Le Mans 24 Hours practice and first qualifying
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LMP1
Buemi has taken over the #8 Toyota from Alonso. That car has completed 47 laps in this session - more than any other LMP1 contender.
LMP1
Slow moment for the #1 Rebellion coming out of the pits, but Senna gets going and takes to the track. That's five LMP1 cars out on track at the moment, with a bit under half an hour to go here.
LMP1
Button is back out again in the SMP BR1.
LMP2
The Larbre Ligier is off and back on with Dagoneau at the wheel.
LMP1
Kobayashi heads out on track again, meaning four of the 10 P1s are out there. He Alonso in the sister car, Isaakyan and Lotterer.
GTE AM
There's a slow zone starting on the Mulsanne Straight. Yoluc in the TF Aston has gone off at Mulsanne Corner.
GTE AM
The #85 Keating Ferrari has been given a five-minute stop-go for abusing track limits. Le Mans rookie Luca Stolz is in the car at the minute.
LMP1
One of the pitstops being completed by the #7 Toyota is currently being investigated.
Meanwhile, Laurent has now made his way back to the pits and is wheeled back into the garage.
Meanwhile, Laurent has now made his way back to the pits and is wheeled back into the garage.
LMP1
Race control has removed the yellow flag, with Laurent back on track.
Information
With less than an hour of the session remaining, here's a quick look at how things stand class-by-class:
LMP1: The order has largely settled down, with the #7 Toyota still the only car to lap below 3m20s with its 3m19.626s benchmark. Menezes has since moved the Rebellion Racing car to second ahead of the #11 SMP Racing of Petrov, though that lap was set by Aleshin. The second Toyota is now fourth in the hands of Nakajima.
LMP2: ORECAs remain in command in LMP2, but Paul-Loup Chatin's early benchmark of 3m27.054s aboard the #48 IDEC Sport car remains the quickest so far. Compatriot Andrea Pizzitola is the closest to toppling the Frenchman in the #26 G-Drive machine, 0.278s behind, with Loic Duval back aboard the #28 TDS Racing entry, ahead of Tristan Gommendy's #39 Graff-So24.
GTE Pro: Porsche still holds sway, with its retro-liveried #92 and #91 cars split by just 0.049s at the head of the times. But its rivals have closed the gap, with Olivier Pla putting the #66 Ford within six tenths of Laurens Vanthoor’s class benchmark to take third and Miguel Molina jumping to fourth in the best of the AF Corse Ferraris.
GTE Am: The Dempsey-Proton car has usurped fellow Porsche squad Gulf Racing at the top, with Matteo Cairoli undercutting Ben Barker’s previous best time by nearly a full second. The sister Dempsey-Proton car and the Project 1 machine make it an all-Porsche top four, and the Spirit of Race Ferrari is the best of the rest.
LMP1: The order has largely settled down, with the #7 Toyota still the only car to lap below 3m20s with its 3m19.626s benchmark. Menezes has since moved the Rebellion Racing car to second ahead of the #11 SMP Racing of Petrov, though that lap was set by Aleshin. The second Toyota is now fourth in the hands of Nakajima.
LMP2: ORECAs remain in command in LMP2, but Paul-Loup Chatin's early benchmark of 3m27.054s aboard the #48 IDEC Sport car remains the quickest so far. Compatriot Andrea Pizzitola is the closest to toppling the Frenchman in the #26 G-Drive machine, 0.278s behind, with Loic Duval back aboard the #28 TDS Racing entry, ahead of Tristan Gommendy's #39 Graff-So24.
GTE Pro: Porsche still holds sway, with its retro-liveried #92 and #91 cars split by just 0.049s at the head of the times. But its rivals have closed the gap, with Olivier Pla putting the #66 Ford within six tenths of Laurens Vanthoor’s class benchmark to take third and Miguel Molina jumping to fourth in the best of the AF Corse Ferraris.
GTE Am: The Dempsey-Proton car has usurped fellow Porsche squad Gulf Racing at the top, with Matteo Cairoli undercutting Ben Barker’s previous best time by nearly a full second. The sister Dempsey-Proton car and the Project 1 machine make it an all-Porsche top four, and the Spirit of Race Ferrari is the best of the rest.
Information
Laurent has been asked by race control to use reverse gear.
Yellow flag
Not so good news for Laurent, though, as he has stopped out on track.
LMP1
Kobayashi is on an outlap in the leading #7 Toyota, while Laurent is currently circulating in the second place Rebellion.
GTE AM
There's also been a change at the top of GTE Am, with the #88 Dempsey-Proton Porsche having gone almost a full second up on the #86 Gulf car.
GTE PRO
More changes in GTE Pro. Makowiecki has just put the #91 Porsche within 0.049s of Vanthoor's benchmark, while Pla now has the #66 Ford up to third, six tenths back and fractionally clear of the #71 Ferrari.
LMP1
It's been a troubled session for the Manor-Ginettas, but the #5 car does have a respectable time of 3m25.203s on the board. That's enough for ninth (and slowest of all LMP1 excepts for its sister car), but the car is within six seconds of the leading Toyota.
GTE PRO
Just as we write that, Frederic Makowiecki makes it a Porsche 1-2 again with a 3m51.173s in the Rothmans-liveried #91 car, three tenths off the pace set by the #92 'Pink Pig' machine.
GTE PRO
Ferrari finally busts the GTE Pro Ford-Porsche cartel, as Miguel Molina goes second on a 3m51.521s in the #71 Ferrari. A couple of other changes too, as Olivier Pla sets a new best in the #66 Ford GT to take over as the Blue Oval's top representative in fifth.
LMP1
The #8 Toyota gets baulked by the Algarve LMP2 car on the run through the Ford chicane, but quickly moves past on the exit.
LMP2
And as we post that, Andrea Pizzitola goes second in the #26 G-Drive machine, becoming the second man to dip under the 3m28s mark.
LMP2
We've had very little by way of change in the LMP2 class, as ORECAs continue to monopolise the top seven positions on the leaderboard. Although Senagiotto made it back to the pits in the #47 Dallara, the car has not returned to the track since it's puncture.
LMP1
While Turvey completed a lap - the car's sixth of the day - in a time of 4m06.812s, the sister Manor-Ginetta car of Mike Simpson has yet to add to its two completed so far.
LMP2
We've still not had anything on our screens to shed any light on what happened at Indianapolis, but the #37 Jeffri car still appears to be stuck out on track.
LMP1
A bit of traffic management for Nakajima there, who makes simple work of the Corvette driven by Antonio Garcia.
The popular retro-liveried 'Pink Pig' Porsche in the pits (Credit: Motorsport Images)
Yellow flag
Looks like we've got a few cars off in the gravel at Indianapolis. Matevos Isaakyan in the #17 SMP Racing BRE and Nabil Jeffri's #37 Jackie Chan DC Racing Oreca are both listed as being stopped on the timing screens.
LMP1
Turvey brings his short track time to an end after an installation run.
LMP1
Lotterer has returned to the wheel of the #1 Rebellion, which is currently seventh in class.
LMP2
We're back to green and not a moment too soon for Filipe Albuquerque in the #22 United Autosport Ligier, who duly lays down a perfect-10 powerslide exiting the Dunlop Chicane.
LMP1
Oliver Turvey is on track in the #6 Manor-Ginetta machine.
Slow Zone
Wainwright's car has been dug out of the gravel and put back on track, so we should be back to green in a minute.
GTE AM
Another off for Michael Wainwright, who spins the GTE Am-leading Gulf Racing Porsche at the Dunlop chicane. Time for another slow zone.
LMP1
That electrical issue had sidelined the Manor-Ginetta cars for the majority of the two and a half hours run so far.
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Autosport
"You can call that paranoia, engineers call it risk analysis". Here are the lengths Toyota has gone to this year to try to prepare its crew for any unfortunate situation at Le Mans this year: 
LMP1
Jani, who's seventh in class, has continued.
GTE AM
Olivier Beretta is a six-times class-winner at Le Mans, but not even the Monegasque has escaped the ire of race control. He's been ordered to turn the lights on his #70 MR Racing Ferrari.
LMP1
Jani has pulled off to the left-hand side of the track right on the approach to the start-finish line.
Replays show it was a spin for the former Porsche LMP1 ace.
Replays show it was a spin for the former Porsche LMP1 ace.
By: Matt Beer
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