After eight hours of racing, Audi owned the top three places at the Le Mans 24 with no team having a serious chance to challenge.
Audi has held the lead through most of the race. The #7 Toyota had a good duel with the leading Audi around the five-hour mark, the two swapping the lead a few times, but after the 69 minute-safety car period to clean up the #8 Toyota wreck, Audi never lost the lead again.
The four-car Audi armada has had issues—including a serious wreck for the #3 R18 Ultra—but compared to Toyota, Audi’s race has been trouble-free.
Toyota lost the #8 car to a collision with a GT Ferrari just after five hours. Then six-and-a-half hours into the race the #7 car tangled with the DeltaWing and spent several laps in the garage. (The DeltaWing was forced to retire.)
Twelve minutes before the eight-hour mark, the #7 stalled leaving the pits and was dragged back into the garage with an unidentified problem. (The Toyota rejoined the race after 32 minutes in the garage, with Kaz Nakajima at the wheel.)
Marcel Fässler in the #1 Audi R18 e-tron quattro led after eight hours, almost a lap ahead of Alan McNish in the seconds e-tron. Oliver Jarvis had the #4 R18 Ultra in third, 18 seconds behind McNish and three laps ahead of Nicolas Prost in the highest-placed privateer p1, the #13 Rebellion Lola-Toyota.
The #7 Toyota TS030 Hybrid was 30 laps behind the leaders when it rejoined.
The #48 Murphy Prototypes Oreca-Nissan piloted by Warren Hughes led in P2 by almost six minutes ahead of the #24 Oak Racing Morgan Judd. The Murphy was in seventh overall, ahead of Marc Gené in the #3 Audi, Olivier pal in the Oak car behind the Audi. Tomk Kimber-Smith in the #44 Starworks HPD-Honda held third in P2 and tenth overall.
The GTE-Pro battle continued to be tight, with Ollie Gavin in the #74 Corvette 40 seconds ahead of Toni Vilander in the #51 AF Corse Ferrari, which was itself a lap and-a-half ahead of the second Corvette Racing car driven by Antonio Garcia.
A Corvette led GTE-Am as well: the #50 Larbre Corvettewith Pedro Lamy behind the wheel led the #67 IMSA Matmut Porsche of Nicolas Armindo by 1:24.
