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WEC 24 Hours of Le Mans

Le Mans 24 Hours Live Commentary and Updates

Updates and live commentary throughout the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

#8 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 - Hybrid Hypercar, Sébastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima, Brendon Hartley

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GTE Am: Sure enough, the Kessel car's demise is a gift for TF which brings Pereira in. After Nielsen pitted under green a short while ago, that will mitigate the time loss for the Dutch driver, who trailed prior to this most recent round of stops.
LMP2: Not wishing to tempt fate but you've got to say Team WRT have put in the near-perfect performance coming up to complete the opening 10 hours of this race. The #31 car remains in the class lead with a 1m37s gap to sister #41 car. Both the #65 Panis Racing and #22 United Autosports USA cars remain on the lead lap in class and well in contention, mind.
LMP2: The #22 United Autosports USA driven by Hanson has climbed up the back of ex-F1 driver Stevens in the #65 Panis Racing. Will they aim to work together to reel in the two Team WRTs that are a couple of minutes up the road, or will they battle it out for P3 in class? Probably only one answer to that.
GTE Am: The demise of Kessel has laid out the prospect of a three-way scrap for fifth. Barnicoat currently occupies the position in the Inception Ferrari, but has Paolo Ruberti's #60 Iron Lynx machine (remember, the one that had the lurid spin into the first chicane a while back?) and Evans in the #77 Proton Porsche not far behind.
GTE Am: And as we type,  the timing screens say Ruberti has taken fifth from Barnicoat in the car that had two right-rear punctures earlier, plus a clash with Sam Bird's #52 Pro Ferrari when Brendan Iribe turned in on him at the Ford chicane.
GTE Pro: The most recent round of stops have shaken up the order a bit. The #51 Ferrari still has Pier Guidi at the wheel, but has now rejoined behind the #63 Corvette to the tune of 7.9s. Serra meanwhile is just 2s behind the #51 car after the slow puncture it suffered earlier.
LMH: The #708 Glickenhaus made a slow pit exit initially but is back up and running at its regular pace now. Pla had briefly dropped down to P6 overall behind the Team WRT LMP2 cars, but the French driver has already regained one spot from Ye in the #41 car.
GTE Pro: We're still under a slow zone, but as soon as the cars exit Tertre Rouge they're free to get on the gas and go. That's exactly what Daniel Serra does in the #52 Ferrari - he catches Pier Guidi napping and snatches second place from his team-mate.
LMH: The evidence of how well the #31 Team WRT car has been running is demonstrated every time it pinches third place overall from the Alpine and the Glickenhaus. As Negrao pits in the #36 and it shuffles the LMP2 leader back on to the overall podium. Long way to go, but an LMP2 on the overall podium is still a decent possibility if others hit trouble.
It's not exactly clear why we've still got a slow zone entering the Tetre Rouge area where the Kessel Am Ferrari broke down, as the car has long since been cleared. Perhaps some oil on track?
GTE Am: The top three in GTE Am are in a different postcode to the rest at the moment. The #83 AF Nielsen Ferrari continues to lead the #33 TF Pereira Aston by around 40s, with the #80 Iron Lynx Cressoni Ferrari just under two minutes further back. Then it's over two minutes back to the #54 AF Ferrari, with Francesco Castellacci at the wheel.
Pit stop
LMH: Over team radio Toyota has reported a refuelling issue but "only this stop" as Buemi dives into the pits for a refill for the #8 car.
GTE Pro: It appears Pier Guidi didn't much like that move from Serra - the Italian has got his revenge and retaken second.
GTE Pro: In fact a little over four seconds is all that currently separates the top three cars, with Pier Guidi and Serra now working to try and close the gap down the Taylor's #63 Corvette. At this stage, it looks like those are the three to watch.
LMP2: It is time for the top five in class pitlane stampede. Milesi has jumped into the leading #31 Team WRT taking over from Frijns, but the team is able to retain the lead as none of its rivals can get the jump in the pits.
GTE Pro: Pier Guidi is now within a second of Taylor in the battle for the class lead. But no DRS here, he'll have to do it the old fashioned way.
Crash
GTE Pro: Looks like MacNeil has had a prang in the WeatherTech car. Takes too much kerb on the way into the Ford Chicane which spits him into the wall on the left-hand side.
Pit stop
LMH: Pole master Kobayashi has entered the fray, as he takes over from Conway in the leading #7 Toyota which gets a full service before returning to the action.
GTE Pro: It's a hefty whack for MacNeil, who manages to bring the car back to the pits, but there's a lot of damage there and it will need to be wheeled back into the garage. It was just about hanging onto the tail end of the lead lap, but those already faint hopes have surely been dashed now.
GTE Pro: While that excitement was happening, Pier Guidi did indeed take the lead away from Taylor, so Ferrari are again back in the class lead. That's something we've said an awful lot in the race so far.
GTE Pro: For the first time since about the opening lap, HubAuto is about to move off the foot of the leaderboard with the demise of WeatherTech's car. I'd be surprised if that comes out of the garage any time soon.
GTE Am: The ebb-and-flow battle over fifth is currently headed by Evans in the #77 Proton Porsche. Remember, it used up two of Christian Ried's stints early doors, but that didn't pay off as it lost a lot of time in the wet early on and hasn't been able to fully recover its deficit to the leaders since.
LHM: The #7 Toyota only leads by 4.2s from the sister car but the #8 will be due to stop earlier. But, and what is telling, is the unlucky #7 car cannot put distance into its lead. Yet.
GTE Am: Behind Evans in sixth currently is Barnicoat's Inception Ferrari, while Raffaele Giammaria is 16s behind him. My favourite Giammaria fact is that he qualified on the front row for the final-ever Formula 3000 race at Monza in 2004, going on to finish fourth.
GTE Pro: Serra's job aboard the #52 Ferrari is done for the time being. He hops out and in steps Bird to take over.
GTE Pro: Perhaps we were a bit quick in dismissing the credentials of the WeatherTech Porsche as unfixable. There's a lot of work going on down in the Proton camp to get it back out again.
Stopwatch
LMP2: The #22 United Autosports USA car, currently driven by Hanson, is making solid progress from third place in class. Ye is 55s up the road but has made one fewer pitstops despite the cars being on the same cycle for the time being. But just like that, Ye puts in the #41's fastest lap of the race with a 3m33.257s to pull out the gap.
GTE Pro: Freshly installed in the #52 car, Bird will have new tyres and want to make the most of them. Trouble is, he's stuck behind Christensen's #92 Porsche - which remember was fighting to get past Bird earlier on with Jani at the wheel before it lost time needing to make stops in quick succession and then to safety cars. Bird will need to get a wiggle on and get into some clean air sharpish if he's to keep pace with the #51 Ferrari and #63 Corvette.
GTE Am: You want more Raffaele Giammaria facts? We'll give you more Raffaele Giammaria facts. Did you know that he lost the 2000 Formula Renault Italy 2.0 title on countback to Felipe Massa? Failing to convert pole in the Valencia finale, ending up third as Massa won, proved crucial in the title outcome.
Stopwatch
LMH: The fight for the final podium spot is still finely poised, as Pla in the #708 Glickenhaus puts in the car's fastest lap of the race of 3m30.898s. Pla is 26.4s behind Negrao in the #36 Alpine.
Incidentally, that Formula Renault Italy race was Glickenhaus driver Ryan Briscoe's car racing debut. He finished fourth on that day.
 
GTE Pro: Taylor comes in for a fuel-only stop and rejoins second, still ahead of Christensen who is keeping Bird at bay. The Dane might be on Corvette boss Laura Klauser's christmas card list if he keeps up this good work.
GTE Pro: The latest word from Porsche is that the WeatherTech car "probably cannot be repaired". This feels like a soap opera that could drag on and on.
GTE Pro: Bird has now got through past Christensen into third, but has a 21s deficit to make up against Taylor in the scrap for second.
LMH: The #708 Glickenhaus pits to briefly drop behind the LMP2 Team WRT duo on the road, while a lap later the #36 Alpine also pits, very much on cue, to keep position. As you were.
GTE Am: Nielsen has been very effective once again in this race in building his advantage, which currently stands at around a minute over Pereira, the Silver in the TF Aston. The big question is, when will we next see their respective Bronzes?
LMP2: Pitlane cameras pitch to the #49 High Class Racing pitstop as Jan Magnussen gets ready for his night stint taking over from Anders Fjordbach. The team, which also has Kevin Magnussen in it, is currently 23rd in class after an earlier off.

By: Loris Capirossi

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