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.)
| Top Five After 225 laps (approx. 7 a.m.) | ||||||
| Pos | # | Class | Team | Car | Driver | Gap |
| 1 | 9 | LMP1 | Peugeot Sport Total | Peugeot 908 Hdi-FAP | Marc Gené | 225 L |
| 2 | 8 | LMP1 | Team Peugeot Total | Peugeot 908 Hdi-FAP | Sebastien Bourdais | + 1 L |
| 3 | 1 | LMP1 | Audi Sport Team Joest | Audi R15 TDI | Rinaldo Capello | + 2 L |
| 4 | 007 | LMP1 | AMR Eastern Europe | Lola Aston Martin | Stefan Mucke | + 6 L |
| 5 | 14 | LMP1 | Kolles | Audi R10 TDI | Charles Zwolsman | +7 L |
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 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.
| Top Five After 275 laps (approx. 10:30 a.m.) | |||||||
| Pos | # | Class | Team | Car | Driver | Gap | |
| 1 | 9 | LMP1 | Peugeot Sport Total | Peugeot 908 Hdi-FAP | David Brabham | 272 | |
| 2 | 8 | LMP1 | Team Peugeot Total | Peugeot 908 Hdi-FAP | Franck Montagny | +1 L | |
| 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 | +6 L | |
| 5 | 11 | LMP1 | Team Oreca Matmut AIM | Oreca AIM | Soheil Ayari | +8 L | |
With six-and-a-half hours to go, there is still twice as much racing ahead, as would comprise most races entirely. Anything could happen, and much surely will. The weather forecasters say there is a 60% chance of rain, though the skies look clear. The Peugeots are circulating steadily. Tom Kristensen keeps cranking out fastest laps, but still is two laps down.
Anyone could win. Anything could happen. The fatigue grows steadily, but the excitement hasn’t waned a bit.
