Audi R18 etrons maintain lead 6 hours into Le Mans race

Under the shadow of overcast skies and clouds bursting around the La Sarthe circuit, the 2013 24 Hours of Le Mans got underway. Allan McNish was off to a great start in his no.2 Audi R18 e-tron quattro as was his Audi Sport Team Joest stablemate Andre Lotterer. Nicolas Lapierre was extremely quick off the line and immediately jumped up two spots to take third ahead of the other Audi and the Anthony Davidson’s Toyota. 

Both the Toyotas unexpectedly proved to be extremely quick off the line and were seen giving the dominating Audis something to worry about. But all the action mellowed down and the drama was paused as the safety car came out on track for the first time this year just 10 minutes into the race. Front-running Aston Martin Vantage V8 GTE-Am of Allan Simonsen spun off at Tertre Rouge and hit hard against the barrier marking an end to his race and automatically handing over the lead to #77 Dempsey Del Piero Porsche driver Patrick Long. Simonsen was immediately attended by the doctors at the venue after being removed from the car but could but yielded to his injuries and was declared dead soon after being taken to the medical centre. 

The next 4 hours of the race were incident free as all three Audis found good momentum and their way back at the top ahead of the Toyotas but the legendary race is known to shake things up and again. Multiple incidents at the start of the fifth hour demanded a reappearance of the safety car on track. Needless to say, almost every driver out on track including race leader Benoît Treluyer in the #1 Audi R18 e-tron quattro, wanted to make the most out of this opportunity and dived into the pits for fuelling and a quick tyre change. 

As the green flag waved, Treluyer had a good jump as did Oliver Jarvis in the no.3 Audi just ahead of the third Audi Sport Team Joest car. So at the end of the first quarter of the gruelling 24 hour race, the three Audis were fighting it out for the top spot with the Toyotas following in fourth and fifth. 

Indian racer Karun Chandhok stands 32nd at the end of first six hours in his Murphy Prototypes Oreca – 03 Nissan LMP2 car. G-Drive Racing’s Rusinov/Martin/Conway were leading the race in the LMP2 class while ex-Formula1 driver Bruno Senna and his team-mates Bell/Makowiecki were up ahead of the order in the LM GTE-Pro class driving the Aston Martin Racing’s Vantage V8. In the GTE-Am class, the AF Corse trio of Perazzini/Case/O'Young were leading the proceedings six hours into the race.