Le Mans 24 Hours twelfth hour: Fassler still leads in #1 Audi, although Kristensen closes

Kristensen put in a dynamite sequence of laps as he chased Fassler, regularly taking 2s 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 40s 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 niggles, 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