Peugeot maintained its lead as th🥃e Le Mans 24 Hours reached quarter distance, with the Safety Car on track at the six hour mark for the second time in the race.

The #1 car had moved into the lead in the fo♐urth hour of the race and remained out front ahead of the sister #2, with Anthony Davidson keeping Stephane Sarrazin at bay.

The deployment of the Safety Car just be𒀰fore the six hour mark to retr🐭ieve the JMW Aston Martin has now split the pair, with Alex Wurz and Nicolas Minassian now on driving duties.

Despite losing the #3 car, Peugeot maintains a stranglehold on the podium positions with the Oreca-run car sitting in third place and it has a handy advantage over the leading Audi - which is n♛ow the #9 car in the h꧟ands of Mike Rockenfeller.

The #7 Audi had been leading the Ingolstadt challenge untওil Tom Kristensen was caught out by Andy Priaulx's slow BMW at the Porsche Curves and went off backwards into the barriers. The retrieval of the car from the gravel and repairs to the rear saw it drop down to eighth place, althou𓂃gh Dindo Capello had climbed back up to seventh at the six-hour point.

The #8 Audi is running in fifth ahead of the🐭 first of the petrol powered cars, wiꦇth Aston Martin Racing's #007 inside the top six but with Capello giving chase.

The #009 Aston Martin is eighth ahead of the #15 Kolles Audi, with𒈔 the Oreca-AIM rounding out the top ten.

In LMP2, Strakka Racing leads behind the S🅰afety Car at the six hour point but Nick Leventis was being reeled in by Highcroft's Marco Werner before Werner had to pit with a slow puncture. The two HPDs are the class of the field ahead of the leading OAK Racing Pescarolo and RML's Lola Coupe.

LMP2 has now lost two cars, the Racing Box Lola out with mechanical issues and th🦩e Pegasus Racing Norma being damaged be🍬yond repair in an incident at the Porsche Curves with the GT2 Spyker.

ꩵGT1 is still headed by Matech Competition's leading Ford GT after the Young Driver Aston Martin lost time with a diff issue, leaving the first of the Luc Alphand Aventure's Corvettes its closest challenge.

The second Matech Ford went up in smoke - literalಞly - on the Mulsanne with Nಞatacha Gachnang onboard, while the Marc VDS car crashed at the Dunlop Curve and was damaged beyond repair, despite Bas Leinders managing to get the car back to the pits.

The biggest battle on track isও in GT2, with the Risi Ferrari going head-to-head on track with the #64 Corvette for the class lead before the deployment of the Safety Car.

The class has lost the Flyღing Lizards Porsche as an official retirement following mechanical🙈 problems after an off, while the BMW 'Art Car' stopped on track with Andy Priaulx at the wheel having endured a difficult race. After lengthy repairs following its collision with the Norma, the Spyker is back in the race.