Le Mans 24 Hours Live Commentary and Updates

Nielsen is giving Buemi a real workover in the battle for third. Fresher tyres on that #50 Ferrari are really paying dividends here, as Buemi is running on rubber that had already completed a stint with Hirakawa at the wheel.

Time for a bit of housekeeping. The #31 WRT BMW is now listed as a retirement after its rabbit strike earlier. 

Lietz has been into the pits and returns to the track still in second, now with a minute in hand over Tom van Rompuy, the bronze in TF Sport's #81 Corvette. Rovera we expect will be in shortly.

Rovera pits from the LMGT3 lead and stays in the car, while a fresh set of Goodyears are bolted on. Rovera stays ahead, but finds the run-off as he rejoins with Yelloly's LMP2 machine down his inside. However, Lietz is stuck behind Ben Keating's Corvette and isn't able to take advantage.

It turns out that Rovera didn't stay in, Francois Heriau is now aboard the leading LMGT3 Ferrari. He's the bronze in that car, so once the track returns to green you would expect Lietz to quickly make inroads.

A tractor comes to retrieve Frey from the gravel and point the Porsche back in the right direction. Hopefully we will resume racing before too long.

Frey is back on the road, and we have been informed by race control that the race will resume imminently.

The lead battle has closed up too through the FCY. Hanson is only half a second ahead of Calado. This could get spicy before too long. 

Calado has slightly more virtual energy in his tank, 81% to Hanson's 73%, so can give this a good go. And he does, getting ahead into Indianapolis. Minimal resistance offered by Hanson, as Calado returns Ferrari #51 to the front.

Change of position for eighth meanwhile as Frijns takes Conway into Indianapolis. Estre meanwhile has been into the pits and rejoins in fifth, ahead of Nato, having been the other way around before the most recent stops.

Unsurprisingly, the contact at the second Mulsanne Chicane concerning Rahel Frey and Clemens Schmid will be investigated by the stewards. A penalty surely incoming for the Austrian, who currently sits sixth in the LMGT3 class aboard the #87 Lexus. Here's what happened.

Nielsen lost a bit of time in the pits at his last stop, but has now clawed his way back onto the tail of Buemi in the battle for third. The pair are line astern, although Nielsen has the distraction of Neel Jani's Proton Porsche (two laps adrift) on fresh tyres filling his mirrors.

The Swiss is fiddling with the dials and knobs on the dashboard. She does get the car moving again, but is crawling back to the pits for what is likely to be a lengthy repair job.

An expected drive-through penalty for Schmid in the #87 Lexus. He has just passed team-mate Arnold Robin in the #78 machine for fourth, but will drop back possibly two or more places with Klaus Bachler in the #90 Manthey Porsche and Mattia Drudi's HoR Aston not far behind.

Nine hours to go at Le Mans, and although we've not mentioned it for a while, the LMP2 fight is hotting up. Nick Yelloly has just set the best lap to date for the #43 Inter Europol ORECA and is 11.9s behind leader Esteban Masson. 

As a new left-hand door goes on the #10 Aston Martin, it's time for a fresh pair of hands on the tiller. Here's Ewan Gale to take you through the next three hours of action. Over to you. 

Cheers James! Well, when I clocked off for the night, darkness had descended, but the plum June spot for this race means it's already light, which is handy for car spotting! The #50 Ferrari just got badly hampered by traffic while hunting down the #8 Toyota which will have annoyed current driver Nielsen.

It never ceases to amaze how the race complexion can change through the night, even after a relatively clean first quarter of the race. For those just waking up, penalties really were the name of the game for much of the night as well as a safety car after an incident for the #24 Nielsen LMP2 entry at Tertre Rouge, which in Hypercar at least has brought Ferrari's rivals back into the fight.

In LMP2, the #48 VDS Panis car has just made a pitstop and returned to the circuit ahead of the #9 and leaving the #43 out in the class lead.

Make that third for the #48 as the Iron Lynx-Proton entry gets through as Franck Perera navigates his outlap. The #43 pits at the end of its next lap from the lead.

Confirmation that the #18 IDEC entry that was driven by Andre Lotterer at the time of its troubles earlier in the morning is now a retirement. Hardly surprising.

That makes nine cars out, six of which, surprisingly, are LMGT3s.

No tyre change for Ferrari but softs going on three corners for the Toyota - a medium rear-left tyre also bolted on.

A tardy stop from the Japanese crew though as the #50's considerably shorter stop gets it out ahead.

The second-placed #83 is in the pits for its latest service, as are the top two on the road in LMGT3.

Trouble is brewing for three of the top four in Hypercar as the leading #51, the #83 and the #8 are all under investigation for infringements during yellow flags when Frey and the Iron Dames machine hit strife a short while ago.

Andlauer has been out for nine laps and thus has his #5 on warm, used tyres compared to Buemi's fresh tyres just in front and the Porsche is now an unwelcome issue as the Toyota battles for temperature on its initial exploration for grip. That won't last with less than three laps left on the energy meter for the Porsche though.

The gap at the front is just half a second, with 15 seconds back to the #6 Porsche and a further 30 seconds back to the #50.

17 cars are being investigated for the yellow flag procedures during the Iron Dames recovery earlier, including the LMGT3-leading #92 and fourth in LMP2. 

A really fun battle in the LMP2 field sees the #22 United Autosports car get past the Pro-Am Inter Europol #34.

Good move from Pietro Fittipaldi on Luca Ghiotto at Mulsanne Corner as the #6 Porsche pits from third in Hypercar and Laurens Vanthoor returns to the wheel.

The #311 is changing brakes as a precaution and has therefore been wheeled into the garage. That will drop it back to last of the 20 remaining Hypercars.

Some really good battles in Hypercar as the sun continues to rise: Peugeot vs Alpine for 14th is the closest as Milesi chases Jakobsen.

The #009 Aston Martin is having a fine race so far and is closing on the back of both drivers, though only after having to go around the roundabout following an error at Mulsanne Corner.

A decent first stint from Perera in the #48 VDS Panis car, which pits from second in LMP2. 

Meanwhile, the Peugeot and Alpine go side-by-side down to Indianapolis! It looked like Milesi had the job done, but clever car positioning from Jakobsen boxes the #35 behind the LMGT3 traffic to keep the place.

The #51 has established a bit more of a lead over the #83, gapping the sister car to 2.2s.

The #6 being off-sync with its pitstop strategy has left Ferrari with a 1-2-3 again, albeit with two of its three under investigation.

Traffic finally does for the #94 Peugeot as the Alpine pounces into the Porsche Curves, only for the #35 to box at the end of the lap. New tyres will go on for Milesi.