The four leading cars completed their first lap in grid order, with Bourdais (Peugeot 7) emerging ahead of the field in front of Fassler (Audi 1), Montagny (Peugeot and McNish (Audi 2). By the end of Lap 4, the pack was already in amongst the backmarkers round the 4.9km circuit.

After the first round of pit-stops, Franck Montagny succeeded in passing Fassler to take second place, which put the two factory Peugeots ahead of their Audi rivals.

The second pit-stops saw the leading N°7 Peugeot drop more than 20 seconds when the team was forced to manhandle the car to get it into the right position for refuelling, which meant that Anthony Davidson re-joined the race behind the N°8 car (with Stéphane Sarrazin now behind the wheel). The third pit-stops saw the two cars trade positions once again, however, thanks to a string of quick times from Davidson who has since been pulling gradually clear of his French team-mate.

At the three-hour mark, the N°7 Peugeot 908 led the N°8 sister car by 20.7s. The N°1 Audi is third, and still on the same lap as the leaders, but the N°2 Audi has gone a lap down. Indeed, Davidson and Kristensen collided as the Briton passed the Dane.

The ‘petrol prototype’ class is topped by Neel Jani (N°12 Lola-Toyota) who triple-stinted on the same set of soft-compound Michelin tyres from the start. He was able to hand the car to Nicolas Prost ahead of the N°13 Rebellion Racing Lola-Toyota. The N°15 OAK Racing Pescarolo-Judd was third before suffering a misfire.

LMP2: the TDS Racing Oreca-Nissan has led since the start, and the similar N°26 car is currently second. Christophe Bouchut (N°33 Lola-Honda) has moved into third spot to the detriment of Olivier Lombard (N°41 Zytek Greaves).

LM GTE Pro: the factory BMWs dominated the first couple of hours, but the N°51 AF Corse Ferrari succeeded in splitting the two German cars shortly before the halfway point. The N°59 Luxury Racing Ferrari qualified in fourth place but only completed one lap (electrical problem) before calling it a day.

LM GTE Am: IMSA-Performance’s N°67 Porsche and the N°63 Porsche have been trading the lead since the start as a function of their respective pit-stops.

Audi, halfway point, Imola 6 hours 2011, Michelin, Peugeot