Asian Le Mans/ILMC, Zhuhai - Hours 4 & 5

The first half of the race saw no caution periods and no significant incidents, but even at the current pace the race is unlikely to finish before 17:40; at which point the evening will be fast approaching - and it goes dark very quickly here.

With ten minutes of the fourth hour having elapsed - 132 laps - McNish has Sarrazin's lead down to 26.519 seconds and has already built a gap of almost 20 seconds over Pagenaud. The ALMS champion, meanwhile, is in danger of losing third to Romain Dumas, who is closing at two seconds per lap.

15:15 - Pagenaud's place is secured as Dumas hands over to Capello. 

Shortly afterwards, McNish also stops, but he stays in the car for another stint.

15:18 - Dirk Werner hands over the GT2-leading BMW to Jorg Muller.

Almost completely unnoticed amongst the various battles going on, is the fact that the OAK Pescarolo and Hybrid Porsche are both lapping like clockwork in fifth and sixth places overall. At 15:21 Frederic Da Rocha hands the P2 over to Jacques Nicolet at its fourth stop, while Bergmeister - two laps clear of the GT2 leader - is currently behind the wheel of the orange and white Porker.  

15:24 - The ProSpeed Porsche is in the garage. 

McNish is once again lapping consistently two to three seconds faster than Pagenaud after his stop and is closing quickly again.

15:28 - The leader makes its fourth stop.

The Drayson Racing Lola is back in the pits after Paul Drayson reported a misfire. Jonny Cocker will take the car to the finish once this has been sorted.

15:35 - The #98 Audi is awarded a one-minute stop/go penalty for some misdemeanour.

McNish is now just four seconds behind Pagenaud.

15:36 - 1.413s! The lead changes in an uncontested move.

Time to start thinking about how the remaining stops will pan out. But perhaps the more interesting question, is why Pagenaud hasn't seemingly been able to respond to the superior pace of the Audis?

15:40 - The two Peugeots come very close to colliding as Montagny overtakes Pagenaud when a Ferrari appears in the #2's path.

15:44 - Pagenaud pits after a 1:31 in-lap. Bourdais takes over, but no one looks at the car. Do we have a hare and tortoise strategy in operation from Peugeot?

The Bimmer now has a full lap on its GT2 opponents and the one big chase in that class has ended at the 3:30 mark when Westbrook pulled into the garage with the No. 75 Porsche with a dead battery. Never mind Zuhai—big bulletin from Grand-Am—Kia is returning to the Continental Cup.

There, now that we have the biggest motorsport scoop out of the way, it’s back to watching the sand-haired Scottish guy. Now the double stint strategy is coming to roost at Peugeot.

A few minutes later comes some more Peugeot drama as Montagny goes off at the final bend, scene of problems for several other cars. After a lurid trip through the gravel he lions it back to the tarmac.

The hour ends with McNish a half-minute up on Montagny. Capello is still on the lead lap while Bourdais is a tour down.

Jaime Melo confirmed that the reason for the AF Corse Ferrari losing ground was a brake problem at the previous stop; "Gimmi took the car out and brought it straight back in again. It turned out to be something to do with a caliper. It's sorted now and the car's running okay."

A complete lack of activity in the ProSpeed Porsche garage indicates that their race is run (Clutch).

16:05 - Allan McNish ends a typically brilliant stint by handing the #7 over to TK, who is now in second place to the #2 Peugeot (who owes us a stop).

16:08 - Capello pits and stays in, dropping to fourth in the process. Interestingly, Bourdais' times in the #1 are significantly quicker than Pagenaud's.

16:10 - The hybrid Porsche makes only its third stop and Pat Long gets in.

With probably an hour and a half to go, the P1 is the only real fight for a class lead that is going on.

16:22 - Montagny stops. Sarrazin has been on standby since his teammate's trip across the gravel, but neither he nor the tyres that were hurriedly prepared have been needed until now.

16:24 - TK now leads the race, by 20 seconds from Bourdais. Sarrazin is third in #2, eight seconds further back, with Capello fourth, 32 seconds further back.

The ProSpeed Porsche's retirement was due to a broken clutch and had nothing to do with the battery.  

16:31 - The track is suddenly littered with Peugeot bodywork after Bourdais has contact with Ragginger at T4. The #1 tried to go round the outside of #88, seemingly causing the Porsche to spin; resulting in a hefty contact. The Porsche ends up in the gravel, while the Pug makes it back to the pits and straight into the garage.

With the #1 no longer a factor in the outcome of the race, Kristensen now leads Sarrazin by 31 seconds, while Capello is a similar distance back in third. the incident is handled by a local yellow, meaning no safety car.

Scratch that - the safety car is scrambled at 16:36.

Just one lap later, the safety car is back in. TK's lead is down to 13.501s, while Capello has made up 19 seconds on Sarrazin. 24 seconds cover the top three.

In GT2, meanwhile, the gap is now just 26s between the BMW and the #77 Porsche. The CRS Ferrari also has a 15 second lead over the AF Corse 430.

The #1 Peugeot is awarded a one-second stop/go for avoidable contact with the #88.

We are now in for a fascinating final 45 minutes. The leaders are matching each other's pace and the gap remains at 13s.

17:00 Kristensen pits - 37 seconds - fuel only.