Night racing past the pits at Le Mans (Photo Credit: MacLean Photographic)
The eleventh hour of the 2012 24 Hours of Le Mans saw the shutters come down on Toyota's tilt at the race.
Already heavily delayed after having to change an alternator it was engine troubles that brought the #7 and driver Alex Wurz back into the garage, this time for good as the Toyota TS030 Hybrid bowed out of the race after a frantic, dramatic showing in the first half of the race.
Now free of Toyota harassment the #1 Audi of Marcel Fassler, Benoit Treluyer and Andre Lotterer continue to lead overall, with the #2 car following in second place maintaining the 1-2 for Audi R18 e-tron quattro, with the #4 R18 ultra in third.
After the felling of the OAK Racing challenge over the previous hours the American Starworks Motorsports team lead LMP2 with 2:45 lead over the #26 Signatech Nissan entry leading four ORECA 03 chassis that complete the rest of the class top five. After a puncture in the previous hour one-time leaders Murphy Prototypes run eighth in class.
Having started the hour leading the LMGTE Pro class Richard Westbrook and the #74 Corvette Racing car endured a torrid time. The British driver had a left-rear tyre part company with car in the early part of the lap and was forced to limp around the rest of the 13km lap on three wheels.
Repaired and sent back out again Westbrook was off again later in the hour, nosing into the tyre barriers on the outside of Arnage.
As a result Ferrari teams run 1-2 in the class, AF Corse's #51 leading the way from the Luxury Racing car by a full lap. The second Corvette runs third in class.
Imsa Performance Matmut's LMGTE Am car leads that class, a lap to the good over the #50 Larbre Competition Corvette.
2012 24 Hours of Le Mans class standings after 11 hours:
LMP1
#1 – Audi Sport Team Joest – Rassler/Lotterer/Treluyer – 172 laps
#2 – Audi Sport Team Joest – Capello/Kristensen/McNish – 172 laps
#4 – Audi Sport North America – Bonanomi/Jarvis/Rockenfeller – 171 laps
#12 – Rebellion Racing – Prost/Jani/Heidfeld
#13 – Rebellion Racing – Belicchi/Primat/Bleekemolen
LMP2
#44 – Starworks Motorsports – Potolicchio/Dalziel/Kimber-Smith – 161 laps
#26 – Signatech Nissan – Panciatici/Ragues/Rusinov – 161 laps
#49 – Pecom racing – Perez Companc/Ayari/Kaffer – 161 laps
#46 – Thiriet By TDS Racing – Beche/Thiriet/Tinseau – 160 laps
#23 – Signatech Nissan – Maillieux/Lombard/Tresson – 160 laps
LMGTE Pro
#51 – AF Corse – Fisichella/Bruni/Vilander – 154 laps
#59 – Luxury Racing – Makowiecki/Melo/Farnbacher – 153 laps
#73 – Corvette Racing – Taylor/Garcia/Magnussen – 153 laps
#97 – Aston Martin Racing – Fernandez/Mucke/Turner – 153 laps
#77 – Team Felbermayr-Proton – Lieb/Lietz/Henzler – 152 laps
LMGTE Am
#67 – Imsa Performance Matmut – Armindo/Narac/Pons – 150 laps
#50 – Larbre Competition – Bornhauser/Canal/Lamy – 149 laps
#57 – Krohn Racing – Krohn/Johnsson/Rugolo – 147 laps
#61 – AF Corse-Waltrip – Kauffman/Aguas/Vickers – 146 laps
#58 – Luxury Racing – Ehret/Montecalvo/Jeannette – 145 laps
