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WEC 24 Hours of Le Mans

Le Mans 24 Hours 2015 The 83rd Le Mans 24 Hours

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GARY WATKINS: Dumas has just completed a 14-lap stint in the #18 Porsche under green flag conditions. His quest to stretch the fuel was, however, helped by a couple of slow zones during that stint.
Albuquerque comes in for his final tank of fuel in this quadruple stint, handing the lead back to the #17 Porsche with Webber at the wheel.
Webber (#17) leads Treluyer (#7) by +12s, with Albuquerque (#9) +17s to the leader.

Let's see if the ex-F1 man can keep those Audis at bay.
Taylor's all over Turner for second; the #74 Corvette will surely be past the #97 Aston before long.
Treluyer has made up almost seven seconds on leader Webber over the past three laps.
Taylor's through, the Corvette's into second at the expense of the #97 Aston.
Heidfeld has just banged in the fastest lap for the #12 Rebellion - a 3m27.996s. The car is in eighth place.
TV shows a brief shot of Hirsch, still in his racesuit but with his helmet off, half-sitting in the Greaves Gibson getting to work on what looked like a battery.

Lots of unscrewing (or screwing, it was a brief shot) going on, the car is now 18th in LMP2, a long, long way down.
The #99 Aston has a 22-second lead over the #64 Corvette as we approach the end of the sixth hour. By GTE standards this is rather spaced out.

Pace-wise, it looks as though Turner's struggling on old rubber back in third. But without seeing the pitstops it's too risky to say for sure Taylor's on newer boots.
While Treluyer is closing in on Webber in the #17 Porsche that leads, the #7 Audi will lose time relative to the Porsche at the next pitstops. Treluyer is in the final part of a quadruple stint, so will lose a little over 15 seconds as the car gets fresh rubber and a fresh driver in the form of Fassler.
At the front of the field, having led the class by about two-and-a-half minutes, Lapierre has pitted in the KCMG ORECA. He's handed over to Howson - strong stint by Lapierre, making it count while several teams had their silver-rated drivers behind the wheel.
Treluyer has made up 11.737s on Webber in the last five laps.
While KCMG pitted, Cumming spun at what looked like Indianapolis. The Honda-powered OAK had been seventh in LMP2.
An update on the problems that forced the #1 Toyota into the garage for more than 13 minutes earlier. As well as the bodywork damage we could see, the rear suspension needed work too.
As we wait for the Audis to make their driver changes when they next come in, both are closing fast on Webber.

1 #17 Porsche
2 #7 Audi +1.6s
3 #9 Audi +9.1s
Conway takes over the #2 Toyota - in a distant 7th - from Sarrazin.
Treluyer passes Webber for the lead into Turn 1. Audi #7 leads.

Albuquerque is still 10s back in third with the #9 R18.
Webber was bizarrely easy meat down the main straight for Treluyer, especially considering the punch we expect from the Porsche out of the corners.
Treluyer's time out front is short-lived - he pits the #7 Audi from the lead (on schedule) to hand over to Fassler.

Webber is back in the lead, still 10s ahead of Albuquerque.
Following Cumming's spin, the Honda-powered OAK has dropped from seventh to 11th. Vanthoor is now back behind the wheel of the car, which is three laps down.
Olivier Beretta pits in the #71 Ferrari. That car was in the lead battle a couple of stints ago but Beretta has not had the pace to remain in contention and has slipped back quite a lot.
With a quarter of the race done, KCMG leads LMP2 by 1m41s over Thiriet in the TDS Racing entry. Capillaire is third for Signatech Alpine, a similar margin back again, while Murphy Prototypes and Team SARD Morand and the #26 G-Drive (OAK) complete the current top six.
Webber brings the leading #17 Porsche in. Albuquerque takes the #9 Audi into the lead, but in a few laps time he will pit to bring an impressive quadruple stint to a close.
GARY WATKINS: That's another 14-lap stint from Porsche courtesy of Mark Webber.
Vilander's on his merry way and will leapfrog the #71 in doing so, because that Ferrari appears to still be in the pits!

That's the second time a 458 Italia has remained in the AF Corse box for much longer than it should...
LMP1 leaders:

1 #9 Audi (Albuquerque)
2 #17 Porsche (Webber
3 #7 Audi (Fassler)
4 #18 Porsche (Dumas)
5 #19 Porsche (Hulkenberg)
Webber averaged a 3m23.038s on uninterrupted laps during the first part of what should be a triple stint.
While the #7 Audi briefly passed Webber for the lead before its stop, remember that because it completed a driver change, it lost more time in the pits than the Porsche this time around, so Webber is now clearly ahead of it by 23s.
Hulkenberg is flying in the #19 Porsche. Over the last three laps, he has been the fastest driver on track.
P3 Fassler is 58s behind the leading #9 Audi. So when Albuquerque comes in and that car makes a driver change, Fassler should move the #7 back ahead, as things were before the last pitstop sequence began.
Current TV footage is focusing on KCMG's Howson, catching and looking to put a lap on the third-placed Signatech Alpine, which has Capillaire behind the wheel.
The GTE Pro leader is in, and that's a fine three stints from Fernando Rees. The Brazilian vacates his #99 Aston Martin, which gets a new set of boots and then heads out in the hands of Alex MacDowall.

Rees Le Mans 2015

Rees Le Mans 2015

Howson gets the job done as Thiriet pits in the second-placed TDS Racing ORECA.

Elsewhere, Bird is back up to fifth and Vanthoor has set a new fastest lap for the #34 OAK, a 3m39.601s.
Fassler has slipped to 1m01s behind Albuquerque. That's still just about a small enough gap to mean that the #9 Audi will slot back into third after its driver change.

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

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