Le Mans 24 Hours: Wurz leads for Toyota under pressure from Audi
Alex Wurz battled to prevent Audi's Marcel Fassler making up ground on the leading Toyota in the ninth hour of the Le Mans 24 Hours
The Toyota enjoyed a cushion of around 1m30-40s, but Wurz had to keep responding to some quick laps from Fassler, who was able to challenge the leading car's laptimes despite being on much older tyres.
Behind the lead battle, Marc Gene held onto third place for the #1 Audi, while the Porsches of Mark Webber and Neel Jani completed the top five.
Jani was the fastest car on track for much of his most recent stint, although he did run straight on at Arnage corner - something Webber and Brendon Hartley had done earlier in the sister 919 Hybrid.
The #12 Rebellion lost touch with the factory cars when Nick Heidfeld lost a wheel after a pitstop - requiring a slow lap back to the pits and a nine-minute stop in the garage for repairs and a radio change.
In LMP2, the #35 G-Drive-backed OAK Ligier has consolidated its lead thanks to a series of good stints from Jann Mardenborough.
The #36 Signatech Alpine ORECA driven by Nelson Panciatici runs second, and is out of synch with the Ligier and stopping three laps later, meaning it will drop back despite being around 30 seconds behind on the hour-mark.
The top four cars in class are covered by a relatively small margin, with the #34 Race Performance ORECA and the #46 TDS Ligier showing well.
The #26 OAK-run G-Drive Morgan, a winner last year, was running fifth when Pla stopped out on track.
Stefan Mucke caught and passed Oliver Gavin's Corvette to ensure Aston Martin remained on top of both GTE classes.
Gavin moved into the Pro lead when he, Mucke and Giancarlo Fisichella pitted at the end of the previous hour, but the Vantage driver made full use of new rubber to slash the C7.R's advantage.
Pulling clear of Gianmaria Bruni, in for Fisichella in the AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia, Mucke caught Gavin when the Briton had a slow lap and moved into the lead two laps leader before edging clear.
Bruni was the first to make his scheduled stop, relieving Gavin of any imminent pressure as he and Mucke stayed out.
Bruni remains third with Frederic Makowiecki fourth for the Manthey Porsche team, but the #91 car has dropped down the order after being pushed into the garage for what the team later confirmed was a fuel-pressure problem.
Pedro Lamy and Nicki Thiim remain atop the GTE Am division. Lamy leads his Danish rival but more than half a minute as the V8 Vantages' stranglehold continues over the SMP Ferrari 458.
POSITIONS AFTER 9 HOURS Pos Cl Car Drivers Laps Gap 1. LMP1 #7 Toyota Wurz/Sarrazin/Nakajima 136 2. LMP1 #2 Audi Fassler/Lotterer/Treluyer 136 + 1m44.011s 3. LMP1 #1 Audi Di Grassi/Gene/Kristensen 135 + 1 Lap 4. LMP1 #20 Porsche Bernhard/Webber/Hartley 134 + 2 Laps 5. LMP1 #14 Porsche Dumas/Jani/Lieb 130 + 6 Laps 6. LMP1 #12 Rebellion Prost/Heidfeld/Beche 126 + 10 Laps 7. LMP2 #35 Ligier Brundle/Mardenborough/Shulzhitskiy 126 + 1m12.398s 8. LMP2 #36 Alpine Chatin/Panciatici/Webb 126 + 2m36.251s 9. LMP2 #34 Oreca Frey/Mailleux/Lancaster 125 + 11 Laps 10. LMP2 #46 Ligier Thiriet/Badey/Gommendy 125 + 20.633s 11. LMP1 #8 Toyota Davidson/Lapierre/Buemi 125 + 1m29.503s 12. LMP2 #38 Zytek Dolan/Tincknell/Turvey 125 + 3m07.377s 13. LMP2 #43 Morgan Klien/Hirsch/Brandela 123 + 13 Laps 14. LMP2 #24 Oreca Rast/Charouz/Capillaire 123 + 1m34.530s 15. LMP2 #33 Ligier Cheng/Tung/Fong 122 + 14 Laps 16. LMP2 #26 Morgan Rusinov/Pla/Canal 120 + 16 Laps 17. GTEP #97 Aston Turner/Mucke/Senna 120 + 19m11.508s 18. GTEP #74 Chevrolet Gavin/Milner/Westbrook 120 + 19m16.718s 19. GTEP #51 Ferrari Bruni/Vilander/Fisichella 120 + 20m19.978s 20. GTEP #92 Porsche Holzer/Makowiecki/Lietz 120 + 20m48.849s 21. GTEA #98 Aston Dalla Lana/Lamy/Nygaard 119 + 17 Laps 22. GTEA #95 Aston Poulsen/Heinemeier-Hansson/Thiim 119 + 1m32.132s 23. LMP2 #29 Morgan Schell/Leutwiller/Roussel 118 + 18 Laps 24. GTEP #73 Chevrolet Magnussen/Garcia/Taylor 118 + 6.473s 25. GTEA #72 Ferrari Bertolini/Shaitar/Basov 118 + 2m23.641s 26. LMP2 #50 Morgan Ragues/Taylor/Ihara 117 + 19 Laps 27. GTEA #88 Porsche Ried/Bachler/Al Qubaisi 117 + 10m16.049s 28. LMP2 #42 Zytek Kimber-Smith/McMurry/Dyson 117 + 11m03.810s 29. GTEA #77 Porsche Dempsey/Foster/Long 117 + 12m44.393s 30. GTEA #61 Ferrari Perez-Companc/Cioci/Venturi 117 + 13m01.501s 31. GTEA #90 Ferrari Montecalvo/Roda/Ruberti 117 + 13m08.947s 32. GTEA #57 Ferrari Krohn/Jonsson/Collins 116 + 20 Laps 33. GTEA #70 Ferrari Nakano/Ehret/Rich 116 + 1m51.979s 34. GTEP #91 Porsche Pilet/Bergmeister/Tandy 115 + 21 Laps 35. GTEA #75 Porsche Perrodo/Collard/Palttala 115 + 17m50.402s 36. GTEA #58 Ferrari Barthez/Pons/Ayari 115 + 18m16.620s 37. GTEA #67 Porsche Maris/Merlin/Helary 115 + 18m32.702s 38. GTEA #60 Ferrari Mann/Case/Giammaria 115 + 19m21.016s 39. LMP2 #27 Oreca Zlobin/Salo/Ladygin 114 + 22 Laps 40. GTEA #76 Porsche Narac/Armindo/Hallyday 114 + 2m01.752s 41. GTEA #66 Ferrari Al Faisal/Neiman/Pumpelly 114 + 2m05.811s 42. GTEP #79 Porsche MacNeil/Curtis/Bleekemolen 110 + 26 Laps 43. GTEA #62 Ferrari Mallegol/Bachelier/Blank 106 + 30 Laps 44. GTEA #53 Ferrari Mowlem/Patterson/Hamilton 105 + 31 Laps 45. GTEP #52 Ferrari Griffin/Parente/Leo 92 + 44 Laps 46. LMP2 #48 Oreca Berthon/Gonzalez/Chandhok 73 + 63 Laps 47. LMP2 #47 Oreca Howson/Bradley/Imperatori 87 Retired 48. LMP1 #13 Rebellion Kraihamer/Belicchi/Leimer 73 Retired 49. LMP2 #41 Zytek Munemman/Latif/Winslow 31 Retired 50. GTEP #71 Ferrari Rigon/Kaffer/Beretta 28 Retired 51. LMP1 #3 Audi Albuquerque/Bonanomi/Jarvis 25 Retired 52. GTEA #81 Ferrari Wyatt/Rugolo/Bird 22 Retired 53. LMP2 #37 Oreca Ladygin/Minassian/Mediani 9 Retired 54. CDNT #0 Nissan Ordonez/Reip/Motoyama 5 Retired
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