24 Heures du Mans | 9:53:00
A great many cars seemed to find trouble during the night, the limited visuals meaning that we rarely see trouble coming, we don't see the flow of the race, we are either shown a grainy image of a car pulled over or being dragged out of the gravel traps, or suddenly a wounded machine will show up at pit lane like a wounded man bursting through the doors of an emergency room, no one sure where he's been or what's happened to him, much less how it happened or whose fault it is. The dawn is less than an hour away, one of the odd times of the race when suddenly your spirits rise & the end seems near, only for the realization slowly to sink in that there are still hours & hours left to endure. There is an otherworldly quality to the 24 Heures du Mans at night, something not quite sinister but certainly not harmless either.

The Audis' only competition is each other, with the № 1 & № 2 R18 e-tron Quattros vying for the lead & the № 4 R18 Ultra holding a solid third. The № 12 Toyota-powered Lola of Rebellion Racing is several laps up on the troubled № 3 R18 Ultra, preventing the four Audis from occupying the top four positions in the LMP1 category.