With eleven hours to go, the fifth place #17 Pescarolo Peugeot crashed heavily. Safety crew hung blankets and tarps around the area to prevent spectators from seeing the scene; the incident brought out a full-course yellow.
The driver, Benoit Treluyer, was eventually removed from the wreckage and taken to the medical center. ACO (Automobile Club de l'Ouest, the Le Mans race sanctioning body) issued a statement saying the car went into the guardrail at the Esses past Dunlop corner 4:02 a.m.; an ambulance was dispatched, and the driver was extracted and taken to the medical center for an examination. The driver was conscious.
The full-course caution lasted more than 45 minutes, eliminating any chance of setting a distance record (the race had been running at a record pace until Treluyer’s crash.)
The dawn hours were mostly spent parading around the track under yellow.
At 5 a.m., the sky started to lighten, turning from black to purple slate gray. In the garages, mechanics curled on blankets or slumped in chairs, heads lolling, grabbing a bit of a nap.
On lap 228 the #35 Pescarolo Lola-Mazda blew a turbo in a huge cloud of smoke and a flash fire, leaving the pits. The car had to complete a lap to get back to the pits.
The #5 car, the second Navi Goh Porsche RS Spyder, got involved in some on-track incident with the Essex Porsche which tore up the right front corner and brought out yet another early-morning yellow.
At 5:25, the #80 Flying Lizard Porsche, running fourth in class, came out of the pits under yellow and hit a slick spot on the track; possibly oil form an earlier crash. The Flying Lizard car went heavily into the tire barriers, putting the car out of the race.
At 5:42 a.m., the safety cars headed in, and as they did, Peter Hardman in the #23 Strakka Racing Ginetta Zytek spun on the start-finish line, nearly bringing out another caution. Luckily, he got it going. before he stopped the race again.
Peugeot Too Much for Audi?
In their previous meetings, the Audis were slower but more reliable than the Peugeots. The same dynamic applied this year, but this year, the gap was much greater. The Audi R15 TDI ran strong, but understeered badly, and lacked too much in top end. The Peugeots had to pit slightly more often, but made up enough time on their runs to compensate for the added time in the pits.
Peugeot had a history of pit errors and bad race management, as well as a bit of bad luck (Peugeot might have been able to challenge for the win at Sebring had a rear tire not slowly deflated in the final few laps.)
In 2009, Peugeot managed to run most of its pit stops cleanly, though they had some difficulty changing nose sections. Other than the unfortunate collision with J.C. Bouillion and Pedro Lamy in the pits, Peugeot didn’t make any egregious errors. Its two years’ losing had apparently taught the team that speed was only part of the equation.
Tom Kristensen, in the #1 Audi, started running extremely fast laps, trying to make up the deficit, but Franck Montagny in the second place Peugeot started running even faster. Kristensen was closing the gap at three seconds per lap, but Marc gene in the leading Peugeot was making no great effort. With a two-lap lead, Gené had no reason to hurry.
The incidents that marred the early morning hours continued after the sun came up.
On the restart, Christian Bakkerud spun the #15 Kolles Audi R10s, tearing up its front end and forcing a long pit stop.
With 5:02 left in the race, just a few minutes after went back to green, Roman Dumas went off in the #3 Audi, in nearly the same place his teammate Alexandre Prémat went of in the opening laps.
Then with 4:22 left, Alexandre Prémat drove off the track again, this time at Dunlop Curve, adding to the list of un-Audi-like performances.
In LMP2, the Essex Porsche RS Spyder held a two-lap lead over the Porsche of Navi Goh Racing. The next car in class, the Speedy Racing Sebah Lola Judd, was ten laps behind.
In GT1, Corvette Racing put on a tremendous show. The two C-6Rs, running their last race at Le Mans, raced nose to tail for the class lead. The team had won five class victories at Le Mans since 2000, and wanted to end their cars’ careers with a final win. After the race, the GT1 Vettes would be retired, and the team would begin campaigning GT2 cars.
The drivers were hungry for the final win; after losing to Aston Martin in 2007 and 2008, Corvette racing wanted to prove that the big American cars were world class GT machines.
The #63 car, driven by Jan Magnussen, Johnny O'Connell and Antonio Garcia, led the first eighteen hours of the race, while the #64 car, piloted by Oliver Gavin, Olivier Beretta and Marcel Fassler struggled to find the pace. But the #64 crew knew the car, and the race; with four hors left to go, the two cars were within seconds of each other, racing head to head for the final class win
In GT2, RISI Competizione’s Ferrari F430 had a two-lap lead over its nearest competitor, the BMS Scuderia Italia Ferrari F430 GT.
Allan McNish, in the #1 Audi, turned fastest lap of the race with four hours left to go, finally hitting the kind of lap times the Peugeots had shown. But with less than four hours left, it seemed only an incident would let Audi back into the race
As the day wore on the sky darkened slightly; rain was forecast for the morning, then drizzle for the afternoon. Rain might be the break Audi was needing, as it would both cool their engines, and also, the apeugeots had shown problems with the rain in past races. Would the rain come? Would it be the equalizer, allowing Audi to catch up? Would Peugeot show it could handle rain, as it handled everything else well in the race?
After more than twenty hours of racing, Peugeot seemed to be on their way to victory, but the Le Mans veterans knew that at Le Mans, there are no sure things until the checkered flag falls.
| Top Five After 315 laps (approx. 12:15 p.m.) | |||||||
| Pos | # | Class | Team | Car | Driver | Gap | |
| 1 | 9 | LMP1 | Peugeot Sport Total | Peugeot 908 Hdi-FAP | David Brabham | 315 | |
| 2 | 8 | LMP1 | Team Peugeot Total | Peugeot 908 Hdi-FAP | Franck Montagny | +1:51 | |
| 3 | 1 | LMP1 | Audi Sport Team Joest | Audi R15 TDI | Tom Kristensen | +2 L | |
| 4 | 007 | LMP1 | AMR Eastern Europe | Lola Aston Martin | Thomas Enge | +7 L | |
| 5 | 11 | LMP1 | Team Oreca Matmut AIM | Oreca AIM | Soheil Ayari | +11 L | |
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