As the ninth hour of the race passed the nr2 Audi of Tom Kristensen held the lead 2m24s ahead of the two Toyotas, with the nr8 TS030 of Stephane Sarrazin holding second place one minute ahead of the nr7 Toyota of Kazuki Nakajima. The nr1 Audi had a problem with the crank sensor and lost twelve laps as the Audi engineers worked hard to get the world champions back on track. Marcel Fassler regained the track in the middle of the LMP2 field and began the long road back up the field.
The nr13 Rebellion Racing Lola Toyota of Mathias Beche held the lead in the LMP1 Privateer class, two laps ahead of the sister car and the nr21 Strakka Racing HPD. The nr12 Rebellion spent some time in the garage at the top of the 7th hour of the race after an earlier spin.
The Oak Racing team finished the first third of the race in 1st and 2nd places in the LMP2 class with Bertrand Baguette in the nr35 Morgan Nissan holding a two minute advantage over the nr24 Morgan of pole sitter Olivier Pla. The next two cars are the Nissan powered Zyteks with the nr42 Greaves Motorsport of Jann Mardenborough ahead of the Jota Racing Zytek of Oliver Turvey.
In the LMGTE Pro Class it was an Aston Martin 1-2 with Rob Bell in the nr99 Vantage ahead of the nr97 Aston Martin of fellow Briton Darren Turner. The two works Porsche 911 RSRs were lying in 3rd and 4th places with the nr92 911 of Marc Lieb 60 seconds ahead of Timo Bernhard in the nr91 Porsche.
Porsche were holding the upper hand in GTE Am with the nr88 Proton Competition 911 GT3 RSR of Paolo Ruberti ahead of the nr77 Dempsey Del Piero-Proton with Patrick Dempsey at the wheel. The 9th hour end with a safety car period as the nr57 Krohn Racing Ferrari 458 of Tracy Krohn was left stranded in a dangerous position out on the track.
Jeff Carter
