered a high-speed blow-out while Peter Dumbreck was at the wheel.
The LMP2 lead changed hands after Warren Hughes suffered a puncture in the #48 Murphy Prototypes ORECA-Nissan, which spun him around at the exit of Arnage and caused some bodywork damage.
The car slid to ninth in the class and Olivier Pla took over the lead, holding it until the half-hour mark when he trailed into the pits slowly and was wheeled back into the garage.
That enabled Tom Kimber-Smith and Pierre Ragues to come past, then Pierre Kaffer and Franck Mailleux. Ryan Dalziel took over the Starworks car from Kimber-Smith shortly before the turn of the hour but retained the lead.
In GTE Pro Tommy Milner extended the #74 Corvette's lead over Gianmaria Bruni's Ferrari, but both drivers were setting a vigorous pace. A lap behind, Frederic Makowiecki relieved Milner's team-mate Jordan Taylor of third place in the class.
IMSA Performance owner Raymond Narac remained in charge of GTE Am, outpacing second-placed Patrick Bornhauser by up to four seconds a lap, while Tracy Krohn circulated consistently three laps adrift with little to fear from Brian Vickers who was a further lap down.
NOTES
• Peter Dumbreck suffers blow-out in the #22 JRM HPD
• Spin at Ford chicane for #21 Strakka HPD
• Problems for the #7 Toyota following collision with DeltaWing at the restart.
• Huge crash for Anthony Davidson in the #8 Toyota, leading to lengthy safety car period.
• #29 Gulf Racing Lola B12 the first official retirement.
• #40 hit with a two-minute stop and go penalty for second pitlane speeding offence.
• 30s pit stop penalties for #40 and #49 LMP2s for speeding in pitlane.
• Audi hits early trouble, with Tom Kristensen the third unexpected delay for the marque across its four cars.
• Early GTE Pro scrap between Corvette, Aston Martin and Ferrari.
• #99 Aston Martin Vantage suffers early misfire and then retires with damage.
POSITIONS AFTER 10 HOURS
Pos Car Drivers Class Laps Gap
1. #1 Audi Lotterer/Fassler/Treluyer LMP1 155
2. #2 Audi McNish/Capello/Kristensen LMP1 154 + 1 Lap
3. #4 Audi Jarvis/Bonanomi/Rockenfeller LMP1 154 + 3m27.221s
4. #12 Lola Prost/Heidfeld/Jani LMP1 150 + 5 Laps
5. #13 Lola Belicchi/Bleekemolen/Primat LMP1 149 + 6 Laps
6. #3 Audi Gene/Dumas/Duval LMP1 148 + 7 Laps
7. #44 HPD Potolicchio/Dalziel/K-Smith LMP2 145 + 10 Laps
8. #26 Oreca Ragues/Panciatici/Rusinov LMP2 145 + 42.719s
9. #49 Oreca Perez Companc/Kaffer/Ayari LMP2 145 + 43.705s
10. #22 HPD Brabham/Dumbreck/Chandhok LMP1 144 + 11 Laps
11. #23 Oreca Tresson/Mailleux/Lombard LMP2 144 + 1m33.642s
12. #38 Zytek Hancock/Dolan/Kurosawa LMP2 144 + 2m34.320s
13. #46 Oreca Thiriet/Beche/Tinseau LMP2 143 + 12 Laps
14. #48 Oreca Firth/Hartley/Hughes LMP2 143 + 1m02.115s
15. #30 Lola Sims/Buurman/Iannetta LMP2 143 + 1m56.284s
16. #33 HPD Tucker/Bouchut/Diaz LMP2 143 + 3m44.391s
17. #25 Oreca Martin/Charouz/Graves LMP2 143 + 4m20.295s
18. #21 HPD Leventis/Kane/Watts LMP1 142 + 13 Laps
19. #15 OAK Montagny/Kraihamer/Baguette LMP1 142 + 1.584s
20. #41 Zytek Zugel/Julian/Gonzalez LMP2 142 + 1m08.096s
21. #42 Zytek Brundle/Brundle/Ordonez LMP2 141 + 14 Laps
22. #40 Oreca Frey/Hirschi/Meichtry LMP2 140 + 15 Laps
23. #24 Morgan Nicolet/Lahaye/Pla LMP2 139 + 16 Laps
24. #31 Lola Holzer/Schultis/Moro LMP2 139 +23m55.073s
25. #74 Corvette Gavin/Westbrook/Milner GTEP 139 +24m48.078s
26. #51 Ferrari Fisichella/Bruni/Vilander GTEP 139 +25m49.708s
27. #45 Oreca Briere/Nakano/Petersen LMP2 138 + 17 Laps
28. #59 Ferrari Makowiecki/Melo/Farnbacher GTEP 138 + 2m00.623s
29. #73 Corvette Garcia/Magnussen/Taylor GTEP 138 + 2m13.985s
30. #97 Aston Mucke/Fernandez/Turner GTEP 137 + 18 Laps
31. #77 Porsche Lietz/Lieb/Henzler GTEP 137 + 14.174s
32. #35 Morgan H Hansson/Leinders/Martin LMP2 136 + 19 Laps
33. #67 Porsche Pons/Armindo/Narac GTEA 135 + 20 Laps
34. #50 Corvette Bornhauser/Canal/Lamy GTEA 135 + 1m16.515s
35. #66 Ferrari Walker/Cocker/Wills GTEP 134 + 21 Laps
36. #71 Ferrari Bertolini/Beretta/Cioci GTEP 134 + 3m22.191s
37. #57 Ferrari Krohn/Jonsson/Rugolo GTEA 132 + 23 Laps
38. #61 Ferrari Kauffman/Aguas/Vickers GTEA 131 + 24 Laps
39. #58 Ferrari Ehret/Jeannette/Montecalvo GTEA 131 + 32.536s
40. #88 Porsche Ried/Roda/Ruberti GTEA 130 + 25 Laps
41. #70 Corvette Bourret/Gibon/Belloc GTEA 129 + 26 Laps
42. #75 Porsche al Faisal/Curtis/Edwards GTEA 128 + 27 Laps
43. #43 Norma Rosier/Haezebrouck/Thirion LMP2 126 + 29 Laps
44. #17 Dome Minassian/Bourdais/Ara LMP1 126 +13m12.022s
45. #55 Porsche Daniels/Palttala/Camathias GTEA 125 + 30 Laps
46. #7 Toyota Wurz/Lapierre/Nakajima LMP1 125 + 2m06.791s
47. #79 Porsche Neiman/Pumpelly/Pilet GTEA 120 + 35 Laps
48. #83 Ferrari Rodrigues/Illiano/Ferte GTEA 119 + 36 Laps
49. #28 Lola Giroix/Badey/Johansson LMP2 92 + 63 Laps
50. #80 Porsche Bergmeister/Long/Holzer GTEP 114 + 41 Laps
51. #8 Toyota Davidson/Buemi/Sarrazin LMP1 82 + 73 Laps
52. #0 DeltaWing Franchitti/Krumm/Motoyama CDNT 75 + 80 Laps
53. #81 Ferrari Perazzini/Cadei/Griffin GTEA 70 + 85 Laps
54. #99 Aston Nygaard/Poulsen/Simonsen GTEA 31 + 124 Laps
55. #16 Pescarolo Collard/Bouillon/Hall LMP1 20 + 135 Laps
56. #29 Lola Ihara/Deletraz/Rostan LMP2 17 + 138 Laps