Le Mans 24 Hours 2019
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LMP1
Menezes has dropped back to fourth after pitting, but is half a minute behind the #11 SMP of Petrov.
LMP1
We keep looking at the lead order on the timing screen and wondering if it's broken. Conway remains 1m04s ahead of Buemi - a gap that has been that static for the past 15 minutes or so.
Pit stop
Vandoorne has pitted the #17 SMP car and dropped behind Menezes as a result. Orudzhev is also in for another stop in the #11 car, and remains third.
GTE PRO
Change has been afoot in GTE Pro; Christensen holds the lead - though only courtesy of Calado stopping the Ferrari to hand over to Serra. The second-placed Ferrari has a pitstop's worth of time over the third-place car - the #93 Porsche of Bamber.
LMP1
A bit of movement at the head of the order, as Buemi plucks a couple of second from Conway's lead. There's not loads going on right now.
LMP2
Job Van Uitert is really starting to stamp his authority on this race. His lead may have been artificially inflated by the safety car, but he's really pummelling Pierre Thiriet into submission at the moment, going 5 seconds quicker on their last lap.
LMP1
We said there wasn't loads going on in LMP1, but Menezes has made more significant gains of late in the battle for third overall. He's 49s behind Orudzhev now - in part thanks to a 1m08s pitstop, compared to a 1m22s from the SMP crew.
GTE PRO
Christensen now comes in from the lead, making way for Laurens Vanthoor. We're waiting for the timing screens to update, but it looked to our bleary eyes like he had come out just behind Serra, or another Ferrari. We'll let you know.
Safety car
Safety Car. That could make things interesting...
Crash
Orudzhev, who was running a strong third, has gone off big time at the Porsche Curves. Day done.
GTE PRO
It appears our eyes did deceive us, as Vanthoor did in fact come out ahead of Serra, although his advantage will now be reduced to virtually nothing by the safety car.
GTE AM
Meanwhile we've had a change of driver in the leading Ford, as Felipe Fraga has taken over from Jeroen Bleekemolen. Andlauer is back to second in the #77 Porsche following that most recent round of stops.
Orudzhev had no chance of saving it at this point
Pit stop
Conway has taken this opportunity to pit in the #7 Toyota, as has Vandoorne in what is now the fourth-placed and sole surviving SMP car.
LMP2
The safety car has played into the hands of the #28 TDS crew, as Loic Duval is now right behind the fifth-placed #37 Jackie Chan DC Racing ORECA of David Heinemeier-Hansson, whose name gets increasingly more tricky to spell with every passing minute.
LMP1
The #17's demise will also promote the #1 Rebellion back into the top five. Lotterer is back at the wheel of the car that picked up a puncture in the second hour.
LMP1
Conway was held for a very long time in the pits, and is now behind Buemi. They'll be in the same safety-car train, though.
GTE PRO
The GTE Pro fight remains as strung out as it was, but Vanthoor and Serra are now just 2.9s apart in the same train - so it'll be game on for the class lead once this safety-car period is over.
GTE AM
Third in GTE-Am down to sixth have now been split off behind a seperate safety car to Andlauer, which might make things interesting at the restart. Lindsey, Baptista, MacNeil and Eastwood all in that battle pack, take your pick ladies and gents...
Le Mans might be the only media centre in the world where it's socially acceptable to brush your teeth while working. That's JAMES NEWBOLD's theory anyway.
LMP1
Watching a replay of Orudzhev's crash, we might have been hasty to declare it was definitely day done for the car. But the #17's race is certainly run as far as a podium shot is concerned.
LMP2
But during the teeth-brushing process, he spotted that Maldonado had pitted from fourth and been held at the end of the pitlane, therefore dropping behind DHH (easier than typing David Heinemeier-Hansson every time we think you'll agree) and Duval in the next safety car queue.
LMP1
Orudzhev's car is now being carried away, but it looks like the safety cars will be out for a fair while yet.
Pit stop
The #3 Rebellion is in now. There was a driver change, but we didn't see who hopped in. We do know it's being held at the end of the pitlane, though.
LMP1
It's Berthon who takes over at the wheel of the #3, which remains two laps down on the leading Toyotas.
LMP2
Duval now pits and relinquishes fifth in LMP2 back to Maldonado. Vaxiviere gets back in, as TDS carry through their plan to run their two Pro drivers back to back during the night and save Perrodo until morning.
Information
We've just had a message pop up that the safety car will be in this lap.
Green flag
And sure enough, we're back racing again.
LMP1
Conway is 1.939s behind Buemi as the field restarts.
LMP1
Wondering why the #8 is back ahead of the #7? We were too, but thankfully Toyota has cleared things up for us. Buemi brought the #8 two laps earlier than Conway, as we've seen for the past few hours. But crucially, that meant the #8 got its stop in under green-flag conditions - which meant it was ahead when Conway emerged from the pits in the #7.
LMP1
To add to Conway's frustration, he then got baulked by GTE cars right after getting within a second of Buemi.
LMP2
The LMP2 pack has become very spread out over the past two hours, with the result that only three cars are still on the lead lap. Job Van Uitert continues to lead from Pierre Thiriet, 2m18s now the gap, with Gabriel Aubry third and only just clinging onto the lead lap. Pastor Maldonado meanwhile has closed on the #37 Jota car of Heinemeier-Hansson and looks set to take fourth imminently.
GTE AM
It's been a good restart in the Am class from Charlie Eastwood, as he has made two places in the TF Sport Aston Martin to take fourth. Next in his sights is Patrick Lindsey's Porsche, and there was just half a second in it at the line.
LMP1
Vandoorne is now showing as three laps down in the #11 SMP, and 2m26s behind Berthon.
LMP1
Conway has made up some ground on Buemi and is within a second of the race leader.
LMP2
The Maldonado vs Heinemeier-Hansson battle for fourth in LMP2 is quickly settled as the latter brings the #37 DC Racing ORECA into the pits.
GTE PRO
At the head of the GTE Pro order, Vanthoor has himself some breathing space over Serra's AF Corse Ferrari. Six seconds separates the pair right now.
LMP1
The spell since Conway's stop under the safety car is the first in which he's been headed by another driver.
GTE AM
Meanwhile Charlie Eastwood has made it up to third in the Am class, passing Lindsey's Porche. A great effort from the Northern Irishman, doing his best to uphold honours on a tough day for Aston Martin.
LMP1
Conway spent a couple of laps in Buemi's wheeltracks, but is 2s behind the leader now.
By: Geoff Creighton
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