Skip to main content

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe
Live text
WEC 24 Hours of Le Mans

Le Mans 24 Hours 2014 The 82nd Le Mans 24 Hours

Live Text

Sort by
GARY WATKINS: Sarrazin pits after 13 laps, so it seems that that is the Toyota strategy for this race. The #20 Porsche also went 13 laps on its tank of fuel.
Milner pits the #74 Corvette from the GTE Am lead. Holzer assumes control in the #92 Manthey Porsche. Bergmeister (#91 Manthey Porsche) and Vilander (#51 AF Ferrari) have also pit.

Milner rejoins second, Nygaard (Am leader) is up to third.
Sarrazin pits the #7 Toyota, and this time he emerges ahead of Hartley in the Porsche. During the last few sequences of stops the 919 had always got ahead before the TS040 rejoined the track.

There are just five seconds between the top two. Before Hartley stopped a few laps ago, Sarrazin had been around 10s behind him.
Canal brings the #26 OAK-run G-Drive Morgan into the pits from fifth in LMP2.
Sarrazin's Toyota leads Hartley's Porsche by 3.4s, with Treluyer +36s to the leader in third.
Looks like a swift pitstop from the AF Corse crew has bumped Vilander up into second.

Milner's regained the lead, ahead of the Ferrari, Holzer, Bergmeister and Senna.

The timing screens haven't been particularly friendly, but it looks like a very long stop for its rivals has handed Corvette a very healthy lead – 37s in fact.
It's close at the front in LMP2. Frey leads in the #34 ORECA by just half-a-second from Brundle in the #35 Ligier. Chatin, in the #36 Signatech Alpine ORECA, is just nine seconds off the lead.
A slow 3m32s lap for Hartley helps Sarrazin extend his lead to 8.6s.
Frey tried to hang on around the outside into the first Mulsanne chicane, but had to take to the escape road.
The two Manthey Porsches are line astern as they fight over third in GTE. Vilander's only just ahead of them, too.
When Brundle was attacking Frey, you could clearly see the straightline disadvantage of the Ligier compared to the ORECA. He closed on him, but started to lose out once he was out of the slipstream and had to contest the braking zone to make the move stick.
Brundle now has a five-second lead in LMP2. Frey will soon be passed by Chatin in the ORECA for second.
The #29 Pegasus Morgan, 12th in LMP2, is slow on the Mulsanne Straight. Possibly has a puncture.
Vilander's put a bit of daylight between his Ferrari and the two Porsches. That gap's 3.5s now, with Milner 37s ahead.

Senna, meanwhile, is catching the two Porsches at quite a rate of knots.
GARY WATKINS: Sarrizin's pace in comparison to Hartley's – the gap is now up to over 10s – backs up what we learnt from the first two WEC rounds: that the Porsche doesn't look after its tyres quite as well as its rivals.
Brundle pits from the LMP2 lead in the #35 Ligier. This should be just fuel.
Parente's problem in the #52 Ferrari was caused by a telemetry unit fire.
Frey is just keeping hold of the LMP2 lead, although Chatin is only a second behind.
Hartley comes in for a stop with the #20 Porsche, and he's taking new tyres.
GARY WATKINS: That was only an eight-lap stint from the #20 Porsche. The car gets tyres, so that's not even a full double. If Toyota and Audi manage to triple as planned, that's going to be a major problem for the 919 boys if they are to stay in contention.
15-second stop-go penalty for the Larbre Morgan. Taylor is at the wheel. It's 11th in class.
Sarrazin leads Treluyer's Audi by 43s. Hartley is 52 behind Treluyer now.
Milner's driving superbly at the moment. He's comfortably the quickest GTE car on track and his lead stands at 41s now.

The two Porsches are nose-to-tail again after briefly being split by some warring LMP2s, while Senna's closer than ever – 2.8s behind.
In GTE Am, it's as you were. Nygaard leads, and he's pulling away from Dempsey all the while. Hamilton's some way behind the American actor in third.
Things are looking rosy for Sarrazin and Toyota at the moment. The Porsche appears to be unable to make its tyres last, and Treluyer's Audi is slipping back in second.

Sarrazin leads by 46s over Treluyer now.
The Manthey cars have lost two seconds in the final sector and Senna's right with them now as they head onto the Mulsanne straight.
LMP1: 1 Sarrazin (Toyota); 2 Treluyer (Audi) +47s; 3 Hartley (Porsche); 4 di Grassi (Audi).
The #20 Porsche's early pitstop was in fact because of a puncture.
Senna gets past one of the Porsches – Bergmeister – and is now attacking Holzer's #92 911 RSR.
Senna goes again, he's attacking Holzer – and he's through! The Aston moves into third, with 10s between himself and Vilander in second.
As expected, Chatin brings the #36 Signatech Alpine ORECA into the pits from the lead of LMP2. That hands the advantage back to Brundle in the #35 OAK Ligier.
Holzer got too deep into the Ford chicane and Senna nailed the pass on the exit. Easy work.
Di Grassi has caught Hartley. There's less than a second between them as they battle for third place.

1 Sarrazin; 2 Treluyer +48s; 3 Hartley +1m51s; 4 di Grassi +1m52s
Dempsey's pit from second in GTE Am in the #77 Porsche, so Hamilton's into P2 ahead of Basov's Ferrari.
The #48 Murphy ORECA has returned to the track but encountered a gearshift problem.
Di Grassi breezes by Hartley - the #1 Audi passing the #20 Porsche on the pit straight with surprising ease to take third place.
More on Hartley's unscheduled stop earlier: Porsche says the Kiwi "felt to have a tyre failure" and that "it will be analysed".

By: Geoff Creighton, Scott Mitchell, Glenn Freeman, Edd Straw, Gary Watkins, AUTOSPORT staff

Published: