LeMans Hour 21: Audi falters, Porsche leads

The No. 20 Porsche takes the lead

Timo Bernhard in the No|20 Porsche took over the lead of the Le Mans 24 Hours with three hours remaining following issues for the #1 Audi.

Tom Kristensen had been leading relatively comfortably for Audi, but pulled off the track to complete a power cycle having been down on power, losing 20 seconds before then pitting to try and get the issue resolved. Having been sent back out on track, it was clear that the #1 Audi was slow and Kristensen returned the car to the garage where it stayed for over 17 minutes as it required a turbocharger change and dropped to third.

That promoted Bernhard in the #20 Porsche in to the lead, with Andre Lotterer in the #2 Audi up to second and closing a 1m30s gap by an average of two or three seconds per lap.

Lucas di Grassi has taken over the #1 car but is now four laps off the lead and only two laps ahead of the #8 Toyota which continues to recover from a crash in the opening two hours of the race.

There was another lead change in the LMP2 class as Oak Racing regained the lead with the #35 Ligier after the #46 TDS Ligier had trouble and was lapping slowly The two cars are separated by just a minute on track with three hours to run.

Hour 21 Standings

Pos Class Car Drivers Laps Behind
1 LMP1 #20 Porsche Bernhard/Webber/Hartley 329 +0.000s
2 LMP1 #2 Audi Fassler/Lotterer/Treluyer 329 +1m02.759s
3 LMP1 #1 Audi Di Grassi/Gene/Kristensen 325 +4 Laps
4 LMP1 #8 Toyota Davidson/Lapierre/Buemi 322 +7 Laps
5 LMP1 #14 Porsche Dumas/Jani/Lieb 320 +9 Laps
6 LMP1 #12 Rebellion Prost/Heidfeld/Beche 310 +19 Laps
7 LMP2 #35 Ligier Brundle/Mardenborough/Shulzhitskiy 308 +21 Laps
8 LMP2 #38 Zytek Dolan/Tincknell/Turvey 307 +22 Laps
9 LMP2 #46 Ligier Thiriet/Badey/Gommendy 307 +43.564s
10 LMP2 #36 Alpine Chatin/Panciatici/Webb 306 +23 Laps
11 LMP2 #24 Oreca Rast/Charouz/Capillaire 306 +1m27.072s
12 LMP2 #43 Morgan Klien/Hirsch/Brandela 304 +25 Laps
13 LMP2 #34 Oreca Frey/Mailleux/Lancaster 304 +1m17.930s
14 LMP2 #33 Ligier Cheng/Tung/Fong 300 +29 Laps
15 GTEP #51 Ferrari Bruni/Vilander/Fisichella 294 +35 Laps
16 LMP2 #50 Morgan Ragues/Taylor/Ihara 294 +2m38.063s
17 GTEP #92 Porsche Holzer/Makowiecki/Lietz 293 +36 Laps
18 GTEP #73 Chevrolet Magnussen/Garcia/Taylor 292 +37 Laps
19 LMP2 #29 Morgan Schell/Leutwiller/Roussel 291 +38 Laps
20 GTEA #95 Aston Poulsen/Heinemeier-Hansson/Thiim 290 +39 Laps
21 GTEP #97 Aston Turner/Mucke/Senna 289 +40 Laps
22 LMP2 #42 Zytek Kimber-Smith/McMurry/Dyson 287 +42 Laps
23 GTEA #88 Porsche Ried/Bachler/Al Qubaisi 287 +41m15.543s
24 GTEP #74 Chevrolet Gavin/Milner/Westbrook 287 +41m57.048s
25 GTEA #61 Ferrari Perez-Companc/Cioci/Venturi 286 +43 Laps
26 GTEA #90 Ferrari Montecalvo/Roda/Ruberti 285 +44 Laps
27 GTEA #57 Ferrari Krohn/Jonsson/Collins 285 +19.199s
28 GTEA #77 Porsche Dempsey/Foster/Long 284 +45 Laps
29 GTEA #66 Ferrari Al Faisal/Neiman/Pumpelly 283 +46 Laps
30 GTEA #98 Aston Dalla Lana/Lamy/Nygaard 283 +3.766s
31 GTEA #70 Ferrari Nakano/Ehret/Rich 282 +47 Laps
32 GTEA #58 Ferrari Barthez/Pons/Ayari 282 +18.054s
33 LMP2 #27 Oreca Zlobin/Salo/Ladygin 281 +48 Laps
34 GTEA #76 Porsche Narac/Armindo/Hallyday 279 +50 Laps
35 GTEP #79 Porsche MacNeil/Curtis/Bleekemolen 275 +54 Laps
36 GTEA #53 Ferrari Mowlem/Patterson/Hamilton 274 +55 Laps
37 GTEA #67 Porsche Maris/Merlin/Helary 274 +2m26.541s
38 GTEP #91 Porsche Pilet/Bergmeister/Tandy 264 +65 Laps
39 GTEA #62 Ferrari Mallegol/Bachelier/Blank 253 +76 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