The 76th edition of the Le Mans 24 Hours is underway after the green lights signalled the start of the biggest sportscar race of them all.
Pedro Lamy maintained the lead in the #8 Peugeot off the line ahead of the #9 car of Franck Montagny, but behind, Allan McNish made a move on Nicolas Minassian to take third in the first of the Audi's.
That wasn't for long however as Minassian battled back ahead before the end of the opening lap to put the three Peugeots into the first three positions.
McNish ended lap one already four seconds off the lead ahead of Lucas Luhr's R10, while the Charouz Lola Aston Martin maintained sixth through the opening lap before Stefan Mucke lost position to Frank Biela on lap two.
At the end of the second lap, Lamy was just seven tenths of a second ahead of Montagny with the two having broken away from Minassian who in turn was well ahead of McNish already – the Peugeots lapping more than three seconds quicker per lap than the Scot on the first two tours.
The Dome held eighth places in the hands of Daisuke Ito, with Jean Christophe Boullion's Pescarolo and the ORECA-Courage of Soheil Ayari completing the top ten.
Jeroen Bleekemolen held the LMP2 lead for van Merksteijn Motorsport after the first two laps with the Rollcentre Pescarolo splitting the class leader from the similar car of Team Essex and the Barazi-Epsilon Zytek.
Jane Magnussen led GT1 in the #63 Corvette after two laps from the sister car of Oliver Gavin and the two works Aston Martins – the Larbre Saleen having slipped to fifth.
Alex Davison was the early leader in GT2 for Felbermayr-Proton but has now slipped behind Jorg Bergmeister, Jaime Melo and Rob Bell to fourth in class, just ahead of Patrick Long who was forced to start the pole-winning IMSA Performance Porsche from the back of the grid.
Regular updates to follow throughout the race...
