Le Mans 24 Hours: Toyota maintains control at quarter-distance
Toyota continued to control the Le Mans 24 Hours, while the chasing Audis and Porsche kept themselves in the hunt by staying on the lead lap
Stephane Sarrazin edged the #7 TS040 HYBRID's lead up to one minute over the #2 Audi R18 e-tron quattro of Benoit Treluyer, but that was reduced by around 25 seconds when Audi decided to quadruple-stint a set of tyres towards the end of the hour.
Toyota decided against that strategy, instead putting on fresh tyres as Kazuki Nakajima took over from Sarrazin towards the end of the hour.
Brendon Hartley's Porsche 919 Hybrid and Lucas di Grassi's Audi traded places depending on their pitstops, with the #20 919 being out of sync after stopping with a suspected puncture earlier in the race.
The #35 OAK Ligier has control of LMP2, although Mark Shulzhitskiy brought the car into the pits for a scheduled stop shortly before the one-hour mark.
This gave the lead temporarily to the #46 TDS Ligier of Pierre Theriet, although that car, the #36 Signatech Alpine ORECA of Oliver Webber and the #34 Race Performance ORECA of Jon Lancaster were scheduled to pit and drop back behind behind the leading LIgier.
Corvette's control of the GTE class continued, despite Bruno Senna cutting the lead C7.R's advantage to less than half a minute.
Tommy Milner vacated the #74 car for Richard Westbrook at the start of the hour and the Briton maintained a 30-second advantage after the Aston Martin Vantage driver had slashed 15s from the Corvette's lead thanks to a shorter pitstop.
Senna had edged away from the Ferrari of Giancarlo Fisichella but did not have masses of breathing space as the Italian came back at the Brazilian in the closing minutes of the hour, before making a scheduled stop.
The second Corvette, driven by Jordan Taylor, moved back into the top by splitting the two Manthey Porsches, which have upped their pace but still languish in fourth and sixth.
In GTE Am, Aston Martin moved into formation with Christoffer Nygaard still ahead in the #98 Vantage but David Heinemeier Hansson his chief pursuer in the #95 car. The #53 Ram Ferrari, now in the hands of Mark Patterson, dropped back from second to fourth, behind Alexsey Basov's SMP 458 Italia.
POSITIONS AFTER 6 HOURS Pos Cl Car Drivers Laps Gap 1. LMP1 #7 Toyota Wurz/Sarrazin/Nakajima 88 2. LMP1 #2 Audi Fassler/Lotterer/Treluyer 88 + 46.702s 3. LMP1 #20 Porsche Bernhard/Webber/Hartley 87 + 1 Lap 4. LMP1 #1 Audi Di Grassi/Gene/Kristensen 87 + 16.475s 5. LMP1 #12 Rebellion Prost/Heidfeld/Beche 84 + 4 Laps 6. LMP1 #14 Porsche Dumas/Jani/Lieb 83 + 5 Laps 7. LMP2 #35 Ligier Brundle/Mardenborough/Shulzhitskiy 81 + 7 Laps 8. LMP2 #46 Ligier Thiriet/Badey/Gommendy 81 + 30.091s 9. LMP2 #36 Alpine Chatin/Panciatici/Webb 81 + 39.850s 10. LMP2 #34 Oreca Frey/Mailleux/Lancaster 81 + 43.985s 11. LMP2 #26 Morgan Rusinov/Pla/Canal 80 + 8 Laps 12. LMP2 #24 Oreca Rast/Charouz/Capillaire 80 + 1m23.076s 13. LMP2 #38 Zytek Dolan/Tincknell/Turvey 80 + 2m14.906s 14. LMP1 #8 Toyota Davidson/Lapierre/Buemi 80 + 2m19.955s 15. LMP2 #43 Morgan Klien/Hirsch/Brandela 80 + 2m22.623s 16. LMP2 #47 Oreca Howson/Bradley/Imperatori 79 + 9 Laps 17. LMP2 #33 Ligier Cheng/Tung/Fong 79 + 1m25.526s 18. LMP2 #50 Morgan Ragues/Taylor/Ihara 78 + 10 Laps 19. GTEP #74 Chevrolet Gavin/Milner/Westbrook 77 + 11 Laps 20. GTEP #97 Aston Turner/Mucke/Senna 77 + 28.774s 21. GTEP #51 Ferrari Bruni/Vilander/Fisichella 77 + 37.300s 22. GTEP #91 Porsche Pilet/Bergmeister/Tandy 77 + 1m01.816s 23. GTEP #73 Chevrolet Magnussen/Garcia/Taylor 77 + 1m14.261s 24. GTEP #92 Porsche Holzer/Makowiecki/Lietz 77 + 1m16.763s 25. GTEA #98 Aston Dalla Lana/Lamy/Nygaard 77 + 1m47.332s 26. GTEA #95 Aston Poulsen/Heinemeier-Hansson/Thiim 76 + 12 Laps 27. LMP2 #42 Zytek Kimber-Smith/McMurry/Dyson 76 + 5.825s 28. GTEA #72 Ferrari Bertolini/Shaitar/Basov 76 + 11.597s 29. GTEA #53 Ferrari Mowlem/Patterson/Hamilton 76 + 1m02.231s 30. GTEA #61 Ferrari Perez-Companc/Cioci/Venturi 75 + 13 Laps 31. GTEA #77 Porsche Dempsey/Foster/Long 75 + 10.771s 32. GTEA #88 Porsche Ried/Bachler/Al Qubaisi 75 + 14.428s 33. GTEA #90 Ferrari Montecalvo/Roda/Ruberti 75 + 1m12.102s 34. LMP2 #29 Morgan Schell/Leutwiller/Roussel 75 + 1m38.562s 35. GTEA #57 Ferrari Krohn/Jonsson/Collins 75 + 2m34.561s 36. GTEA #70 Ferrari Nakano/Ehret/Rich 75 + 2m38.799s 37. GTEA #67 Porsche Maris/Merlin/Helary 74 + 14 Laps 38. GTEA #75 Porsche Perrodo/Collard/Palttala 74 + 45.549s 39. GTEA #58 Ferrari Barthez/Pons/Ayari 74 + 1m18.211s 40. GTEA #60 Ferrari Mann/Case/Giammaria 74 + 2m28.019s 41. LMP1 #13 Rebellion Kraihamer/Belicchi/Leimer 73 + 15 Laps 42. GTEA #66 Ferrari Al Faisal/Neiman/Pumpelly 73 + 16m34.029s 43. GTEA #76 Porsche Narac/Armindo/Hallyday 72 + 16 Laps 44. GTEP #79 Porsche MacNeil/Curtis/Bleekemolen 72 + 1m11.638s 45. LMP2 #27 Oreca Zlobin/Salo/Ladygin 71 + 17 Laps 46. GTEA #62 Ferrari Mallegol/Bachelier/Blank 70 + 18 Laps 47. GTEP #52 Ferrari Griffin/Parente/Leo 58 + 30 Laps 48. LMP2 #48 Oreca Berthon/Gonzalez/Chandhok 50 + 38 Laps 49. LMP2 #41 Zytek Munemman/Latif/Winslow 31 Retired 50. GTEP #71 Ferrari Rigon/Kaffer/Beretta 28 Retired 51. LMP1 #3 Audi Albuquerque/Bonanomi/Jarvis 25 Retired 52. GTEA #81 Ferrari Wyatt/Rugolo/Bird 22 Retired 53. LMP2 #37 Oreca Ladygin/Minassian/Mediani 9 Retired 54. CDNT #0 Nissan Ordonez/Reip/Motoyama 5 Retired
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