As the 2013 24 Hours of Le Mans enters in to its 12th Hour the only change at the front since the last hour is the drivers of the top 3 cars, Allan McNish now leads the race in the #2 Audi with Anthony Davidson and Nicolas Lapierre holding position in the two Toyota’s.
The biggest story from LMP1 is the #1 Audi driven by Marcel Fassler through most of this hour, following earlier issues the team have been playing catch-up and Fassler has been leading the charge, weaving his way through GT and LMP2 cars, as the hour closed out Lotterer was back in the driving seat and running in 12th place overall. With Strakka Racing in 7th place and four laps ahead, any further progress in in the LMP1 class will be tough.
In the LMP2 class OAK Racing lead the way with Pla bringing an impressive quadruple stint as he eroded the class lead of team-mate Gonzalez. As the end of the hour closed in Alex Brundle was setting the pace for LMP2, closing in on the sister #35 car.
In GTE Pro the #99 Aston Martin continues to set the pace while team-mate Darren Turner pushed hard to regain second in class from the #92 Porsche, unfortunately for the Aston Martin driver it would only be a brief second while the Porsche came in to the pits. There are potential problems for Turner, his LED door square has stopped working which could mean lost time should the team have to repair it.
The big story in the GTE Am class during this hour was the accident involving Patrick Dempsey after he was collected by an LMP2 car as they went in to the first corner. Dempsey would get going again but later reported the car was pulling to the left. The #76 IMSA Performance Porsche leads the class on the hour followed by two AF Corse Ferrari’s. Larbre Racing would see problems when their #70 car as it expired in a cloud of steam/smoke in the garage. The Krohn Ferrari finished the race early as it expired on circuit.
2013 24 Hours of Le Mans class standings after 10 hours
LMP1
1 – #2 Audi Sport Team Joest – Kristensen/Duval/McNish
2 – #8 Toyota Racing – Davidson/Buemi/Sarrazin
3 – #7 Toyota Racing – Wurz/Lapierre/Nakajima
LMP2
1 – #35 OAK Racing – Baguette/Gonzalez/Plowman
2 – #24 OAK Racing – Brundle/Heinemeier Hansson/Pla
3 – #38 Jota Sport – Dolan/Turvey/Luhr
GTE Pro
1 – #99 Aston Martin Racing – Bell/Makowiecki/Senna
2 – #92 Porsche AG Team Manthey – Lieb/Lietz/Dumas
3 – #97 Aston Martin Racing – Dumbreck/Mucke/Turner
GTE Am
1 – #76 IMSA Performance Matmut – Narac/Bourret/Vernay
2 – #55 AF Corse – Perazzini/Case/O’Young
3 – #61 AF Corse – Gerber/Griffin/Cioci
