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Le Mans Virtual Hour 16: Rebellion retains advantage, Porsche leads Corvette in GTE

Rebellion Williams Racing continued to preserve its 1-2 lead in the 24 Hours of Le Mans Virtual's 16th hour, with Raffaele Marciello's #1 car remaining on top of the order

Marciello and Michael Romanidis in the #13 Rebellion Williams entry enjoyed trouble-free running, having moved to the front after the #20 Team Redline entry shared by Formula 1 drivers Max Verstappen and Lando Norris suffered technical problems in hour 10, then retired.

Marciello, leading by over 40 seconds at the hour mark, only relinquished the lead during the pitstops, but continued to hold control once Romanidis - then later, Marc Gassner following a driver switch - had made their own stops.

Polesitter Jernej Simoncic of ByKolles occupied third throughout the stint, ending the hour just under 30s ahead of Jack Keithley, in one of four Rebellion Williams entries.

Keithley was passed by Devin Braune of 2Seas Motorsport, having been punted out of the way by an errant GTE car.

But Braune was cleared in the next round of pitstops, allowing Keithley to reclaim fourth place in the order.

Elsewhere in the LMP class, Cool Racing's Nicolas Lapierre had initially run out of fuel in the pitlane and was unable to make it back to his pit box, plummeting down the order.

However, in a seemingly coordinated effort with the #36 Signatech Alpine car of Andre Negrao - who won the LMP2 class at Le Mans together in 2018 and '19 for Signatech - Lapierre received a push from the Brazilian to make it back to his pit box - putting the Cool Racing #42 back in the race, albeit in 23rd place.

Lapierre's compatriot Sacha Fenestraz sustained a crash at Indianapolis just past the top of the 15th hour, which was almost a carbon copy of Brendon Hartley's shunt during the first hour of racing.

Japanese Formula 3 champion Fenestraz, driving the #18 Veloce Esports 3 entry, was able to recover - albeit well down the order before handing over to Tom Lartilleux.

In the GTE class, the #93 Porsche entry continued to lead by over a lap, as Josh Rogers maintained the lead before handing over to factory Porsche driver Nick Tandy.

Rogers ended his stint with a significant lead over Dani Juncadella, driving a Corvette for Romain Grosjean's R8G Esports team.

Mack Bakkum, driving a second Porsche, ended the 16th hour in third place among the GTE cars, while a thrilling battle for fourth in class emerged between Lasse Sorensen's #95 Aston Martin and the #91 Porsche of Mitchell de Jong.

Sorensen managed to withstand de Jong's siege for numerous laps, but the American driver managed to surpass his Danish rival at the Indianapolis corner to claim the position.

You can follow all of the action live on Autosport.com and Motorsport.TV.

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Previous article Le Mans Virtual Hour 12: Rebellion Williams 1-2 at half-distance, Verstappen/Norris out
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