Le Mans 24 Hours: Tom Kristensen maintains Audi's lead in hour 20
Tom Kristensen leads the Le Mans 24 Hours with four hours remaining as he chases a record-setting 10th victory
The #1 Audi that Kristensen shares with Lucas di Grassi and Marc Gene moved into the lead when the sister #2 machine had its turbo changed earlier this morning.
It now has an advantage of more than a lap over the #20 Porsche of Timo Bernhard, with Mark Webber having completed a quadruple stint in that car.
The #2 Audi remains on track in third place, although the #3 Audi crashed out early on in an incident that also ruined the victory chances of the #8 Toyota that currently runs a distant fourth.
The #46 TDS Ligier, which started on pole, holds first in LMP2 after the G-Drive-backed OAK Racing Ligier that led for so long had to pit with a rear brake problem in the previous hour.
But at the end of the hour, with Tristan Gommendy, the car suffered a puncture and crawled to the pits, which will elevate OAK once again.
Mark Shulzhitskiy is second in that car, currently a lap down on the leader, with Simon Dolan moving the #38 Zytek up to third in class.
Toni Vilander now has a lead of over a lap in GTE Pro in the #51 AF Corse Ferrari after the #97 Aston Martin that it had been fighting with dropped back in the last hour.
The #95 Aston Martin still leads GTE Pro in the hands of Nicki Thiim, well ahead of the #88 Porsche of Christian Ried.
POSITIONS AFTER 20 HOURS Pos Cl Car Drivers Laps Gap 1. LMP1 #1 Audi Di Grassi/Gene/Kristensen 313 2. LMP1 #20 Porsche Bernhard/Webber/Hartley 312 + 1 Lap 3. LMP1 #2 Audi Fassler/Lotterer/Treluyer 311 + 2 Laps 4. LMP1 #8 Toyota Davidson/Lapierre/Buemi 305 + 8 Laps 5. LMP1 #14 Porsche Dumas/Jani/Lieb 303 + 10 Laps 6. LMP1 #12 Rebellion Prost/Heidfeld/Beche 294 + 19 Laps 7. LMP2 #46 Ligier Thiriet/Badey/Gommendy 293 + 20 Laps 8. LMP2 #35 Ligier Brundle/Mardenborough/Shulzhitskiy 292 + 21 Laps 9. LMP2 #38 Zytek Dolan/Tincknell/Turvey 291 + 22 Laps 10. LMP2 #36 Alpine Chatin/Panciatici/Webb 290 + 23 Laps 11. LMP2 #24 Oreca Rast/Charouz/Capillaire 290 + 1m47.102s 12. LMP2 #34 Oreca Frey/Mailleux/Lancaster 288 + 25 Laps 13. LMP2 #43 Morgan Klien/Hirsch/Brandela 288 + 11.256s 14. LMP2 #33 Ligier Cheng/Tung/Fong 284 + 29 Laps 15. LMP2 #42 Zytek Kimber-Smith/McMurry/Dyson 283 + 30 Laps 16. GTEP #51 Ferrari Bruni/Vilander/Fisichella 279 + 34 Laps 17. LMP2 #50 Morgan Ragues/Taylor/Ihara 279 + 3m12.599s 18. GTEP #92 Porsche Holzer/Makowiecki/Lietz 277 + 36 Laps 19. GTEP #73 Chevrolet Magnussen/Garcia/Taylor 277 + 1m14.431s 20. LMP2 #29 Morgan Schell/Leutwiller/Roussel 276 + 37 Laps 21. GTEA #95 Aston Poulsen/Heinemeier-Hansson/Thiim 275 + 38 Laps 22. LMP2 #27 Oreca Zlobin/Salo/Ladygin 274 + 39 Laps 23. GTEP #97 Aston Turner/Mucke/Senna 274 + 11m10.948s 24. GTEA #88 Porsche Ried/Bachler/Al Qubaisi 273 + 40 Laps 25. GTEP #74 Chevrolet Gavin/Milner/Westbrook 272 + 41 Laps 26. GTEA #61 Ferrari Perez-Companc/Cioci/Venturi 271 + 42 Laps 27. GTEA #90 Ferrari Montecalvo/Roda/Ruberti 271 + 4m23.525s 28. GTEA #57 Ferrari Krohn/Jonsson/Collins 270 + 43 Laps 29. GTEA #66 Ferrari Al Faisal/Neiman/Pumpelly 269 + 44 Laps 30. GTEA #77 Porsche Dempsey/Foster/Long 269 + 18.356s 31. GTEA #98 Aston Dalla Lana/Lamy/Nygaard 268 + 45 Laps 32. GTEA #70 Ferrari Nakano/Ehret/Rich 268 + 1m36.518s 33. GTEA #58 Ferrari Barthez/Pons/Ayari 268 + 3m18.476s 34. GTEA #76 Porsche Narac/Armindo/Hallyday 265 + 48 Laps 35. GTEA #67 Porsche Maris/Merlin/Helary 261 + 52 Laps 36. GTEP #79 Porsche MacNeil/Curtis/Bleekemolen 261 + 1m30.991s 37. GTEA #53 Ferrari Mowlem/Patterson/Hamilton 260 + 53 Laps 38. GTEP #91 Porsche Pilet/Bergmeister/Tandy 249 + 64 Laps 39. GTEA #62 Ferrari Mallegol/Bachelier/Blank 240 + 73 Laps 40. LMP1 #7 Toyota Wurz/Sarrazin/Nakajima 219 Retired 41. GTEA #72 Ferrari Bertolini/Shaitar/Basov 196 Retired 42. GTEA #75 Porsche Perrodo/Collard/Palttala 194 Retired 43. GTEP #52 Ferrari Griffin/Parente/Leo 140 Retired 44. LMP2 #26 Morgan Rusinov/Pla/Canal 120 Retired 45. GTEA #60 Ferrari Mann/Case/Giammaria 115 Retired 46. LMP2 #47 Oreca Howson/Bradley/Imperatori 87 Retired 47. LMP1 #13 Rebellion Kraihamer/Belicchi/Leimer 73 Retired 48. LMP2 #48 Oreca Berthon/Gonzalez/Chandhok 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
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments