Audi's faultlessly ahead in first 10 hours at Le Mans

The Audi's of Team North America have so far appeared dominant at this year's Le Mans 24 hours race. Car No 2 of Kristensen/Capello/McNish is currently leading the race, ahead of the second Audi R10 of the team, driven by Lamy/Bourdais/Sarrazin. The Peugeot No 7 of Gene/Villeneuve/Minassian is in 3rd place, down 4 laps to the leader.

Earlier on, at around 19:45, the Peugeot that started on pole, car No 8 came into trouble with a rear wheel bearing. It managed to get to the pit lane at reduced speed and was in for fixing during 16 minutes. The car rejoined the track in 9th position but has climbed back up the field to 5th place after Sebastien Bourdais passed Alex Yoong at 1:10.

At that time, both Peugeots are the fastest cars on track, constantly being 3s faster than their closest competitors from Audi. Contrastingly, both Audi's have set the fastest times thus far, with Tom Christensen going around the circuit in 3:27.684 during a 13 lap stint. It must also be noted that neither of the diesel powered teams have a mileage advantage towards each other as both have run stints no longer than 14 laps.

The Audi's in front are running faultless so far, except for a minor issue with car No 1. As Marco Werner tried to pass the Corvette C6.R #63 in the Dunlop chicane, the cars touched after which Jan Magnussen spun off the circuit. He was fortunate to be able to continue the race. Both men came in the pitlane for fixes. The Audi there lost a lap to replace the engine cover, while the last Corvette Racing car could continue without a major loss of time.

The standings at 1:21 hours are as follows: