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WEC 24 Hours of Le Mans

Le Mans 24 Hours 2019

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And there's a drivethrough penalty for Bomarito for that unsafe release earlier. He's not had the most enjoyable of stints in the #67 Ford.
The gap between the two leaders is fairly static again. Kobayashi is 57s clear of Alonso, who now has 90s over the leading independent - the #3 Rebellion.
And Pilet's into third in class now, that Porsche is making some moves. He has the Fords of Hand and Bomarito behind him.
Calado is making a bit of progress towards Magnussen in the class-leading Corvette. The gap is down to 10s.
Meanwhile Loic Duval has joined the fray for the first time in the #28 TDS Racing ORECA, after two stints from Bronze driver Francois Perrodo. He's now P13, 3m07s off the lead, but we expect him to make ground from here.
We've had an esteemed visitor at the Team Autosport hub, the first Japanese driver to race at Le Mans no less. Hiroshi Fushida (left) contested the 24 Hours in 1973 at the wheel of a Mazda-powered Sigma prototype.

We've had an esteemed visitor at the Team Autosport hub, the first Japanese driver to race at Le Mans no less. Hiroshi Fushida (left) contested the 24 Hours in 1973 at the wheel of a Mazda-powered Sigma prototype.

That Toyota stop has also brought the #11 - which, in the hands of Vandoorne, is now just 18s behind Berthon for third - and #17 SMP cars back onto the lead lap.
Pilet is all over Bomarito for fourth into the Porsche Curves, that Ford's going to have to get a bit bigger. Not BMW M8 GTE-size, but as close as possible.
Change for third in LMP2 - Aubry gets past team-mate King and begins his chase of the two leaders. He was a second quicker than Van Uitert last time out and a full 5s faster than leader Thiriet.
Sure enough, in comes the #7 Toyota - which spends 1m04s in the pits before rejoining the track.
Bomarito's starting to slip back further, Pilet's Porsche is now gaining and is just 0.482s the third-placed Ford.
The #3 Rebellion has now gone a lap down, but remember Kobayashi needs to pits again shortly - most likely on this lap.
Alonso comes into the pits next time by, but is back out once more.
It's all happening in LMP2 - shortly after losing third to King on lap 48, Gonzalez pits and is followed in by Richelmi. Despite completing a driver change to Gabriel Aubry, the #38 car comes out ahead. Paul Di Resta has also come in, but remains behind the wheel.

Meanwhile, Van Uitert passes Lapierre to take the lead into the second chicane, and both pit at the end of their 49th lap, with Pierre Thiriet taking over from Lapierre. However, Van Uitert's 10s penalty means Thiriet has rejoined ahead. King has also pitted from third, and emerges just ahead of Aubry.

Right, can we breathe now?
Not anymore mind! Calado's just stormed past Bomarito in the #51 AF Corse Ferrari for second in class.
Alonso just pumped in a 3m19s to Kobayashi's 3m22s. The start of a fightback by #8 perhaps?
As you watch that clip below, worth bearing in mind that Magnussen's Corvette holds a near-15s class lead over the Ford driven by Bomarito.
Lotterer is ninth overall, ahead of the 10th-placed ByKolles by a strong margin. But the Rebellion is still two laps down on the lead LMP1 pack.
Vandoorne actually lost three seconds to Berthon in the pitlane, not that it mattered. The gap's now down to 34s as the HWA Formula E driver continues to close in.
Change for third place as King gets ahead of Gonzalez with a decisive move into Mulsanne Corner. Richelmi is right behind the Mexican now and will hope to follow his team-mate through.
Vandoorne's charge takes a break for now, he's into the pits and will return in fourth.
The Ford of Bomarito is now under investigation for that pitlane kerfuffle with the Corvette.
Vandoorne's still gaining on Berthon, he's reduced the gap to 32s and is lapping around a second quicker than his rival in third.
Hedman's still progressing through the GTE Am field, he's up to 50th overall now in the DragonSpeed.
Orudzhev is into the pits for a fifth stop of the race, he continues on and will return in fifth overall.
Matthias Beche will have a 30s stop and go penalty for speeding under the FCY. Not an ideal start to his stint in the #20 High Class Racing ORECA.
There was almost a coming together between the #63 Corvette and #67 Ford as the latter left its pitbox, that's second and third in GTE Pro so that was almost dramatic!
Van Uitert has now slipped 5.2s behind Lapierre, but it's an impressive start to what is sure to be a long long Le Mans career for the Dutch rookie. Gonzalez is still clinging onto third from King and Richelmi, their battle pack some 1m20s off the lead.
Dillmann was one driver who had to make an emergency stop, so he's come in on this tour to hand over the car to Webb. That will have cost time, so he's dropped to 14th overall and directly behind Lotterer's Rebellion.
The unscheduled early stop for De Vries promotes Gonzalez back to third in the #31 DragonSpeed, but he has Jordan King right on his tail. 4 seconds down the road, the sister Jackie Chan DC Racing ORECA of Richelmi is under stout pressure from Paul Di Resta's #22 United Autosports Ligier.
The #63 Corvette, the GTE Pro leader, has stopped under the FCY. The regs say the pits are nominally closed, which means Magnussen is allowed what is known as an emergency stop — a quick dollop of fuel — before continuing on his way. He'll be back in next time around. The #51 Ferrari and #92 Porsche are among those similarly affected in the GTE Pro field.
The FCY was the result of debris resulting from a left-rear puncture for Nyck De Vries - who was running third before that and will now go off-sequence.
Dillmann pits the ByKolles. He's still in the car and heading towards three hours behind the wheel.
Berthon is nowhere near the pace of Menezes in the #1 Rebellion. He's haemorrhaging time to the Toyotas ahead and being gained on by Vandoorne in the best of the SMP BREs.

By: Geoff Creighton

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