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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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