A TV grab of the Audi shows the damage incurred

The state of the race after 7 hours

• The 908 Hdi FAP driven by Gene/Wurk/Brabham is leading, just a few minutes before 9 PM. The LM P1 benefits from the transmission problem with the Bourdais’ sister car n°8.
  At 9 PM, the car leads with a 41 second advantage over the Audi R15 of Dindo Capello


• The Peugeot mechanics took only 9 minutes to change the left rear transmission. Sebastien Bourdais, the local driver rejoins the track in 6th place overall, while his teammate Alexander Wurz leads in the #9 car.
• First and foremost, the driver is reported to be OK, but the crash is quite severe, and the rear is completely crushed. Luhr crashed into the wall when he lost control of the vehicle. Dr Ullrich said they wanted to bring it back into the garage for repair, and seems to be confident.

  Lucas Luhr forfeits 3rd position to Sebastien Bourdais at the wheel of the 8 Peugeot which is battling with the 008 Aston and the 17 Pescarolo Peugeot.

• The third Newport Pagnell works car suffered from severe electric problems. At 20h45, it came into the garage, where Stuart Hall complained about cut-outs. They tried to replace the battery without success. At 21h09 the car eventually rejoined the track in the hands of Harold Primat, but the 009 is now down at 46th position, more than 30 laps behind the leading cars.
• “We were a bit unsettled during the first part of the race. The car was understeering badly. We tried to increase the pace of the car compared to the beginning of the race and the nosecone change really helped us. We’re still not able to drive faster than the Peugeot even if we’re more efficient in traffic.”
• In LM P2 the 2 Porsche RS Spyders are competing for 1st place. Kunimoto in #5 was leading Emmanuel Collard in #31 by 8 seconds. The French driver of the Essex team was running flat out and was very close to the Japanese driver on the 103rd lap. It was at that moment that both drivers decided to go into the pits. As Emmanuel Collard restarted faster , the Navi Team Goh team decided to change their driver, so Sascha Maassen rejoined in 2nd place, trying hard to retake the lead.
• It's now official, the #2 Audi has retired 20 minutes after Lucas Luhr's major crash at the Porsche curve.

The top spots
LMP1
1 - 9 Peugeot
2 - 1 Audi
3 - 8 Peugeot

LMP2
1 - 31 Essex Porsche
2 - 5 Goh Porsche
3 - 33 Speedy Sebah

GT1
1 - 63 Corvette
2 - 64 Corvette
3 - 73 Luc Alphand

GT2
1 - 82 Risi
2 - 92 JMW
3 - 76 IMSA