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WEC 24 Hours of Le Mans

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

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GARY WATKINS: The way di Grassi out-accelerated Hartley out of the Ford Chicane doesn't appear right. The Porsche should pull away initially thanks to its greater hybrid punch.
So, with the latest round of stops completed, the top three in LMP2 are covered by less than 20 seconds:

1 #35 Ligier (Brundle), 2 #34 ORECA (Frey) +10.582s; 3 #36 ORECA (Chatin) +18.353.
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More on Hartley's unscheduled stop earlier: Porsche says the Kiwi "felt to have a tyre failure" and that "it will be analysed".
Di Grassi breezes by Hartley - the #1 Audi passing the #20 Porsche on the pit straight with surprising ease to take third place.
The #48 Murphy ORECA has returned to the track but encountered a gearshift problem.
Dempsey's pit from second in GTE Am in the #77 Porsche, so Hamilton's into P2 ahead of Basov's Ferrari.
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
Holzer got too deep into the Ford chicane and Senna nailed the pass on the exit. Easy work.
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.
Senna goes again, he's attacking Holzer – and he's through! The Aston moves into third, with 10s between himself and Vilander in second.
Senna gets past one of the Porsches – Bergmeister – and is now attacking Holzer's #92 911 RSR.
Breaking news
The #20 Porsche's early pitstop was in fact because of a puncture.
LMP1: 1 Sarrazin (Toyota); 2 Treluyer (Audi) +47s; 3 Hartley (Porsche); 4 di Grassi (Audi).
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.
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.
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.
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.
Sarrazin leads Treluyer's Audi by 43s. Hartley is 52 behind Treluyer now.
15-second stop-go penalty for the Larbre Morgan. Taylor is at the wheel. It's 11th in class.
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.
Hartley comes in for a stop with the #20 Porsche, and he's taking new tyres.
Frey is just keeping hold of the LMP2 lead, although Chatin is only a second behind.
Parente's problem in the #52 Ferrari was caused by a telemetry unit fire.
Brundle pits from the LMP2 lead in the #35 Ligier. This should be just fuel.
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.
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.
The #29 Pegasus Morgan, 12th in LMP2, is slow on the Mulsanne Straight. Possibly has a puncture.
Brundle now has a five-second lead in LMP2. Frey will soon be passed by Chatin in the ORECA for second.
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.
The two Manthey Porsches are line astern as they fight over third in GTE. Vilander's only just ahead of them, too.
Frey tried to hang on around the outside into the first Mulsanne chicane, but had to take to the escape road.
Brundle takes the LMP2 lead.
A slow 3m32s lap for Hartley helps Sarrazin extend his lead to 8.6s.
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.
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.
Sarrazin's Toyota leads Hartley's Porsche by 3.4s, with Treluyer +36s to the leader in third.
Canal brings the #26 OAK-run G-Drive Morgan into the pits from fifth in LMP2.
GTE Am leader Nygaard is in the pits now.
And in comes Holzer in the #92 Porsche.
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.

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

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