Reliability the key for frontrunners at Le Mans

Just as the famous clock on the start/finish straight at Le Mans ticks down, so the leading teams enjoyed great reliability to come through the night and into the breaking dawn.

A puncture on one of the Audi R15s, which occurred just before the entrance to the pits, was the only drama at the head of the field in the early hours and with consistently low lap times it remained a formation flight of Audi and Peugeot, but one in which the French were about two seconds faster on each lap.