Le Mans Update: Lotterer and Co. lead at one third mark

Andre Lotterer, Benoit Treluyer and Marcel Fassler led the 24 Hours of Le Mans by a lap at the one-third mark.

Audi drivers Andre Lotterer, Benoit Treluyer and Marcel Fassler led the 24 Hours of Le Mans by a lap at one-third distance. 

The #1 Audi R18 e-tron quattro, which had led most of the race, went a lap clear in the eighth hour when Rinaldo Capello, who is teamed with Allan McNish and Tom Kristensen,spun the second of the hybrid e-trons. Third place was held by the first of the non-hybrid Audis driven hands of Oliver Jarvis, Marco Bonanomi and Mike Rockenfeller.

Toyota's challenge disappeared in the seventh hour when the TS030 HYBRID shared by Alex Wurz, Nicolas Lapierre and Kazuki Nakajima was pulled into its garage for an alternator change. Wurz's attempt to rejoin the track in the eighth hour had to be aborted for an undisclosed problem. 

The car briefly led the race in the hands of Lapierre at the end of the fifth hour. The Frenchman lost the lead when the safety car was deployed as a result of the accident that put out the sister Toyota. 

Anthony Davidson, who was running in third place, somersaulted into retirement when he was tagged by a backmarker at Mulsanne Corner. The Briton, who shared the car with Sebastien Buemi and Stephane Sarrazin, was taken to hospital for tests but was reported to be walking and talking by his team. 

The experimental DeltaWing-Nissan was officially retired in the eighth hour. The car was delayed by gearbox problems early in the race and was subsequently pushed into the wall at the Porsche Curves when the race went green after the protracted safety-car period that followed Davidson's accident. 

Satoshi Motoyama, who was at the wheel at the time, failed in his attempts to repair the steering, which would have allowed the car to return to the pits. 

LMP2 was led by an ORECA-Nissan entered by the Anglo-Irish Murphy Prototypes. Drivers Warren Hughes, Jody Firth and Brendon Hartley held a narrow lead over the beset of the OAK-Pescarolos. 

The closely fought GTE Pro class was led by the Chevrolet Corvette C6.R driven by Oliver Gavin, Tommy Milner and Richard Westbrook.