Le Mans 24 Hours 2019
Live Text
Sort by
Pit stop
In comes Alonso, who hops out to hand over to Nakajima. Nicely timed.
LMP1
The DragonSpeed BRE is going slowly on the Mulsanne with van der Zande at the wheel.
Safety car
Safety car has been deployed.
LMP2
That FCY came at a really bad time for Jota Sport. Aubry handed over to Tung just before the FCY, so has lost ground to Rusinov, while Heinemeier-Hansson came in just afterwards and got stuck behind the slow-moving Castelacci just as the race returned to green. Ricky Taylor is back behind the wheel, but that car has now plummeted to seventh.
Green flag
And we're back to green.
Pit stop
That FCY came at a very good time for a few of the LMP2 runners who were due into the pits anyway. Loic Duval, having got ahead of Phil Hanson, hands over to Francois Perrodo, while Hanson and Tristan Gommendy also come in. Up ahead, Aubry had just completed a driver change under green to Ho-Pin Tung, which will cost the #38 a lot of ground once this cycle of stops shakes out.
Full Course Yellow
Another one — number four of the race — for the Castellacci incident
Crash
Brown trouser moment for Francesco Castelacci in the #54 GTE-Am Ferrari, who has a huge spin in the Porsche Curves but fortunately doesn't hit anything. That's well and truly beached, so we can expect a FCY any moment now.
LMP1
The #3 Rebellion was in the pits for a couple of minutes as Laurent took over. That's relegated the car behind the two SMP BREs.
Driver Change
Berthon is in the following lap after Vandoorne had stepped out of the car.
The Rebellion driver hands over to Laurent and he returns fifth behind the SMP machines.
The Rebellion driver hands over to Laurent and he returns fifth behind the SMP machines.
Floppy!
LMP1
That's a 10-lap stint again from the #11 SMP BRE. The fuel allocation for the non-hybrid P1 privateers gives them 10 laps' worth of fuel to the Toyotas' 11.
Driver Change
Vandoorne has now given the wheel to Aleshin. Not literally hopefully, as that really would be a slow pitstop.
GTE AM
The #98 is now back in the pits with its engine cover off.
Pit stop
Vandoorne gives up the Berthon chase for now, pitting his SMP machine from fourth.
LMP1
DragonSpeed has lost some of its progress, it had been as high as 28th and in front of the GTE Pro field, van der Zande is now down in 51st overall.
GTE PRO
Rockenfeller had just been relegated ouf of the class lead by Serra in the #51 Ferrari, and now he's brought the #63 Corvette into the pits.
GTE AM
Dalla Lana, who's last in GTE Am and overall, just went off at the Porsche Curves but managed to get that Aston going again.
LMP1
Sirotkin will have a 1m30s deficit to fourth-placed Vandoorne.
Driver Change
Speaking of SMP, Orudzhev is into the pitlane in the #17 car. New tyres are being fitted and it's ex-Williams Formula 1 driver Sirotkin into the car for the first time.
LMP1
Vandoorne held up again at the Ford Chicanes, this time by one of the Porsche GTE cars.
LMP1
Onto the Mulsanne and Vandoorne's looking rapid - the SMP cars have regularly topped the speedtraps this week, so it's a happy hunting ground.
LMP1
Vandoorne gets held up by Rusinov at the Ford Chicanes and slows the SMP driver's bid for third.
LMP2
Rusinov has a country mile of breathing space compared to what we've seen over the past couple of hours in the battle for LMP2 hours. 4.2s is his advantage over Thiriet, who remains at the wheel of the Signatech car.
LMP1
Vandoorne's navigating traffic as he hunts down Menezes on the run to the Porsche Curves. He's rapidly closing!
LMP1
Vandoorne's now within a second of Berthon so that third place is very much under threat for the Rebellion driver now.
Rain
We have another floppy on track, this time at the Dunlop Chicane and we've even got a warning of a few raindrops.
Trying to contain our excitement.
Trying to contain our excitement.
Information
The contact between the Ligier and Porsche is now under investigation.
Pit stop
Not for much longer though, because Kobayashi is in too.
LMP1
That stop means Alonso is now 1m53s down on Kobayashi's leading Toyota, but he has made one pitstop more.
LMP2
We haven't mentioned Gabriel Aubry for a while, but he's making solid inroads on the leaders in third. He's now just 50s off Rusinov, having been 1m16s off when he got in. Maldonado in fourth isn't exactly making inroads into his advantage either, having lost 3s to the youngster last time around.
Pit stop
Alonso pits the Toyota and takes on fuel before heading out again.
The Larbre Ligier and the #69 Porsche that's sixth in GTE Pro get a little too close for comfort
LMP1
A couple of quick laps from Kobayashi, the last of them a 3m19s, has eked out the #7 car's lead. It now stands at 55s.
LMP1
Might we see a change for third during this pitstop cycle? Vandoorne has just done a 3m24s compared to Berthon's 3m28s. The gap was as low as 6s, although it's back out to 7.6s right now.
By: Geoff Creighton
Published:
Page:
