Le Mans – H1: Good start for Audi, Toyota tries to follow

André Lotterer (Audi n°1) had no problems at the start and the pole-sitter is currently having a very good stint which allows him to be 18 seconds ahead of the R18 n°2 of Allan McNish. Alexander Wurz (Toyota n°7) took the advantage over Stéphane Sarrazin (Toyota n°8) to occupy third place, almost 40 seconds behind. Loïc duval (Audi no. 3) had a puncture forcing him to return to the pits to emerge in fifth place. Mike Rockenfeller's No. 18 R4 is already one lap away after encountering vibration problems.

Rebellion dominates the private teams by taking advantage of the misfortunes of Strakka Racing which encountered a problem on the No. 21 of Watts-Lentis-Kane. Nick Heidfeld is sixth in the #12 Lola B60/12 ahead of Andrea Belicchi’s #13. Pescarolo is not giving up but both cars are suffering from major mechanical problems and are currently in the pits. The Dome of Bourdais-Minassian-Ara encountered an alternator problem while the 03 n°16 suffered from too high a water temperature.

Olivier Pla leads the LMP2 with the No. 24 Morgan-Judd of Oak Racing ahead of the Oreca 03-Nissan of Thiriet by TDS Racing driven by Mathias Beche. ADR Delta's Oreca 03 fell to fourth position behind Pecom Racing's #49.

La Ferrari 458 n°59 of Luxury Racing which was on pole lost more than two minutes by being pushed into its pit box following what appeared to be a fuel shortage. However, the first place is occupied by theAston Martin Vantage V8 which is ahead of Oliver Gavin's No. 74 Corvette. Patrick Pilet maintains the advantage in GTE Am with the Porsche 911 from the Flying Lizard. Although rain threatened at the start, the weather improved after this first hour of racing.