Le Mans 24 Hours: Toyota doubles its lead over chasing Audi
Toyota extended its lead in the Le Mans 24 Hours over the chasing #2 Audi, partly thanks to a safety car period that split the field
Audi's decision to quadruple stint its tyres meant that it closed up on the leading #7 Toyota early in the hour, but it's lack of pace compared to Kazuki Nakajima on fresh rubber meant that it ended that stint even further adrift of the leader.
With the gap back over one minute, Audi suffered a further loss in time when the safety cars were sent out after Alexandre Imperatori crashed the KCMG ORECA between the Porsche Curves and the Ford Chicane.
Both Nakajima and Benoit Treluyer came in for stops - with the Audi driver handing over to Marcel Fassler - but once the Swiss had rejoined one of the safety car groups he was nearly two minutes behind when the race restarted.
Marc Gene took over the #1 Audi in third position, while the #20 Porsche fell off the lead lap after Brendon Hartley went straight on at Arnage corner on his inlap.
It took Hartley nearly two minutes to rejoin, after which he came in as planned to hand over to Mark Webber for the Australian's first racing laps of Le Mans.
Things are still looking good in LMP2 for the #35 OAK Ligier, which was leading in the hands of Mark Shulthitskiy before he handed over to Jann Mardenborough.
The car was second in class at the end of the hour, with the leading Signatech Alpine ORECA of Oliver Webb scheduled to make a stop imminently.
Jon Lancaster held third in the #34 Race Performance ORECA, with the #46 Ligier of Tristan Gommendy having lost time in fourth thanks to pitting under the safety car.
ASTON TAKES GTE LEAD
Darren Turner hauled Aston Martin to the top of the GTE ranks after the safety car period allowed the Vantage racer to overhaul Richard Westbrook's Corvette.
The C7.R held a comfortable advantage over Giancarlo Fisichella's Ferrari 458 Italia, which had jumped the Aston in the pitstop phase while Turner was taking over from Bruno Senna, before the safety car split the leading six GTE Pro cars into two groups of three.
When racing resumed, Turner quickly passed Fisichella's AF Corse Ferrari and was soon harrying Westbrook, finally getting past into the first Mulsanne chicane. The two Britons and Fisichella ran almost nose-to-tail, with Turner just keeping ahead.
The second group, which comprised Richard Lietz, Jordan Taylor and Nick Tandy, has been cut adrift but ran equally as close to each other as the lead trio.
Tandy, who took on new tyres as he got his first taste of race action, quickly passed the Corvette before attacking Manthey Porsche team-mate Lietz, who just held on to fourth.
Paul Dalla Lana survived a spin to retain the GTE Am lead in the #98 Aston Martin, with Nicki Thiim now aboard the #95 Vantage to continue the British marque's stranglehod on the division.
POSITIONS AFTER 7 HOURS Pos Cl Car Drivers Laps Gap 1. LMP1 #7 Toyota Wurz/Sarrazin/Nakajima 103 2. LMP1 #2 Audi Fassler/Lotterer/Treluyer 102 + 1 Lap 3. LMP1 #1 Audi Di Grassi/Gene/Kristensen 102 + 1m17.422s 4. LMP1 #20 Porsche Bernhard/Webber/Hartley 101 + 2 Laps 5. LMP1 #12 Rebellion Prost/Heidfeld/Beche 98 + 5 Laps 6. LMP1 #14 Porsche Dumas/Jani/Lieb 97 + 6 Laps 7. LMP2 #36 Alpine Chatin/Panciatici/Webb 95 + 8 Laps 8. LMP2 #35 Ligier Brundle/Mardenborough/Shulzhitskiy 95 + 33.352s 9. LMP2 #34 Oreca Frey/Mailleux/Lancaster 95 + 51.696s 10. LMP2 #46 Ligier Thiriet/Badey/Gommendy 94 + 9 Laps 11. LMP1 #8 Toyota Davidson/Lapierre/Buemi 94 + 24.195s 12. LMP2 #26 Morgan Rusinov/Pla/Canal 94 + 1m53.772s 13. LMP2 #24 Oreca Rast/Charouz/Capillaire 93 + 10 Laps 14. LMP2 #38 Zytek Dolan/Tincknell/Turvey 93 + 1.818s 15. LMP2 #43 Morgan Klien/Hirsch/Brandela 93 + 2m03.024s 16. LMP2 #33 Ligier Cheng/Tung/Fong 93 + 2m59.438s 17. LMP2 #50 Morgan Ragues/Taylor/Ihara 92 + 11 Laps 18. GTEP #97 Aston Turner/Mucke/Senna 91 + 12 Laps 19. GTEP #74 Chevrolet Gavin/Milner/Westbrook 91 + 1.107s 20. GTEP #51 Ferrari Bruni/Vilander/Fisichella 91 + 1.626s 21. GTEP #92 Porsche Holzer/Makowiecki/Lietz 90 + 13 Laps 22. GTEP #91 Porsche Pilet/Bergmeister/Tandy 90 + 0.545s 23. GTEP #73 Chevrolet Magnussen/Garcia/Taylor 90 + 1.721s 24. GTEA #98 Aston Dalla Lana/Lamy/Nygaard 90 + 14.007s 25. GTEA #95 Aston Poulsen/Heinemeier-Hansson/Thiim 89 + 14 Laps 26. GTEA #72 Ferrari Bertolini/Shaitar/Basov 89 + 1m24.806s 27. LMP2 #29 Morgan Schell/Leutwiller/Roussel 88 + 15 Laps 28. GTEA #88 Porsche Ried/Bachler/Al Qubaisi 88 + 35.513s 29. GTEA #77 Porsche Dempsey/Foster/Long 88 + 1m21.162s 30. GTEA #61 Ferrari Perez-Companc/Cioci/Venturi 88 + 1m50.422s 31. GTEA #90 Ferrari Montecalvo/Roda/Ruberti 88 + 2m17.890s 32. LMP2 #47 Oreca Howson/Bradley/Imperatori 87 + 16 Laps 33. GTEA #57 Ferrari Krohn/Jonsson/Collins 87 + 29m27.690s 34. GTEA #70 Ferrari Nakano/Ehret/Rich 87 + 29m34.863s 35. LMP2 #42 Zytek Kimber-Smith/McMurry/Dyson 87 + 30m10.468s 36. GTEA #67 Porsche Maris/Merlin/Helary 87 + 32m40.907s 37. GTEA #58 Ferrari Barthez/Pons/Ayari 87 + 32m42.860s 38. GTEA #60 Ferrari Mann/Case/Giammaria 87 + 33m19.397s 39. GTEA #75 Porsche Perrodo/Collard/Palttala 86 + 17 Laps 40. GTEA #66 Ferrari Al Faisal/Neiman/Pumpelly 85 + 18 Laps 41. GTEA #76 Porsche Narac/Armindo/Hallyday 85 + 53.217s 42. LMP2 #27 Oreca Zlobin/Salo/Ladygin 84 + 19 Laps 43. GTEA #62 Ferrari Mallegol/Bachelier/Blank 83 + 20 Laps 44. GTEP #79 Porsche MacNeil/Curtis/Bleekemolen 82 + 21 Laps 45. GTEA #53 Ferrari Mowlem/Patterson/Hamilton 78 + 25 Laps 46. LMP1 #13 Rebellion Kraihamer/Belicchi/Leimer 73 + 30 Laps 47. GTEP #52 Ferrari Griffin/Parente/Leo 70 + 33 Laps 48. LMP2 #48 Oreca Berthon/Gonzalez/Chandhok 64 + 39 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
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments