2011 24 Hours of Le Mans mid-race update

Okay, it's not quite the halfway point at the 2011 24 Hours of Le Mans (there's a little over 12 hours to go at this time), but we have a new batch of photos from Drew Phillips ready for your perusal. Taken as the sun began its descent, the gallery below features a nice mix of cars from all the classes.

As you've probably seen by now, Audi has lost two of its three cars. Allan McNish's #3 Audi R18 TDI crashed out in spectacular fashion during the the first hour of the race. Though his car was totally destroyed, he walked away from the shunt unscathed. Then, #1 Audi R18 driver Mike Rockenfeller followed suit with an equally terrible nighttime crash of his own after making contact with the #71 Ferrari on the Mulsanne straight. Rockenfeller also climbed out of his car afterward. Other than a cut sustained on one arm, he's okay, but is being kept in the hospital overnight for observation. That's good news all around for the Audi drivers involved in a couple of scary crashes.

As of 8:20 PM Eastern, despite its bad luck so far, Audi currently leads Le Mans, with the #2 R18 TDI ahead of the #9 and #7 Peugeot 908s in LMP1. The highest-running gasoline-powered LMP1 car is the #16 Pescarolo Judd of Pescarolo Team. The leader in GTE Pro is the #74 Corvette Racing C6.R. In LMP2, the #41 Greaves Motorsport Zytek Nissan is up front. Finally, the GTE Amateur class is currently led by the #81 Flying Lizard Motorsports Porsche 911 RSR.

That's it for now. You can follow live timing at LeMans.org, and for a great single-page collection of audio & video feeds, plus timing, a spotter's guide, and live chatting, check out Global Sports.

If you missed our photo gallery from the start of the race, be sure to check that out as well. We'll be back with more coverage from Le Mans later in the race.