Tom Kristensen's hopes of winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans for a record eighth time ended yesterday morning when his Audi co-driver Dindo Capello crashed.
After 262 laps and more than 16 hours of racing, Capello had taken a three-lap lead over Frank Biela's Audi.
However, Capello crashed into a tire barrier after losing its left rear wheel and was forced to retire.
PHOTO: AP
Kristensen and Capello had led since the opening lap of the world's most famous endurance race.
In the 18th hour, Emmanuele Pirro led the race after 275 laps, with Marc Gene's Peugeot five laps behind.
Capello's co-pilot, Allan McNish, had clocked the best lap in a time of 3 minutes, 27.204 seconds on the 13.6km circuit.
Gene's teammate, Jacques Villeneuve, is attempting to complete a "triple crown" of winning Le Mans after having become Formula One world champion in 1997 and Indianapolis 500 champion in 1995.
Pedro Lamy, trailing Pirro by seven laps, held third spot in his Peugeot, storming back after having dropped to seventh place when it twice lost time in the pits because of mechanical problems.
Pescarolo Judd was fourth, nine laps behind Pirro.
Marco Werner bumped his Audi into Jan Magnussen's Corvette at the end of the seventh hour, forcing Werner to swap out the hood of his car.
Capello took the lead on the first lap after pole-sitter Sebastien Bourdais slid off the track in his Peugeot to drop to fourth place.
Peugeot is racing again in the French classic after not competing in the race for 14 years.
"I made a big mistake in the first curve," the French driver said. "The first relay was not very good because we have tuning problems with the rear [of the car]."
But Bourdais recovered to overtake Lucas Luhr's Audi and Nicolas Minassian's Peugeot to move into second place after three laps.
Audi is coming off three straight Le Mans victories and was the first to triumph last year with a diesel-powered car.
The safety car came out for the first time after an hour as the rain forced drivers to change to wet-weather tires as the track became slick.
Mike Rockenfeller crashed his Audi into a guard rail after a 24th-lap curve while in fifth place and had to retire, although he was unhurt.
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