Toyota leads torrid Le Mans 24-hour race after six hours

A frantic first hour, heavy squalls and crashes in the next hour and drama aplenty through the first punishing six hours of the race: the first quarter of the 24 Hours of Le Mans has resembled a sprint race, but Alex Wurz is now extending Toyota's dominance.
The opening laps of the race saw the Toyota TS040 hybrid race cars 1-2 as the chasing Audi pack put massive pressure on the flying TS040 Hybrid race cars of Alex Wurz (No.7) and Nicolas Lapierre (No.8). The sheer speed of the leaders saw them into lapped traffic at the end of the third lap of this 13km road circuit.
Rain fell at the beginning of the second hour, and the crashes began. Racing on slick tyres, the field found visibility cut dramatically as they sliced through the heavy rain storms that were falling on parts of the circuit.
Lapierre fell afoul of the deluge when he encountered a group of slower cars and spun the No.8 car through the pack - missing every car - but damaged the nose and front left wing of the car, ending against the armco. The No.3 Audi of Marco Bonanomi was less fortunate, hit from behind by the Ferrari of Sam Bird who had like the others been caught out on slick tyres in heavy rain. The Audi was shunted off the track and into withdrawal with rear suspension and transmission damage.
Lapierre was able to limp the No.8 Toyota back to the pits with a flat left front tyre for extensive repair efforts. The No.8 car rejoined but was ten laps down and in 43rd place.
The Porsche No.20 of Timo Bernhardt had dropped back but as the race went 'green' was on a charge up to the leaders and with a driver change  Kiwi Brendon Hartley entered the race, the No.20 Porsche taking the lead on lap 49.
For Toyota, Stephane Sarrazin joined battle with Hartley. The pair took turns at the front between their stops before Sarrazin crucially pulled off a 15-second stop to go into a five second lead during a pitstop cycle.
The Toyota TS040's position at the front then became even more secure, as Hartley had to make an unscheduled stop with what he suspected was a puncture.
Benoit Treluyer came up to second in the #2 Audi R18 e-tron quattro, while Hartley briefly lost third to the #1 Audi of Lucas di Grassi - which passed the Porsche with ease on the start-finish straight before pitting shortly afterwards. Treluyer was unable to match Sarrazin's pace and fell behind, enabling the Toyota to extend his lead to more than 50 seconds towards the end of the hour.
At hour six, Toyota continued to lead the race with Stefane Sarrazin in the leading No.7 car. Sarrazin had edged the leading TS040 HYBRID's advantage up to one minute over the No.2 Audi R18 e-tron quattro of Benoit Treluyer, but that was reduced by around 25 seconds when Toyota decided against that strategy, instead putting on fresh tyres as Kazuki Nakajima took over from Sarrazin towards the end of the hour.
Brendon Hartley's Porsche 919 Hybrid and Lucas di Grassi's Audi traded places depending on their pitstops, with the No.20 919 being out of sync after stopping with its suspected puncture earlier in the race. Hartley went off toward the end of his stint and Mark Webber has now taken over the No.20 car.
Toyota's lead in the Le Mans 24 Hours grew to its biggest margin yet during the 10th hour of the race. After Marcel Fassler and Marc Gene pushed hard during their stints to keep the leading Toyota of Alexander Wurz on its toes, driver changes in both Audis enabled Wurz to extend his lead during the most recent round of stops. Andre Lotterer took over the second-placed #2 car, while Tom Kristensen replaced Gene in the #1.
Behind the Audis, the two Porsche 919 Hybrids continued to circulate in the top five, Mark Webber opening his Le Mans account with a quadruple stint before handing back to Timo Bernhard in the No.20 car they share with Kiwi Brendon Hartley. Hartley has lapped fastest of the trio so far during his driving stint.
Alex Brundle leads the LMP2 class having taken over the #35 G-Drive-backed OAK Ligier from Jann Mardenborough, who gradually built up the car's lead during a strong series of stints.
The race heads into the dark and into its second phase. New challenges await the teams.