The 2016 24 Hours of Le Mans was supposed to be Ford’s grand party – celebrating their return to the world’s most famous endurance race.

The comeback would relive classic battles of Ford versus Ferrari from the 60s. The only problem at the half way point of today’s race, the Ferrari guys are up for the fight and looking to make amends for what happened here 50 years ago.

In their first Le Mans for five years, Risi Competizione led the GTE-Pro class at the half-way point with a trio of Ford GTs in their wake.

The Giancarlo Fisichella, Toni Vilander and Matteo Malucelli combination are proving to be a potent force in this year’s event. This is the Risi Competizione team‘s seventh time competing at Le Mans. The  first visit for the Houston (USA) based squad was in 1998, its last in 2010 and between those years it won three times.

“That was another good stint. The car is better now, there is more grip, as the track is better, and the car balance is good,” said Fisichella after his latest stint.

“It is tough with Ford, as they are quite quick in a straight line. But there is still a long way to go and so far everything is going well. Let’s just keep the car on the ground and the guys are doing a very good job, I am happy about that.”

In the Prototype ranks, Toyota continued to lead the way with their No.6 entry of Mike Conway, Stephane Sarazin and Kamui Kobayashi.

Both Porsche and Audi each have a car several laps down with the No.1 Porsche entry 38 laps adrift with temperature issues. The No.7 Audi had a turbo failure and several other visits to the pit box to push it 11 laps down.

The Signatech Alpine No.36 team topped the LM P2 ranks while Pat Long’s Abu Dhabi Racing Porsche held the top spot in GTE-Am.