24 Hours of Le Mans: Peugeot leads after 8 hours

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The No 2 Peugeot 908 HDi was leading the Le Mans 24 Hours at 11.00 pm Saturday night, ahead of team ORECA’s Peugeot and the No 8 Audi R15 Plus.

The No 3 Peugeot 908, which started from pole position, was forced to retire after two hours with a broken suspension.

The No 1, which was leading the race, lost about 12 minutes in the pits to fix an electrical problem, and dropped down to 7th place.

That put the Peugeot of Montagny-Sarrazin-Minassian in the lead ahead of Panis-Lapierre-Duval’s ORECA Peugeot.

Audi moved up to 3rd and 4th, but Tom Kristensen lost a lot of time when he was forced to drive into the gravel trap to avoid one of the BMW GT2s. The No 7 Audi was catching up in the night to regain positions, and stood just between both Aston Martins.

Another major incident in the first part of the race was the accident of Nigel Mansell’s Ginetta-Zytek, which hit the barrier in the third lap. The 1992 world champion was shocked, but fine.

It was a tough fight in the LMP2 category between both HPD Acuras, the Strakka Racing leading the Highcroft Racing car.

The Ford GT Matech driven by Grosjean-Mutsch-Hirschi was leading the GT1 category ahead of Luc Alphand’s Corvette and Larbre Competition’s Saleen. Great fight also in GT2 between the Risi Competizione Ferrari F430s and the factory Corvettes. The Corvettes were in front at 11:00 pm.