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H6: Fassler stretches Audi lead

Marcel Fassler retook the Le Mans lead in the #2 Audi R18 at the close of the sixth hour

The cat-and-mouse situation between Audi and Peugeot continued as Audi seemed to have the edge in raw pace, but were forced to pit on a more regular basis.

Fassler made his seventh stop of the race at the midday point of the sixth hour, pitting with a 41s gap over Anthony Davidson in the lead #7 Peugeot.

Davidson therefore took the lead until his own stop, when he handed over the #7 Peugeot to Marc Gene. Gene rejoined in second, one minute down on Fassler.

Mike Rockenfeller took over the #1 Audi from Romain Dumas in fifth position, which became third after the #9 and #8 Peugeots of Pedro Lamy and Nicolas Minassian made their stops.

Rockenfeller was the first driver in the top five to make an eighth stop however, dropping him back down to fifth behind the #9 and #8 908s.

In the petrol class, Julien Jousse handed over the lead #16 Pescarolo-Judd to Emmanuel Collard, who came out behind Neel Jani in the #12 Rebellion Racing Lola.

Collard also dropped behind the sister #13 Rebellion Lola driven by Jean-Christophe Boullion after pitting for the eighth time.

Dominik Kraihamer continued to set a relentless pace in the LMP2 class, giving the #48 ORECA-Nissan a lead of more than one lap over their nearest challenger, Karim Ojjeh in the #41 Zytek-Nissan.

Nick Leventis in the #42 Strakka HPD is currently third in class, one minute down the road from Ojjeh.

In GTE Pro, Richard Westbrook continues to lead in the #74 Corvette, although Andy Priaulx in the #56 BMW M3 GT has reduced the deficit to less than one minute.

The #51 AF Corse Ferrari had also been closing in but Tony Villander beached the car in the gravel at Mulsanne. He handed the car over to Gianmaria Bruni in seventh position.

The #50 Larbre Corvette leads the GTE Am class by just five seconds from the #57 Krohn Ferrari.

NOTES:

- The #3 Audi of Allan McNish crashed out of the race in the first hour having just taken second position. The Scot collected the #58 Luxury Racing Ferrari in the right-hander after the Dunlop Bridge. The heavy impact destroyed the car and the Scot was taken to hospital for precautionary checks, but appears to be unhurt.

- Both Aston Martin AMR Ones ran into trouble on the first lap of the race. Darren Turner spinning with mechanical trouble and Adrian Fernandez stopping out on the Mulsanne. The #007 car of Turner was recovered to the pits where it was discovered an alternator belt tensioner was to blame.

POSITIONS AFTER SIX HOURS

Pos  Car            Team                      Class   Gap
 1.  # 2 Audi       Audi Sport Team Joest     (LMP1)  
 2.  # 7 Peugeot    Peugeot Sport Total       (LMP1)  + 1:02.013
 3.  # 9 Peugeot    Team Peugeot Total        (LMP1)  + 2:07.473
 4.  # 8 Peugeot    Peugeot Sport Total       (LMP1)  + 2:07.911
 5.  # 1 Audi       Audi Sport Team Joest     (LMP1)  + 2:17.982
 6.  #10 Peugeot    Team Oreca-Matmut         (LMP1)  +    1 Lap
 7.  #12 Lola       Rebellion Racing          (LMP1)  +   3 Laps
 8.  #13 Lola       Rebellion Racing          (LMP1)  +   3 Laps
 9.  #16 Pescarolo  Pescarolo Team            (LMP1)  +   3 Laps
10.  #48 Oreca      Team Oreca-Matmut         (LMP2)  +   5 Laps
11.  #24 OAK        OAK Racing                (LMP1)  +   6 Laps
12.  #22 Lola       Kronos Racing             (LMP1)  +   6 Laps
13.  #41 Zytek      Greaves Motorsport        (LMP2)  +   7 Laps
14.  #42 HPD        Strakka Racing            (LMP2)  +   7 Laps
15.  #39 Lola       PeCom Racing              (LMP2)  +   7 Laps
16.  #33 Lola       Level 5 Motorsports       (LMP2)  +   8 Laps
17.  #36 HPD        RML                       (LMP2)  +   8 Laps
18.  #49 OAK        OAK Racing                (LMP2)  +   9 Laps
19.  #35 OAK        OAK Racing                (LMP2)  +   9 Laps
20.  #26 Oreca      Signatech Nissan          (LMP2)  +   9 Laps
21.  #74 Corvette   Corvette Racing           (GTEP)  +   9 Laps
22.  #56 BMW        BMW Motorsport            (GTEP)  +  10 Laps
23.  #75 Porsche    Prospeed Competition      (GTEP)  +  10 Laps
24.  #73 Corvette   Corvette Racing           (GTEP)  +  10 Laps
25.  #59 Ferrari    Luxury Racing             (GTEP)  +  10 Laps
26.  #51 Ferrari    AF Corse                  (GTEP)  +  10 Laps
27.  #80 Porsche    Flying Lizard Motorsports (GTEP)  +  11 Laps
28.  #89 Ferrari    Hankook Team Farnbacher   (GTEP)  +  11 Laps
29.  #66 Ferrari    JMW Motorsport            (GTEP)  +  11 Laps
30.  #88 Porsche    Team Felbermayr-Proton    (GTEP)  +  11 Laps
31.  #55 BMW        BMW Motorsport            (GTEP)  +  11 Laps
32.  #76 Porsche    IMSA Performance Matmut   (GTEP)  +  11 Laps
33.  #44 Norma      Extr                      (LMP2)  +  12 Laps
34.  #77 Porsche    Team Felbermayr-Proton    (GTEP)  +  12 Laps
35.  #50 Corvette   Larbre Competition        (GTEA)  +  12 Laps
36.  #81 Porsche    Flying Lizard Motorsports (GTEA)  +  12 Laps
37.  #57 Ferrari    Krohn Racing              (GTEA)  +  12 Laps
38.  #70 Porsche    Larbre Competition        (GTEA)  +  12 Laps
39.  #60 Aston      Gulf AMR Middle East      (GTEA)  +  13 Laps
40.  #61 Ferrari    AF Corse                  (GTEA)  +  13 Laps
41.  #63 Porsche    Proton Competition        (GTEA)  +  13 Laps
42.  #40 Oreca      Race Performance          (LMP2)  +  13 Laps
43.  #65 Lotus      Lotus Jetalliance         (GTEP)  +  14 Laps
44.  #71 Ferrari    AF Corse                  (GTEP)  +  14 Laps
45.  #62 Ferrari    CRS Racing                (GTEA)  +  14 Laps
46.  #79 Aston      Jota                      (GTEP)  +  16 Laps
47.  #83 Ferrari    JMB Racing                (GTEA)  +  16 Laps
48.  #68 Ford       Robertson Racing          (GTEA)  +  20 Laps
49.  #64 Lotus      Lotus Jetalliance         (GTEP)  +  21 Laps
50.  #58 Ferrari    Luxury Racing             (GTEP)  +  24 Laps
51.  # 5 Oreca      Hope Racing               (LMP1)  +  36 Laps
52.  #15 OAK        OAK Racing                (LMP1)  +  48 Laps
53.  #20 Zytek      Quifel-ASM Team           (LMP1)  Retired
54.  # 3 Audi       Audi Sport North America  (LMP1)  Retired
55.  # 007 AMR-One  Aston Martin Racing       (LMP1)  Retired
56.  # 009 AMR-One  Aston Martin Racing       (LMP1)  Retired

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