Le Mans 24 Hours 2019
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GTE PRO
Ferrari is back ahead in GTE Pro, as Vanthoor has handed the #93 over to Estre after blitzing the restart. A deficit of 44s to the Ferrari suggests the Porsche should return to the head of the order when the stops shake out.
LMP1
Following that last round of stops, Alonso is 11.6 seconds behind Kobayashi. Will we see a repeat of his mammoth night stint last year?
LMP1
Kobayashi comes in, having posted fastest times of all in the second and third sectors on his in lap. He rejoins 13s clear of Alonso.
LMP2
Andre Negrao hasn't had too much opportunity to claw back the time lost to unfortunately timed safety cars due to - you guessed it - more safety cars, but has been chipping away at Rusinov over the past few laps and reduced the gap to below 2 minutes for the first time in a while.
Driver Change
Just as it looked as though it might get tasty, Buemi dives for the pitlane and hands over to Alonso.
LMP1
Buemi is coming back at Kobayashi! He's now 0.402s behind.
GTE AM
Eastwood meanwhile has indeed passed Ried's Porsche for second in the Am class, although the 2m26s deficit to Fraga's Ford might be a bit steep for the time being.
LMP1
Kobayashi has absolutely blitzed this restart. He and Buemi were less than two seconds apart when they returned to racing speeds, but across the finish line the Japanese driver is already more than eight seconds ahead. Buemi has been left for dead.
GTE PRO
Vanthoor has wasted no time at the restart and has quickly set about rebuilding his gap over Serra, who doesn't seem to be enjoying the Ferrari in these cooler night conditions.
Green flag
Green flag.
Information
Carrs are being told by race control to bear totally to the left exiting marshal post 32 (at the Porsche Curves). The safety car will be in this lap, though.
Eastwood is right behind Ried in the battle for second in the Am class, while back in P6, Jorg Bergmeister is now aboard the #56 Project 1 Porsche and poised to pounce on Baptista and MacNeil ahead.
LMP1
This post is probably going to curse things, but we're approaching the halfway point and the leading privateer LMP1 is still only two and a half laps down. Considering the #3 Rebellion has hit a barrier head on, and lost a further two minutes in a later pitstop, that seems a mighty respectable effort.
GTE PRO
The Safety Car came at a bad time for Vanthoor - it's allowed Serra to close right back up again, the two GTE-Pro leaders in the same safety car queue. The Porsches of Makowiecki and Bamber are next in line, then Rockenfeller's lone Corvette chased by the three Fords of Dixon, Bourdais and Priaulx.
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Replays show it didn't just stop, it thumped the wall. You'd imagine that would be game over for the Ligier, which had just taken a hit to the front right at Indianapolis a few minutes earlier.
Yellow flag
It looks like the reason for the Safety Car is the #49 Bratislava Ligier again, which has stopped in the very narrow section of the Porsche Curves. Safe to say the Slovakian team's return to Le Mans hasn't been plain sailing.
LMP1
The two Toyotas were separated by around two seconds before that - surely they'll be in the same train this time?
Safety car
Safety car deployed.
GTE AM
We were singing Charlie Eastwood's praises earlier, and for good reason too. The TF Sport Aston driver started his stint in sixth after taking over from Euan Hankey, and is now just 13s shy of Reid's second place in the Am class.
GTE PRO
Meanwhile, it's come to our attention that Serra was a whole three seconds off Vanthoor just before the Slow Zone came out. The Brazilian - a class-winner here with Aston Martin in 2017 don't forget - still has over a minute in hand, but the gap to Vanthoor is now approaching 35 seconds.
Slow Zone
There's momentary panic in the media centre as a prototype heads into the barriers at Indianapolis, but its revealed to be the troubled ARC Bratislava Ligier which has had lots of lairy moments today. It brings out a slow zone, though, which could mix things up.
Pit stop
Lotterer pits the #1 Rebellion for the 19th time. That car is three laps behind Vandoorne's SMP, but is circulationg at a nifty enough pace.
LMP1 standings after (insert how many grand prix distances here)
LMP2
There's a distinct smell of soup from a few desks away, which is at least a lot better than photographer's feet. Meanwhile out on track, the two leading cars have pitted in LMP2, with Negrao taking over the Signatech-Alpine from Thiriet.
We appreciate that reference might have been a little niche, but without wanting to give away too many trade secrets Randy Orton has a significant role to play behind the scenes on our web team.
LMP2
Approaching 2:30 in the morning local time, we'll take any excuse for a comic moment and thankfully one is provided by Heinemeier-Hansson as he gets out of the #37 ORECA, swinging his feet and RKO'ing the seat insert co-driver Ricky Taylor was carying. Excellent.
Information
There's a yellow flag ou... nope, it's been removed. As you were.
GTE PRO
Vanthoor does owe us a pitstop, but his 1m27s lead over Serra does look very appealing right now. Not quite as appealing as some sleep, mind.
JAMES NEWBOLD readily accepts his Le Mans media room rituals are a bit eccentric, but has delirium reached a new level? We’ve spotted a few photographers wandering around the media room without any shoes on to seemingly air their feet. Discuss.
LMP1
Half a second separates the leading Toyotas as we approach the halfway point of the 2019 Le Mans 24 Hours. Mega.
LMP2
Meanwhile in LMP2, Maldonado has pitted from fourth in the DragonSpeed ORECA, but remains behind the wheel. Matthieu Vaxiviere has also pitted for TDS Racing.
LMP1
Kobayashi emerges just ahead of Buemi!
Driver Change
Conway is in from the lead, and has handed over to Kobayashi. The gap was 1m02.781s back to the #8 car, which completed its last stop in 1m03s...
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Pit stop
Vandoorne has pitted, and emerged, from fourth, while one lap further on Berthon is in for his first stop of this stint.
LMP1
Buemi is a minute behind Conway - who is yet to stop - as things stand. That was the gap that the #7 had over the #8 when it last emerged ahead during the pitstop cycle.
GTE PRO
Daniel Serra now pits the second-placed #51 Ferrari, which was beginning to slip back from GTE-Pro leader Vanthoor. He's followed in by the #93 Porsche of Earl Bamber, who was running third.
GTE AM
Andlauer has now pitted the second-placed Am Porsche and handed over to team-owner Christian Ried, which will temporarily at least drop the #77 Dempsey Proton Racing Porsche back to fifth in class.
Pit stop
Buemi brings the #8 Toyota in from the lead. Looks as though he's staying in for now.
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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