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WEC 24 Hours of Le Mans

Le Mans 2017: The race

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Pit stop
Panciatici brings the fifth-placed #35 Signatech ORECA into the pits.
Pit stop
The #34 Tockwith Ligier has made a stop, with Moore heading back out. That car isn't super-quick, but has got up to 12th place.
LMP2
The gap between the #31 Rebellion ORECA of Senna and the #13 sister car of Beche is now 69s. Laurent is a further 29.5s back in the #38 Jackie Chan DC Racing ORECA.
Information
Significant moment for the #2 Porsche. It is now up to fourth in LMP1 after completing more laps than the #8 Toyota. That car remains in the pits.
LMP2
So in LMP2, Senna is back in the lead in the #31 Rebellion ORECA and with a big advantage after the #13 Rebellion spent an extra minute or so in the pits having some work done on the rear of the car.
Crash
Tracy Krohn has just had an off at Mulsanne Corner in the #83 Ferrari, but rejoined.
LMP2
It seems the #13 Rebellion crew was attempting to do something with the rear bodywork to sort out the light, possibly even take it off. But the car has gone back out seemingly still with a problem with the rear-left light. Beche has taken
LMP1
Conway has extended the #7 Toyota's advantage to over a minute during that round of stops. That's the largest the lead has been in the entire race so far.
LMP1
Here's the number panel on the #9 getting some attention, which was the reason for that long stop. 
Pit stop
Jarvis brings the third-in-LMP2 #38 Jackie Chan DC ORECA into the pits.
Driver Change
Prost takes over from Piquet in the #13 Rebellion. Remember, that car has a problematic rear light that needs to be investigated.
Pit stop
Piquet brings the #13 Rebellion ORECA into the pits from the LMP2 lead.
Information
The reason for the long stop for the #9 Toyota was that the number panel was not bright enough and needed to be replaced.
Pit stop
Conway has also pitted from the lead.
Pit stop
Albuquerque brings the #32 United Autosports Ligier into the pits. That's the one non-ORECA in the top 10.
LMP1
But this is a long stop for Lapierre! The team are looking at something at the front of the #9 Toyota.
GTE PRO
Christensen just 1.058s behind Tincknell when they last crossed the line.
LMP1
There has been a flurry of pitstops among the remaining LMP1 cars with Jani, Lapierre and Bernhard all heading in. The latter has been replaced by Bamber in the #2 Porsche.
GTE PRO
Christensen was nearly two seconds faster than Tincknell on that last lap, and may just poach second from the #67 Ford before making his stop, just like he did a couple of hours ago.
Pit stop
The LMP2 lead battle is broken up by Senna bringing the #31 Rebellion ORECA into the pits from second. That's on schedule and it should be for a full service and driver change.
LMP2
Some work on a spare rear-end going on in the Rebellion garage. Potentially because of the rear light problem on the leading #13 car?
LMP1
Conway is continually lapping faster than Jani during this phase of the race and therefore the #7 Toyota's advantage at the front has increased to 48s.
GTE PRO
Very temporary: Muller pits, Serra leads GTE Pro again.
GTE PRO
The 'stealth' #68 Ford (Muller) moves from P4 into a temporary class lead as the frontrunning #97 Aston (Serra) pits, followed by the #67 Ford (Tincknell) and the #95 Aston (Sorensen). They emerge with Tincknell and Sorensen split by Christensen's #92 Porsche.
LMP2
Senna is now right with Piquet in the lead battle!
LMP2
Senna has closed the gap to Piquet down to just 2s now. Could we be on for a change of lead?
Information
The #13 Rebellion that leads LMP2 in the hands of Piquet has to sort its rear lights at its next pitstop.
Quote
Kazuki Nakajima, on the troubled #8 and what helped get it back into the lead battle before those problems struck: “It’s a pity about the problem; we have to see how long it takes [to fix] but we will not give up. Before that, it was a good stint for me in terms of the gap to the front. We got a bit lucky with slow zones which reduced the gap a lot. Then I had strong pace compared to the others."
Driver Change
Barthez makes a stop in the #23 Panis Barthez LIgier. That car is 13th in class and having a solid run despite Buret's earlier off. And it's Buret who takes over the car.
LMP1
There has been no word on any penalty for the leading Toyota and the gaps have definitely stabilised. Conway continues to have a lead of around 40s while Jani is keeping Lapierre around 3m20s further back. Buemi remains in the pits and is gradually tumbling down the order but remains a long way ahead of Bernhard.
LMP1
If one more LMP1 car hits trouble, the battle for the lead in LMP2 also becomes a battle for a spot on the overall podium:
LMP2
The battle for fourth is close. Trummer holds the position in the #24 Manor ORECA, but has Panciatici in the #35 Signatech ORECA behind him. Allen in the #40 Graff ORECA is a further 9s down.
GTE PRO
Having been last of the GTE Pro runners on the opening lap of the race, the #68 Hand/Muller/Kanaan Ford GT has been making stealthy progress up the field. Muller has just picked off Lietz's #91 Porsche for fourth place and is running a second and a half quicker. Up ahead, though, Sorensen in the #95 Aston has just gone quicker still - a 3m51.845s, less than a second off that car's qualifying pace.
Crash
Patrice Lafargue has a spin in the #17 IDEC Ligier.
LMP2
Down the order in ninth, the #37 Jackie Chan DC ORECA of Brundle is flying. That car lost time earlier when Cheng spun at the Porsche Curves.

By: Matt Beer

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