Corvette in front in GTS class

Tomas Enge was comfortably leading the GTS class with his Prodrive Racing Ferrari 550 Maranello five laps ahead of the pursuing Oliver Beretta in the Chevrolet Corvette Racing C5-R and pulling away by around a couple of seconds per lap. Enge, however, suffered a seized wheel bearing on lap 285 as he passed through the first chicane in the first part of the lap.

The car eventually made it around the circuit and was pushed into the garage. The team frantically worked on the car while Beretta upped his pace to try to catch the stricken Ferrari. "I was going very slowly and something has broken on the left front suspension," said Enge. "I was happy this happened at slow speed. I hope we don't loose too much time."

The Ferrari was wheeled back into pitlane with Alain Menu in the driver's seat at exactly the same time as the Corvette pitted for a driver change on the same lap as the Ferrari. Both cars started moving at the same time but the Corvette, being further down the pitlane, pulled on to the track eight seconds ahead of the Ferrari.

Tom Kristensen, of Audi Sport Japan Team Goh, was leading Audi Sport UK Team Veloqx's Guy Smith with under five hours to go until the finish of the 24 Heures du Mans. The Champion Racing Audi had made an amazing come back to third after Lehto's crash with Marco Werner was running nine laps behind the leader and four laps ahead of the Pescarolo Judd of Benoit Treluyer.

Kristensen was lapping around five seconds per lap faster than Smith before he pitted for more fuel and these laps helped him to build up a half a minute advantage over Smith. The stop brought the gap to Guy Smith down to two and a half minutes and Kristensen continued to build on this gap once he was up to speed again.

The fifth-placed Pescarolo Sport Judd made a very long pit stop on lap 282 as the team worked on the engine. The Pescarolo eventually returned to the track after half an hour but coasted to a halt at the first chicane, just one third of the way around the lap.

Romain Dumas were leading the GT class in his Freisinger Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 RSR car two laps ahead of Jorg Bergmeister's Petersen/White Lightening Porsche which was recovering from its gearbox problem earlier in the race and lapping up to ten seconds per lap faster than Dumas.

Davies took over behind the wheel of the second-placed Audi but he spun at the exit of the Dunlop Curves on lap 311 as he approached the leader to unlap himself. He caught the kerb under braking and the car lazily spun round and into the edge of the gravel. He was able to rejoin but with flat-spotted tyres. Kristensen pitted on lap 313 and he handed over to Rinaldo Capello who was given a full tank of fuel and new tyres.