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Marcel Fassler's lead has been reduced to just over 40sec in the #1 Audi as eight-time winner Tom Kristensen closed in on his teammate through the halfway point in the 2012 Le Mans 24 Hours race.
Kristensen put in a dynamite sequence of laps as he chased Fassler, regularly taking 2sec per lap out the Swiss driver's lead. It is however worth noting that the gap does not take into account that the #1 car has a stop in hand and has done its driver change in this hour.
Marco Bonanomi was third in the first of the R18 ultras, while the fourth Audi was in the wars again when it was tapped into a spin by the #70 Corvette at the Ford Chicane and lost a couple of laps, but no positions. It remains sixth behind the two Rebellion Lolas.
Tom Kimber-Smith kept Starworks in the lead of LMP2 with a one lap advantage over the Pecom Oreca, which had Luis Perez-Companc at the wheel. Romain Rusinov was third in that class as the hour closed in the Signatech Nissan Oreca.
The top four runners in GTE Pro spent much of the hour on the same lap, with the #51 and #59 Ferraris leading the #73 Corvette and #97 Aston Martin. That order was upset, however, when Frederic Makowiecki went off into the gravel at Indianapolis, falling off the tail of the lead AF Corse Ferrari of Toni Vilander as a consequence.
He promptly headed into the pits and handed control to Jaime Melo, who was able to resume in second as Darren Turner made a routine stop in the Vantage and Jan Magnussen made a far longer stop for a brake disc change. Wolf Henzler therefore slipped into third in the #77 Felbermayr-Proton Porsche, ahead of Turner.
The IMSA Porsche continued to lead in GTE Am, although Pedro Lamy in the Larbre Corvette is on the same lap, just 40sec down the road.
NOTES
• Dumas tipped into a spin while passing traffic at Ford chicane
• Davidson confirms he sustained a broken back as a result of huge earlier crash
• Westbrook loses a wheel, and with it the lead of the GTE Pro class
• 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
• #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 troubles, 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 12 HOURS
Pos Car Drivers Class Laps Gap
1. #1 Audi Lotterer/Fassler/Treluyer LMP1 188
2. #2 Audi McNish/Capello/Kristensen LMP1 188 + 38.505s
3. #4 Audi Jarvis/Bonanomi/Rockenfeller LMP1 186 + 2 Laps
4. #12 Lola Prost/Heidfeld/Jani LMP1 182 + 6 Laps
5. #13 Lola Belicchi/Bleekemolen/Primat LMP1 180 + 8 Laps
6. #3 Audi Gene/Dumas/Duval LMP1 179 + 9 Laps
7. #44 HPD Potolicchio/Dalziel/K-Smith LMP2 175 + 13 Laps
8. #49 Oreca Perez Companc/Kaffer/Ayari LMP2 175 + 2m09.344s
9. #26 Oreca Ragues/Panciatici/Rusinov LMP2 175 + 2m54.517s
10. #46 Oreca Thiriet/Beche/Tinseau LMP2 174 + 14 Laps
11. #23 Oreca Tresson/Mailleux/Lombard LMP2 174 + 35.845s
12. #22 HPD Brabham/Dumbreck/Chandhok LMP1 174 + 1m24.588s
13. #21 HPD Leventis/Kane/Watts LMP1 174 + 2m07.184s
14. #48 Oreca Firth/Hartley/Hughes LMP2 174 + 2m49.212s
15. #33 HPD Tucker/Bouchut/Diaz LMP2 173 + 15 Laps
16. #41 Zytek Zugel/Julian/Gonzalez LMP2 172 + 16 Laps
17. #25 Oreca Martin/Charouz/Graves LMP2 172 + 1m45.520s
18. #38 Zytek Hancock/Dolan/Kurosawa LMP2 172 + 2m29.046s
19. #42 Zytek Brundle/Brundle/Ordonez LMP2 171 + 17 Laps
20. #45 Oreca Briere/Nakano/Petersen LMP2 168 + 20 Laps
21. #30 Lola Sims/Buurman/Iannetta LMP2 167 + 21 Laps
22. #35 Morgan H Hansson/Leinders/Martin LMP2 167 +12m19.357s
23. #51 Ferrari Fisichella/Bruni/Vilander GTEP 167 +13m38.962s
24. #59 Ferrari Makowiecki/Melo/Farnbacher GTEP 166 + 22 Laps
25. #73 Corvette Garcia/Magnussen/Taylor GTEP 166 + 1m51.497s
26. #97 Aston Mucke/Fernandez/Turner GTEP 166 + 3m05.635s
27. #77 Porsche Lietz/Lieb/Henzler GTEP 166 + 4m01.900s
28. #40 Oreca Frey/Hirschi/Meichtry LMP2 165 + 23 Laps
29. #15 OAK Montagny/Kraihamer/Baguette LMP1 163 + 25 Laps
30. #71 Ferrari Bertolini/Beretta/Cioci GTEP 163 + 4m00.510s
31. #50 Corvette Bornhauser/Canal/Lamy GTEA 162 + 26 Laps
32. #67 Porsche Pons/Armindo/Narac GTEA 162 + 27.244s
33. #66 Ferrari Walker/Cocker/Wills GTEP 162 + 1m29.446s
34. #57 Ferrari Krohn/Jonsson/Rugolo GTEA 160 + 28 Laps
35. #61 Ferrari Kauffman/Aguas/Vickers GTEA 159 + 29 Laps
36. #17 Dome Minassian/Bourdais/Ara LMP1 158 + 30 Laps
37. #88 Porsche Ried/Roda/Ruberti GTEA 157 + 31 Laps
38. #31 Lola Holzer/Schultis/Moro LMP2 155 + 33 Laps
39. #75 Porsche al Faisal/Curtis/Edwards GTEA 155 +45m04.952s
40. #74 Corvette Gavin/Westbrook/Milner GTEP 154 + 34 Laps
41. #70 Corvette Bourret/Gibon/Belloc GTEA 154 + 3m05.692s
42. #55 Porsche Daniels/Palttala/Camathias GTEA 149 + 39 Laps
43. #43 Norma Rosier/Haezebrouck/Thirion LMP2 149 + 2m43.923s
44. #79 Porsche Neiman/Pumpelly/Pilet GTEA 148 + 40 Laps
45. #83 Ferrari Rodrigues/Illiano/Ferte GTEA 137 + 51 Laps
46. #58 Ferrari Ehret/Jeannette/Montecalvo GTEA 146 + 42 Laps
47. #24 Morgan Nicolet/Lahaye/Pla LMP2 139 + 49 Laps
48. #7 Toyota Wurz/Lapierre/Nakajima LMP1 134 + 54 Laps
49. #80 Porsche Bergmeister/Long/Holzer GTEP 114 + 74 Laps
50. #28 Lola Giroix/Badey/Johansson LMP2 92 + 96 Laps
51. #8 Toyota Davidson/Buemi/Sarrazin LMP1 82 + 106 Laps
52. #0 DeltaWing Franchitti/Krumm/Motoyama CDNT 75 + 113 Laps
53. #81 Ferrari Perazzini/Cadei/Griffin GTEA 70 + 118 Laps
54. #99 Aston Nygaard/Poulsen/Simonsen GTEA 31 + 157 Laps
55. #16 Pescarolo Collard/Bouillon/Hall LMP1 20 + 168 Laps
56. #29 Lola Ihara/Deletraz/Rostan LMP2 17 + 171 Laps