Audi slowly catches up at Le Mans

Night has fallen at Le Mans and a chink in the Peugeot armour has finally opened with the leading car running into trouble.

Alexander Wurz, Marc Gene and Anthony Davidson had extended their lead to nearly two minutes when they had to come in for a pit stop because of electronic problems. The unscheduled stop cost them three laps and the lead.

Even their #2 car which had taken the lead was not running well. Nicolas Minassian, who had handed the car over to Franck Montagny, complained about its bad handling characteristics – it had a lot of understeer, particularly in fast corners, making high speed driving extremely challenging.