Hour 19: Top three cars closing up at Le Mans

Sebastien Buemi stretched his advantage over team-mate Mike Conway after taking the lead earlier on Sunday morning, but as the race approached 10am local time both Conway and the #2 Porsche of Marc Lieb were closing back in on the race leader.

While Buemi's lead over Conway was 31s early in the hour and 44s over Lieb, by the end of the 19^th hour those gaps were 23s and 27s respectively.

Audi continues to occupy fourth and fifth places having spent the majority of the race out of the lead fight, while the recovering #1 Porsche, which had two lengthy spells in the garage overnight due to engine overheating, made its way back into the top 30 overall in the hands of Brendon Hartley.

LMP2 - A WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY FOR G-DRIVE?

By Mitchell Adam

Gustavo Menezes remains at the front of the LMP2 field for the Signatech Alpine outfit, despite a slow pitstop.

Signatech had wheel-gun issues with the left-rear when Menezes took over from Stephane Richelmi at the start of the hour, and stewards have announced they are investigating the pitstop.

The slow stop has helped Rene Rast get back on the lead lap and then close the gap in the G-Drive ORECA, but the margin is still a comfortable 2m03s for Signatech with five hours to go.

Strakka is now up to third place, after Jonny Kane caught and passed Victor Shaytar in the lead SMP Racing BR01, Kane subsequently pulling away by 22s.

The Eurasia Motorsport ORECA is fifth with Pu Jun Jin behind the wheel, with Greaves Motorsport now sixth with Julien Canal.

G-Drive has called it a day with its second entry, its venerable Gibson too badly damaged after Simon Dolan's clash with a GTE Aston Martin in hour 16.

GTE - FORD CLOSING ON FERRARI

By Scott Mitchell

Dirk Muller has hacked away at Matteo Malucelli's GTE Pro lead as the Ford vs Ferrari battle continues to rage.

Risi Competizione driver Malucelli led by half a minute courtesy of a drive-through for Muller's #68 Ford GT, but that has slowly been whittled down.

By the time both drivers came in to stop at the end of the hour, the much faster Muller was just 3.5 seconds in arrears.

Scuderia Corsa continues to uphold Ferrari honour in GTE Am as well, but its lead is significantly more secure.

Townsend Bell is back aboard its 458 Italia and leads the Abu Dhabi-Proton Porsche by a lap.