The Peugeot 908's of Bourdais (#9) and Gene (#7) lead the field into the 17th hour of the race ahead of Lotterer in the #2 Audi.
The two Peugeot's hold a two pit stop advantage over the #2 Audi's are expected to pit soon into the 17th hour.
Hour sixteen started with the fourth safety car of the race after the #59 Luxury Ferrari of Ortelli stopped on track, just before his team mate Jakubowski (#58) in the sister Luxury Ferrari crashed at the same spot as Boullion just hours earlier.
The Peugeots reacted to the safety car as the #9 and #7 pitted together and ran nose to tail.
Nissan ran 1-2-3 in LMP2 before the #48 Team ORECA Matmut of Hallyday crashed from P2 in class under the safety car.
Soon after a number of pit stops followed at the #26, #55, #8 and the #16 all pitted.
The #8 Peugeot joined the number #7 and number #9 Peugeot on the race track, albeit a lap down.
The #2 Audi pitted and a drive changed ensued as Fassler gave his seat to Lotterer and he promptly then set a new lap record with a 3.27.710. The #9 of Bourdais then responded setting a 3.27.388 before Lotterer set a new lap record of 2.36.298, which was .5 shy of the #2 Audi's qualifying time of 3.27.7.
With rain predicted in the closing stages the race is still very much up for grabs.
2011 24 Hours of Le Mans standings after sixteen hours:
LMP1
No.9 – Peugeot Sport Total – Bourdais/Lamy/Pagenaud
No.7 – Peugeot Sport Total – Davidson/Gene/Wurz
No.2 – Audi Sport Team Joest – Fassler/Lotterer/Treluyer
LMP2
No.41 – Greaves Motorsport – Ojjeh/Kimber-Smith/Lombard
No.26 – Signatech – Mailleux/Ordonez/Ayari
No.33 – Level 5 Motorsport – Tucker/Bouchut/Barbosa
GTEPro
No.74 – Corvette Racing – Gavin/Magnussen/Westbrook
No.51 – AF Corse SRL – Fisichella/Bruni/Vilander
No.73 – Corvette Racing – Beretta/Milner/Garcia
GTEAm
No 81 – Flying Lizard Motorsports – Neiman/Law/Pumpelly
No.50 – Larbre Competition – Bornhauser/Canal/Gardel
No.70 – Larbre Competition – Bourret/Gibon/Belloc
