Six hours, a typical FIA World Endurance Championship race remains from Le Mans.
Audi has the overall lead. The #1 of Marc Gené has completed 279 laps and had a bit of good fortune go his and Tom Kristensen and Lucas di Grassi's way. The #7 Toyota was the class of the field before an electrical problem forced the car to stop a little after 11:37 p.m. ET Saturday night. The #2 Audi inherited the lead but around 1:00 a.m. ET Sunday Marcel Fässler went into the garage as the team had to replace a turbo charger. Mark Webber in the #20 Porsche jumped to second at the #2 Audi dropped the third, two laps back of the lead Audi. Nicolas Lapierre and the #8 Toyota has worked their way back to fourth after the early spin in the wet nearly took them out of the race, as it did with the #3 Audi of Marco Bonanomi and #81 GTE-Am AF Corse Ferrari of Sam Bird. Romain Dumas rounds out the top five, 10 laps back of the leader.
Jann Mardenbrough continues to hold the lead for the #35 OAK Racing Ligier having run 263 laps. Paul-Loup Chatin continues to run second in the #36 Signatech Alpine with the #46 Thiriet by TDS Racing Ligier of Ludovic Badey in third, a lap back of the first two in class. The #38 Jota Sport Zytek of Oliver Turvey runs fourth in class, three back of the #35 OAK with René Rast another lap back, fifth in class driving the #24 Sébastien Loeb Racing Oreca.
The #97 Aston Martin of Bruno Senna and #51 Ferrari of Gianmaria Bruni battle for the GTE-Pro lead. Bruni passed Senna shortly prior to the start of the 19th hour. The two teams are the only GTE-Pro lead lap, having completed 250 laps. Marco Holzer is a lap down, third in class driving the #92 Porsche. The #73 and #74 Corvettes round out the top five in GTE-Pro with drivers Antonio García and Richard Westbrook respectively behind the wheel of each car. They are one lap and eight laps back of the #51 Ferrari respectively.
David Heinemeier Hansson continues to hold a two lap lead in GTE-Am in the #95 Aston Martin with 246 laps under the all-Danish team's belt. Klaus Bachler is second in the #88 Proton Competition Porsche. #61 AF Corse Ferrari is third with Marco Cioci behind the wheel, three laps back. Patrick Long is fourth in the #77 Demspey Racing-Proton Porsche with Nic Jönsson rounding out the top five in the #57 Krohn Racing Ferrari.
Stay tuned as sun rise lurks on the U.S. Eastern seaboard.
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