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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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Lotterer is only 3s behind Bonanomi now. That's the closest the two leading Audis have been on track for a long time.

Both remain more than one minute behind the leading #19 Porsche of Tandy, though.
Rees pits in the #99 Aston, handing back over to Stanaway in the car fighting for the GTE lead.
Whatever the problem was Lapierre had with the #46 KCMG ORECA in the pits, it doesn't seem to have affected his laptimes. He's currently circulating about a second quicker than nearest rival the #46 Thiriet car.
Bird has pitted from third and has handed over to Rusinov for another stint in the #26 Ligier.
Lotterer appears powerless to make any more progress in his battle with Bonanomi. The gap has stabilised at three seconds for a while now, and they are both just outside a minute of Tandy's leading Porsche.
Crash
Big fire for the #66 GTE Am Ferrari in a pitstop, which takes a long time to put out after some help from marshals and neighbouring Audi mechanics.

The car is in the garage now being checked over, but that's likely to have done a lot of damage because it took a while to put the blaze out.
So Stanaway has rejoined and he's 4.3s behind Milner in the Corvette. The Chevy will be a bit quicker at this stage because it's lighter, although Stanaway probably has new tyres after a stay of 1m25s in the pits.
Bonanomi pits the #9 Audi, promoting Lotterer's #7 machine into second, 1m06s behind the leading Porsche of Tandy.
Stanaway doesn't have the beating of Milner at this stage but he does have a pitstop in hand, so really it's advantage Aston Martin - assuming it plays out the way it appears to be, that is.
Tandy hasn't quite been able to flex his muscles towards the end of his stint in the #19 car, possibly because the tyres are crying enough. He's still got enough pace to keep Lotterer over a minute back, but with Bamber set to take over the Porsche at the next stop, it's likely Lotterer is close enough to take the lead.
The #47 KCMG ORECA remains in control of LMP2 with Lapierre eking its advantage back out to almost a minute to the #46 Thiriet machine. A further 1m25s back is Rusinov's #26 Ligier which has cemented its third place for the time being.
There's going to be huge pressure on Bamber when he jumps in the #19. He's going to be head-to-head with one of sportscar racing's true stars in Lotterer, and he's got to live up to the performances Hulkenberg and Tandy have shown in that car tonight.

Between them, those two have hauled that car into a race-leading position, and they'll expect it returned to them in similar fashion when Bamber's stint comes to an end.

For now, Tandy is back in the 3m21s, preventing Lotterer from making inroads. The gap is 1m05s.
The #51 Ferrari has pit and that should allow the #91 Porsche back into third place.
Tandy pits after a phenomenal job taking the fight to Audi, keeping the #19 Porsche out front for so long.

Bamber gets in, with a fresh set of tyres, and Lotterer sweeps through Turn 1 as he exits the pits. The #7 Audi leads by 4s. Let's see how that gap develops in Bamber's first stint.
Scratch that – the #91 Porsche was wheeled into the garage during its last stop for minor repairs. So it was actually a lap down on the Ferrari, and now isn't - but stays fourth.

Blame our weary eyes.
Thiriet pits for fuel from second in LMP2. The #46 car is currently losing a couple of seconds per lap to leader Lapierre who is re-establishing the KCMG car's authority at the front.
Tincknell sets a new personal best for the #22 Nissan, which sits a troubled 47th overall - 3m38.196s.
Lotterer gives Bamber a ruthless welcome to the battle for the lead - pulling away by four seconds on the Porsche's outlap. The gap shoots up to 8.1s by the start/finish line.
LMP1 leaders:

1 #7 Audi (Lotterer)
2 #19 Porsche (Bamber), +9.7s
3 #9 Audi (Bonanomi), +55s
4 #17 Porsche (Hartley), +2m03s
Bamber is into the 3m22s but Lotterer decides that won't be enough. The Audi man does a 3m20.7s to extend his lead by another 1.7s on lap 199.
Bamber lost another second in the first half of lap 200, but Lotterer was then delayed in the Porsche Curves before pitting at the end of the lap.

The #19 Porsche leads again, and Lotterer hands over to Treluyer after spending 1m31s in the pits. Bonanomi moves the #9 Audi back into second place, 45s behind Bamber.
That Audi driver-change stop took 15-16s longer than both the leading Porsches managed when they last swapped drivers. There seemed to be a delay with the wheel gun between removing the wheel and then attaching the new one. Strange.
Milner's relinquished the GTE lead, pitting the Corvette and heading out again. Stanaway, whose pace has understandably improved as this stint has developed, assumes the mantle of race leader once more.
Bamber's had two 3m25s laps in a row now, so Bonanomi is hacking away at his lead. It's down to 41s, and the #7 car is 1m12s back in third.
Hartley pits the #17 car from fourth place.
Another stop for the leading LMP2 #47 car. This time Lapierre has no problems and is quickly back on his way.
It's a third 3m25s in succession for Bamber. Bonanomi takes another couple of seconds out of the #19 Porsche's lead, which comes down to 39.2s.
Stanaway > Milner is 52s since the Corvette stopped. Both cars have been down the pitlane 12 times.
The #98 Aston leads GTE Am but is being closed down by the #72 Ferrari. Matthias Lauda's not having a great stint, and is losing a lot of time to Victor Shaytar behind.
More problems for the #37 SMP Racing BRE. It's wheeled back into the garage but is already last in class by some five laps...
Bamber puts in a much-needed 3m21s, just to stem the tide against Bonanomi, who loses ground with a 3m24s that lap. The lead gap increases to 42.0s.
The other SMP BRE machine (#27) is also wheeled into the garage - perhaps the team have detected a fault that affects both cars.
Things have stabilised out front now. Bamber is keeping his lead over Bonanomi at over 40 seconds again, while Treluyer is making very few inroads, still 1m08s off the leading Porsche.
New fastest time for Berthon in the #48 Murphy ORECA, currently fourth in LMP2 and still a long way behind the third-placed #26 Ligier.
Bamber's latest 3m22s isn't stellar, but it'll do nicely against Bonanomi's 3m25s. The #19 Porsche's lead is up to 44.5s, while Treluyer closes to +1m06s in P3.
A good lap from Stanaway, 3m56.977s, makes him the quickest of the frontrunners. This is a period of consolidation in GTE Pro right now, drivers maybe steering clear of that final per cent as a trade-off for not sticking it in the wheel in the darkness.

1. #99 Aston
2. #64 Corvette
3. #51 Ferrari
4. #91 Porsche
5. #71 Ferrari
Rusinov in #26 has just pitted from third in LMP2 but has retained the final podium slot. The current top five:

1. #47 KCMG ORECA
2. #46 Thiriet by TDS ORECA
3. #26 G-Drive Ligier
4. #48 Murphy ORECA
5. #38 Jota Gibson
Lauda pits in the #98 Aston Martin. When Shaytar brings the SMP Ferrari there's a good chance the lead battle will be on in GTE Am - which is a surprise given how strong the AMR car's lead was for so long.
Bonanomi brings the #9 Audi in from second, handing it over to Albuquerque. That moves Treluyer up to second, 1m06s behind Bamber in the race-leading #19 Porsche.

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

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