Le Mans 24 Hours Live Commentary and Updates

Times are tumbling, and Lietz has indeed gotten into the 3m59s now. For reference, that Porsche's best dry time from earlier in the race was only about two seconds quicker.

A lot of debris on the track from Derani's recovery mission and there will be a slow zone from Mulsanne up to the start of the Porsche Curves.

There are still only nine seconds covering the top three in LMP2. As for driver performance, lap times are about to be rendered irrelevant by that slow zone, unfortunately! 

Through the slow zone, the gap between the #5, #50 and #83 is non-existant.

Whatever you think about the latest safety car procedures, this is exciting!

A brave, brave move for the lead as Fuoco puts the #50 into the lead, way over the dotted white line on the run to Indianapolis. 

The #7 Toyota is really struggling, dropping to 9.5s off the lead and into the clutches of the #51 Ferrari.

It's even closer in LMP2 now, with 2.4s covering those top three! Varrone has closed up to the two leaders in this phase of the race. But with so much action at the front of Hypercar, we're not seeing anything of this scrap.

Shwartzman is not happy on his soft tyres and he is asking for a new set at the #83's next stop. Buemi is all over the back of the AF Corse.

The #2 has found 10 seconds over the #5 with those the only cars of the frontrunning pack to pit in this cycle.

Still plenty of strategic intrigue to come. We are into the final stages but still 5 hours to go!

Rain is being reported as returning on a number of team radios, though it is not expected to be much.

Buemi is told not to use his wiper, given the Toyota's smudging issues from earlier.

Indeed! Fluxa, Jarvis and Clement Novalak in the Europol car have also come trundling into pitlane. Varrone takes the lead, but his stint is now almost an hour old (including a fair bit of SC it must be said) so that won't last long. 

With Varrone having pitted and a couple of driver changes completed, here's the picture in LMP2: Pilet (Vector Sport) leads Job van Uitert (IDEC Sport), Novalak (Europol), Nolan Siegel (United Autosports), Ritomo Miyata (Cool Racing) and Varrone. 22 seconds cover the lot of them.

The #2 Cadillac has easily cleared its rivals after stopping earlier, with the #50 in a nice gap on its own.

But the #83 and #8 have come out line astern.

Shwartzman's pleas for new tyres on the #83 fell on deaf ears - he is going to have to nurse these softs through a third stint.

Both Shwartzman and Buemi are under investigation for "driving behaviour". 

I certainly haven't seen anything that warrants an investigation.

Now that GT3 has settled down post-stops, here's your order. Morris Schuring leads, having taken over the Manthey Porsche. Agusto Farfus now runs second in the WRT BMW, about six seconds back. The #87 Akkodis Lexus has cycled back up to third, but is a little off-sync and due a stop soon. Then, 30s behind Schuring, comes a three-way battle between Mikkel Pedersen (Proton Ford Mustang), Gregoire Saucy (United Autosports McLaren) and Rahel Frey (Iron Dames Lamborghini).

So the #2 Cadillac is 10 seconds up on the #50 whilst out of sequence. It will be interesting to see how that pans out.

The #7 Toyota scythes past the #6 PPM into Mulsanne, only for Estre to fight back on Kobayashi, using the #70 LMGT3 McLaren to box the Japanese driver in.

Schuring and Farfus are pulling the plug in GT3. The top two cars are the fastest front-runners on track right now, with Farfus having just set the BMW's best lap of the race. 

The gap between the two leaders remains at 10 seconds, but the #50 is now five seconds up on third-placed #83, which is locked in battle with the #8.

LMP2 is broadly as reported last time around. And the top three are covered by just over five seconds!

A late call from the Toyota crew, telling Buemi that the tyres need to be triple-stinted only after he has pushed and taken the edge off his current compound. He is still all over the back of the #83 AF Corse.

Bamber has stretched out the gap at the front to 11.2 seconds now. But how much strategy wiggle room does the #2 Cadillac crew have as we get to the end of the race - it's offset is about half a stint at the moment.

It's still a holding pattern up front in GT3. That three-way scrap we mentioned has resolved itself in favour of the Iron Dames for now....but Pedersen is right behind Frey. They've dropped Saucy to the tune of around six seconds.

The #87 Lexus will have 10 seconds added to its next stop following its recent brush with the #31 BMW currently running in second in LMP2. 

If (I know that's a big word) pace remains for all cars, the #2 and #50 should converge at the end of the race.

A long way to go yet though.

The LMP2 leaders are in for a round of stops. Update to follow.

With Pilet, van Uitert and Novalak having stopped under green, those who hadn't yet pitted in LMP2 may benefit from this FCY. We're keeping a beady eye on the timing monitors, eager to spot an emerging picture.

But the FCY is over already, speedy work from the marshals.

The FCY also arrived during a bunch of GT3 stops, so let's wait for things to settle...