H12: Audi edges back into contention

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Audi closed the gap to Toyota at the front of the Le Mans 24 Hours as the race reached its halfway stage.

The #2 Audi of Andre Lotterer brought the gap to the leading #7 Toyota back under two minutes in the 12th hour of the race, partly thanks to the Japanese car taking new tires when Stephane Sarrazin took over from Alexander Wurz

Audi did not change tires, but did make a small adjustment to the aero on the front of Lotterer's car, meaning he did not gain as much time in the pits as would normally be the case when not taking new rubber.

Once the cars were back on track Lotterer was able to chip away at the Toyota's lead despite being on older rubber, getting it down to around 1m55s at the turn of the hour.

The #1 Audi, which was running third, hit trouble right at the end of the hour. Tom Kristensen slowed on his out-lap after a pitstop before coming to almost a halt with a total lack of power. He got going again, but could only tour round and crawl back to the pits.

In LMP2 the #35 OAK-run G-Drive Ligier continued to lead in the hands of Alex Brundle, who upped the pace along with second place runner Paul-Loup Chatin during a brief spell of personal best laptimes for both cars, which were separated by nearly a minute and a half.

Aston Martin edged away from the squabbling lead Corvette and Ferrari to strengthen its grip on both GTE classes.

Bruno Senna was never really challenged as the race edged towards the midway mark, and as Tommy Milner slipped back his Corvette came under increasing pressure from Tony Vilander's AF Corse 458 Italia.

Vilander pressured the American a couple of times on the run down the Mulsanne straight, but was unable to depose the Corvette from second.

It means the GTE Pro class remains in situ from before, only Giancarlo Fisichella is now aboard the Ferrari and Richard Westbrook has replaced Milner in the C7.R.

In GTE Am it is more of the same. David Heinemeier Hansson consistently increased the lead of the #95 Aston Martin as Alexsey Basov continued to run second for the SMP Ferrari squad. The erstwhile leadering outfit, the #98 Aston, returned to the fray after long-running issues, which lost it more than 10 laps.

Originally on Autosport.com