H2: Montagny maintains healthy lead

The Frenchman, who has led the race throughout so far, gained his advantage during the safety car period when his #8 pole-winning 908 Hdi FAP picked up a different pace car to the chasing Audis.

Montagny is now on his third stint in the leading car, despite having broken his leg 10 days ago in training.

Team-mate Gene moved into second in the #9 908, having taken a new set of tyres on during the SC period.

Mike Rockenfeller is now third for Audi after a so-far trouble-free run and moved up a place by dint of the #1 car, driven by Allan McNish, requiring a new nosecone for debris damage.

Fifth and sixth are the two Aston Martins of Stefane Mucke and Darren Turner. The #009 Aston Martin, driven by Peter Kox, which has already required a new alternator belt, was given a stop-and-go because the team worked on the car on the grid after the five-minute board had been shown.

The only other major incident in LMP1 occurred when Stephane Ortelli crashed the leading ORECA out of ninth position when he ran wide on the entry to Tertre Rouge. The Frenchman recovered the damaged car to the pits.

Twenty-one seconds separated LMP2 class leader Casper Elgaard from the second-placed Goh car - still being driven by Seiji Ara.

Johnny O'Connell currently enjoys more than a minute's lead over Corvette team-mate Olivier Beretta at the front of GT1.

In GT2, the battle for the lead still rages, but has lost one of the leading contenders after Richard Lietz ran out of fuel at the entry to the pitlane while running third. Patrick Pilet led the class for Porsche ahead of Jorg Bergmeister and Dominic Farnbacher's Ferrari.