Le Mans 24 Hours - Race Report - Hour 10

00:00 LMP2: Car #35's misfortunes continue, and for (at least) the third time, it is recorded as having sustained another puncture. It is moving slowly round the track towards the pits.

00:01 Welcome to Sunday.

00:02 LMP1 #7's last stop was 1 hour 43, it must be a relief this time to do a routine refuel and send Nakajima back on his way.

00:02 LMP2: Tom Kimber-Smith marks the arrival of the new day by calling in to refuel the Starworks HPD #44.

00:03 Race control advises that the track through Dunlop is "slippery".

00:05 GTE Pro Garcia pits the #73 (stop number 9) as Bruni pits the #51for the eighth time. Jordan Taylor takes over the Corvette and resumes in fourth, while Bruni stays in the Ferrari and stays second.

00:08 GTE Pro Tommy Milner pits from the class lead. The American stays in and rejoins still in the lead.

00:09 LMP2: A run-down of the top places starts with the class leader, Warren Hughes, who leads Olivier Pla by  a matter of tenths, having lost five seconds on his last lap.

Third place is occupied by Tom Kimber-Smith in the #44 HPD, with Pierre Ragues fourth for Signatech in the '#26. Pierre Kaffer is about three or four seconds behind in the Pecom Oreca 03, and fifth is Tresson in the #23 Signatech Oreca Nissan.

Sam Hancock returned to the track in 7th after his last pitstop, and has some breathing space over Buurman, 8th in the #30 Status GP Lola. In ninth place is the #45 Boutsen Oreca with Jens Petersen in charge, and Matthias Beche rounds off the top ten with the #46 Thiriet TDS Oreca 03.

00:11 GTE Am Jeanette takes fifth as Gibon pits the #70 Corvette.

00:12 GTE Am The second-placed #50 Corvette has also pitted and Narac now holds a healthy lead, although he owes us a stop.

00:14 LMP2: The crew at Murphy have hauled the #48 back into the garage to make repairing the rear easier, with more personnel able to work on the car. Jody Firth is getting into the car.

00:14 Both delayed Flying Lizard Porsches have pitted, with Pat Long now in the #80 and Spencer Pumpelly back in the #79.

00:15 GTE Pro Fred Mak has pitted the #59 Ferrari and Jordan Taylor moves the #73 Corvette to third.

00:17 GTE Pro Long is reported to be travelling slowly along the Mulsanne as the #80 Porsche hits more trouble.

00:17 LMP1: Quick stop for the #7 Toyota - just 14 minutes after it last exited the pit lane.

00:17 LMP2: Olivier Pla just got ahead of Warren Hughes, and then both cars promptly pitted. It seems Warren was forced to make a late decision to pit. Almost certainly, this was not a planned visit. Warren reports that the rear right tyre suddenly punctured, and flailing rubber damaged the rear wheel arch and deck. Luckily it happened at a point where he could still deviate back onto the pitlane entry.

00:18 GTE Pro Long stops at the Michelin Chicane

00:18 LMP2: Fresh rear bodywork has been fitted to the #48 Murphy Oreca. Meanwhile, the #23 Signatech Oreca has p;itted routinely.

00:20 GTE Am Tracy Krohn drops his lime-green 458 into the gravel at Mulsanne corner.

00:21 LMP2: The #45 Boutsen Oreca has coasted to a halt, apparently with a loss of power and no headlights, somewhere in the Porsche Curves. Elsewhere, the #28 Gulf Racing Lola is buried in a stack of tyrewalls.

00:22 GTE Am Krohn was on his outlap, but a whole number of yellow flags suggests that someone has dropped oild and that the Ferrari driver was a victim of this.

00:23 LMP2: Jody Firth has returned the #48 to the circuit, after losing three or four laps. The Murphy Oreca has rejoined in 9th place, 16th overall.

00:23 GTE Pro Team Manager car 80 summoned to Race Control.

00:24 LMP1: All Quiet On The Ouestern Front ;-)

00:24 LMP2: The #26 Signatech Oreca Nissan, the G-Drive sponsored car, has completed an uneventful pitstop from 4th in class.

00:24 GTE Am Bornhauser pits from second. Stays in the car and in position.

00:25 LMP2: The monitors state that the #45 Boutsen Oreca has rejoined, and Petersen has immediately pitted the car for attention.

00:26 GTE Pro The Aston pits and Darren Turner takes over from Mücke.

00:28 GTE Am The #57 Ferrari has been pulled out of the gravel and has kept its third place. Meanwhile, Jeanette had just taken fourth from Vickers.

00:30 LMP2: The #45 is reported as having gone off into the gravel at the first Mulsanne Chicane, only half a lap after returning to the track.

00:32 GTE Am Jeanette pits and hands fourth back to Vickers. Pierre Ehret brings the Luxury Ferrari back into the race.

00:33 LMP1: Loïc Duval has just pitted from sixth overall - still behind the two Rebellion Racing Lola's.

00:33 LMP2: The #45 rejoins . . . again.

00:33 GTE Am Spencer Pumpelly is about to pass the stricken #80 Porsche on track to also move ahead in the standings.

00:34 LMP2: Pierre Kaffer brings the Pecom Racing Oreca 03 Nissan into the pits for a scheduled pitstop.

00:36 LMP2: The class leading Oak Racing Morgan is into the pits, and straight into the garage. The team has the engine cover off an the diagnostics are attached.

00:37 GTE Pro The #80 Flying Lizard Porsche is a confirmed retirement with accident damage.

00:38 GTE Am Narac pits the #67 IMSA Porsche from the Am lead.

00:38 LMP2: Tom Kimber-Smith moves through to take the lead for Starworks, with Pierre Ragues also likely to follow through into second while Olivier Pla is still stationery in the garage.

00:41 LMP1: OAK Racing #15 is back in the pit - looks like a more regular stop this time.

00:43 GTE Pro Jonny Cocker pits the #66 JMW Ferrari from seventh in class. The Dunlop-liveried 458 is making quiet but steady progress.

00:44 LMP2: The #24 Oak remains in the garage and is steadily falling down the order. The #41 Greaves Zytek has also had a mishap on track. Martin Brundle has brought the car back to the team for attention.

00:46 GTE Pro The stops continue, with both the #77 Felbermayr Porsche and the #71 AF Corse Ferrari pitting.

00:46 LMP2: A flurry of pitlane activity, as T K-S brings in the #44 Starworks HPD from the lead, just as Sam Hancock pits the Jota Zytek, and Ricardo Gonzalez visits in the #42 Greaves Zytek. Ryan Dalziel takes over from Tom Kimber-Smith.

00:49 GTE Am The Krohn car is fine following its excursion into the gravel, but the team don't know if it hit any oil or whether it was a simple mistake.

00:50 GTE Am Vickers pits the #61 from fourth.

00:50 LMP2: The Gulf Racing Middle East Lola returned to the pits after the off at Muslanne Corner and the team is working on fitting a new front end.

The problem for the #45, which was seen without lights in the Porsche Curves, was traced to the driver having inadvertently switched off the master switch.

00:53 LMP2: Two more pitstops in the class, and one looks fairly serious, with the #35 Oak racing Morgan joining its blue and orange stablemate in the garage. Both cars have their engine covers off, and both are going nowhere fast.

Christophe Bouchut has also pitted the #33 Level 5 HPD from 9th in class.

00:55 GTE Tommy Sadler, Flying Lizard Crew Chief "Number 80 is done.  Someone went through the first chicane and dropped gravel all over it and there were no flags out.  Patrick got to the chicane and hit the gravel, went off and impacted the wall.  The steering rack broke from the subframe most likely and we had an electric failure after fighting with the marshalls to restart the car.  We kept stopping and starting and basically the battery has run down.  The Am car is still circulating but we had a big incident, I think at Indianapolis.  He [Neiman] tracked out onto the kerbing and the car snapped out on him.  The impact broke the catch tank and bent the oil lines on the motor and I think forced some oil through the breathers which then caught fire on the undertray, but it put itself out."

00:57 LMP2: Pitstop for the Race Performance #40 starts off well, but then the engine won't fire up again, and is then wheeled backwards into the garage. The car was running a fairly healthy 23rd overall. After some very brief attention, it's pushed back out again, and this time fires up first time, and away goes Meichtry.

00:59 GTE Pro The fight for third is currently very much alive, with Makowiecki defending a five-second lead from Taylor. Turner, meanwhile, holds an 11 second advantage over Lietz in fifth.