Le Mans 24 Hours: Porsche one-two continues, problems for Audi
Porsche continued to pull away from the leading Audi in the Le Mans 24 Hours, while the fourth-placed #7 R18 e-tron Quattro picked up a penalty
With Rene Rast and Marco Bonanomi struggling to match the pace of the #19 and #17 Porsches out front in their third-placed #9 Audi amid hybrid problems, it was in fact the #7 car in the hands of Andre Lotterer that looked the strongest of the R18s.
But Lotterer's hopes of reeling in his team-mates to get into a podium position were dealt a blow just before the 20-hour mark, when he was ordered to serve a drive-through penalty for an offence committed by Marcel Fassler in the previous hour.
The #7 car was penalised for not respecting the slow zone rules, when Fassler pulled alongside the leading #19 car under the speed restriction, leading to minor contact between the two cars.
Serving the penalty cost Lotterer around half a minute, but he still enjoyed lead of more than that over the #8 Audi of Loic Duval.
LMP2
KCMG set about rebuilding its LMP2 lead following a dramatic 19th hour.
Richard Bradley started the hour with a 30-second advantage over G-Drive (OAK)'s Ligier, with third-placed Mitch Evans 2m16s behind in the recovering Jota Gibson.
With Nicolas Lapierre having taken the ORECA 05 over after 45 minutes, KCMG's lead was back out to 55s by the time G-Drive pitted late in the hour.
After that stop, Lapierre led Roman Rusinov by 1m52s, but the main mover of the hour was Evans, who is within 28s of second place.
Laurens Vanthoor sits fourth in the Honda-powered OAK entry, ahead of Ricardo Gonzales in the second G-Drive car.
Those teams gained places through Murphy Prototypes' long pitstop following a spin by Mark Patterson.
By the time Nathaneal Berthon rejoined the race, the team had dropped to sixth place, 10 laps down.
GTE
Corvette was left clinging to its GTE Pro lead by barely a second at the end of the 20th hour after a charge from Ferrari's Gianmaria Bruni.
Tommy Milner held a lead of more than 25s when AF Corse swapped out Toni Vilander in the #51 458 Italia and gave Bruni new tyres to attack with.
The Italian duly obliged and the gap was halved to 11s after a slow zone remained in place for the Corvette C7.R at Indianapolis but cleared by the time Bruni arrived.
Bruni cut that gap to nothing by the end of the stint, and was poised to attack as the hour ended.
Behind the #91 Porsche in third the second AF Corse Ferrari has moved into a comfortable fourth, thanks to a five-lap spell in the pits for the #95 Aston Martin.
Aston's news makes for better reading in GTE Am, where the #98 car's advantage was strengthened by an off for the #72 SMP Ferrari.
The #98 leads by more than a lap now after Victor Shaitar went into the gravel at Indianapolis - sparking the slow zone that hurt the Pro-class Corvette - and hit the barriers. It was recovered and runs second in class still.
POSITIONS AFTER 20 HOURS
Pos | Class | Car | Drivers | Laps | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | LMP1 | #19 Porsche | Hulkenberg, Bamber, Tandy | 325 | |
2 | LMP1 | #17 Porsche | Bernhard, Webber, Hartley | 324 | + 1 Lap |
3 | LMP1 | #9 Audi | Albuquerque, Bonanomi, Rast | 324 | + 2m03.637s |
4 | LMP1 | #7 Audi | Fassler, Lotterer, Treluyer | 323 | + 2 Laps |
5 | LMP1 | #8 Audi | Di Grassi, Duval, Jarvis | 323 | + 33.085s |
6 | LMP1 | #18 Porsche | Dumas, Jani, Lieb | 322 | + 3 Laps |
7 | LMP1 | #2 Toyota | Wurz, Sarrazin, Conway | 318 | + 7 Laps |
8 | LMP1 | #1 Toyota | Davidson, Buemi, Nakajima | 316 | + 9 Laps |
9 | LMP2 | #47 Oreca | Howson, Bradley, Lapierre | 294 | + 31 Laps |
10 | LMP2 | #26 Ligier | Rusinov, Canal, Bird | 294 | + 1m52.772s |
11 | LMP2 | #38 Gibson | Dolan, Evans, Turvey | 293 | + 32 Laps |
12 | LMP2 | #34 Ligier | Cumming, Vanthoor, Estre | 291 | + 34 Laps |
13 | LMP2 | #28 Ligier | Yacaman, Derani, Gonzalez | 291 | + 12.400s |
14 | LMP2 | #48 Oreca | Chandhok, Patterson, Berthon | 285 | + 40 Laps |
15 | LMP2 | #27 BR | Mediani, Markozov, Minassian | 279 | + 46 Laps |
16 | LMP2 | #31 Ligier | Brown, Van Overbeek, Fogarty | 279 | + 37.144s |
17 | LMP2 | #45 Oreca | Ibanez, Perret, Bellarosa | 279 | + 2m01.943s |
18 | LMP1 | #13 Rebellion | Imperatori, Kraihamer, Abt | 278 | + 47 Laps |
19 | GTE Pro | #64 Chevrolet | Gavin, Milner, Taylor | 277 | + 48 Laps |
20 | GTE Pro | #51 Ferrari | Bruni, Vilander, Fisichella | 277 | + 2.081s |
21 | GTE Pro | #91 Porsche | Lietz, Christensen, Bergmeister | 277 | + 2m49.263s |
22 | LMP2 | #35 Ligier | Nicolet, Merlin, Maris | 276 | + 49 Laps |
23 | GTE Am | #98 Aston | Dalla Lana, Lamy, Lauda | 275 | + 50 Laps |
24 | GTE Pro | #71 Ferrari | Rigon, Calado, Beretta | 275 | + 1m08.996s |
25 | LMP2 | #29 Morgan | Roussel, Tung, Cheng | 273 | + 52 Laps |
26 | GTE Am | #72 Ferrari | Shaytar, Bertolini, Basov | 273 | + 32.439s |
27 | GTE Am | #62 Ferrari | Sweedler, Bell, Segal | 272 | + 53 Laps |
28 | GTE Am | #77 Porsche | Dempsey, Long, Seefried | 272 | + 1m59.771s |
29 | GTE Am | #53 Dodge | Bleekemolen, Keating, Miller | 272 | + 2m54.886s |
30 | LMP1 | #12 Rebellion | Prost, Heidfeld, Beche | 272 | + 3m14.638s |
31 | GTE Am | #83 Ferrari | Perrodo, Collard, Aguas | 271 | + 54 Laps |
32 | LMP2 | #30 Ligier | Sharp, Dalziel, Heinemeier Hansson | 270 | + 55 Laps |
33 | GTE Pro | #95 Aston | Sorensen, Thiim, Nygaard | 270 | + 1m46.671s |
34 | GTE Am | #61 Ferrari | Mann, Giammaria, Cressoni | 268 | + 57 Laps |
35 | LMP2 | #42 Dome | Leventis, Watts, Kane | 264 | + 61 Laps |
36 | LMP2 | #40 Ligier | Krohn, Jonsson, Barbosa | 264 | + 1h34m57.713s |
37 | GTE Am | #68 Porsche | Chen, Vannelet, Parisy | 262 | + 63 Laps |
38 | LMP2 | #37 BR | Aleshin, Ladygin, Ladygin | 261 | + 64 Laps |
39 | GTE Am | #66 Ferrari | Al Faisal, Giermaziak, Avenatti | 261 | + 44.926s |
40 | GTE Am | #67 Porsche | Chen, Kapadia, Maassen | 261 | + 2m32.573s |
41 | GTE Pro | #99 Aston | Rees, Macdowall, Stanaway | 260 | + 65 Laps |
42 | LMP1 | #23 Nissan | Pla, Mardenborough, Chilton | 215 | + 110 Laps |
43 | LMP1 | #4 CLM | Trummer, Kaffer, Monteiro | 214 | + 111 Laps |
44 | LMP1 | #22 Nissan | Tincknell, Krumm, Buncombe | 207 | + 118 Laps |
45 | GTE Am | #55 Ferrari | Cameron, Griffin, Mortimer | 241 | Retired |
46 | LMP2 | #46 Oreca | Thiriet, Badey, Gommendy | 204 | Retired |
47 | GTE Am | #96 Aston | Goethe, Hall, Castellacci | 187 | Retired |
48 | LMP2 | #43 Morgan | Ragues, Webb, Amberg | 162 | Retired |
49 | LMP1 | #21 Nissan | Matsuda, Shulzhitskiy, Ordonez | 115 | Retired |
50 | LMP2 | #36 Alpine | Panciatici, Chatin, Capillaire | 110 | Retired |
51 | GTE Pro | #97 Aston | Turner, Mucke, Bell | 110 | Retired |
52 | GTE Am | #50 Chevrolet | Roda, Ruberti, Poulsen | 94 | Retired |
53 | LMP2 | #41 Gibson | Hirsch, Paletou, Lancaster | 71 | Retired |
54 | GTE Am | #88 Porsche | Ried, Al Qubaisi, Bachler | 44 | Retired |
55 | GTE Pro | #92 Porsche | Pilet, Makowiecki, Henzler | 14 | Retired |
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