PEUGEOT took the early lead in the Le Mans 24 Hour race at the Circuit de la Sarthe.
Britain's Allan McNish, driving in the Audi No 1, put pressure on the Peugeot No 8 in the rolling start, but Franck Montagny of France held off the charge at the first curve to keep the lead. Montagny then built a lead of 1.47.192sec over McNish after 18 laps.
The Briton was also passed by Pedro Lamy's Peugeot No 7, which claimed second place on the first lap, clocking the fastest time of 3.25.028sec on the 13.629km circuit. But the Portuguese slipped to 51st after Jean-Christophe Boullion's Pescarolo No 17 bumped into the Peugeot in the pits, damaging its left rear tyre.
Audi, who have claimed eight of the last nine editions of the race, suffered an early setback when Frenchman Alexandre Premat crashed out after only nine minutes.
Narain Karthikeyan, the former grand prix driver and first Indian to compete in the race, suffered a suspected dislocated shoulder when he jumped over a wall to get on to the grid.
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"I was trying to go and take a leak," he said. "I jumped up on to the pit wall but slipped and ended up hanging by one hand. I can't believe it."
Nigel Moore, the 17-year-old from Yorkshire, became the youngest driver to take part in the race. He is racing a Ginetta for Team LNT, which was in 23rd place early on. A total of 55 cars started the 77th edition of Le Mans, which will end today at 2pm.