H1: #7 Toyota leads frantic first hour

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Alexander Wurz turned pole position into a commanding early lead for the #7 Toyota in the first hour of the Le Mans 24 Hours.

The ex-Formula 1 driver controlled the race from the beginning, extending his lead with relative ease as a frantic battle developed behind him.

Nicolas Lapierre, who made short work of Neel Jani's Porsche in the early laps, found himself fighting with the Audis of Andre Lotterer and Marco Bonanomi after the first pitstops.

As the first hour drew to a close both Audis had got the better of the Toyota, despite the Japanese car clearly enjoying a straightline speed advantage.

Their scrap was a thriller, with the cars trading blows - and positions - on several occasions as neither manufacturer wanted to give an inch in the early part of the race.

Further back, Tom Kristensen and Timo Bernhard had just as lively a scrap over fifth place, repeatedly swapping positions, while Jani dropped out of contention when the #20 Porsche slowed just after the half-hour mark and had to spend nine minutes in the garage while a fuel pressure issue received attention.

There was a moment of drama in the pits when Wurz was released just ahead of Lotterer as the Audi came in, and the #7 Toyota was placed under investigation for the incident.

Alexander Imperatori leads the LMP2 class after charging from seventh to first in the #48 KCMG ORECA.

He holds a lead of 16 seconds over the OAK-run G-Drive Racing Ligier of Jann Mardenborough, with the Zytek of Harry Tincknell, which took the lead at the start, now running fourth behind pole position starter Tristan Gommendy's #46 TDS Ligier.

The SMP Racing squad had a tough start, with Mika Salo having to bring in the #27 car for repair to the left-rear suspension. Nicolas Minassian then brought the sister #37 car into the pits, where it remains, with an engine problem.

The Nissan ZEOD RC, running in the Garage 56 slot for experimental cars with green credentials, became the first retirement after completing only five laps.

The car lost drive and stopped at the Porsche Curves with Wolfgang Reip at the wheel, with the team stating it had suffered a suspected gearbox failure.

A request was made to be able to recover the car to race control on the basis that as a Garage 56 entry it is running outside of the overall classification, but this was turned down.

AF CORSE LEADS GTE FIELD

Gianmaria Bruni leads in GTE for the AF Corse Ferrari team, having regained the advantage from the Corvette of Jan Magnussen.

Bruni led from pole initially as Sam Bird's Am-class 458 Italia held back Magnussen, the Aston Martin Vantage of Darren Turner and Oliver Gavin in the second C7.R.

Once Magnussen had cleared Bird though, he slashed Bruni's two-second advantage to nothing and got past on the run down towards Indianapolis just before the 45-minute mark.

Before the pitstops, Bruni jumped back in front, and after the first hour led the #74 Corvette driven by Gavin, which jumped its sister car courtesy of an earlier pitstop.

The #81 AF Ferrari leads the Am division, even though Bird has fallen behind the leading quartet of Pro cars. The Briton was almost a dozen seconds clear of the first of the Astons, with Nicki Thiim's #95 Vantage well clear of the #72 SMP Ferrari driven by Andrea Bertolini.

Originally on Autosport.com