Le Mans 24 Hours race day
Live Text
Sort by
Oldest first
Driver Change
In comes Conway, who has handed the leading #7 Toyota over to Jose Maria Lopez.
GTE PRO
Change for the lead in GTE Pro: Makowiecki clears team-mate Vanthoor to put the #91 Rothmans-liveried car, which began on pole, back into the lead.
LMP1
A much quicker stop for the #7 crew compared to the #8 means Lopez has 17s in hand over Alonso.
GTE PRO
Moments later, the 'Pink Pig' hits the pitlane, followed by the Westbrook and Kanaan Fords, Philipp Eng's BMW and Pipo Derani's Ferrari. Expect the rest in next time by.
Twitter
LMP2
Only the top nine are still on the lead lap in LMP2. Pizzitola has carried on where Vergne left off and leads by 1m19s from Negrao, who has already pulled out almost four seconds on Perrodo. Julien Canal resumes fourth in the Panis-Barthez Ligier after taking over from Stevens, with David Heinemeier-Hansson still fifth in the #34 DC Racing Ligier started by Ricky Taylor.
GTE PRO
Alexander Sims reckons BMW is in the mix in GTE Pro after his impressive opening double in the #82 MTEK BMW. "It looks like we're in the race," he says. "I was able to move forward, though I'm not getting carried away after the first couple of hours of the race."
LMP1
Alonso is already down into the low 3m20s by his second flying lap. He's taken a second and a half or so out of Lopez since the #7 emerged from the pits.
LMP1
Sarrazin pits, handing over to Orudzhev. The #17 SMP is still around half a minute behind the third-placed #3 Rebeliion.
Overall standings as the Conway v Buemi battle becomes Lopez v Alonso in the Toyotas
Leaders in LMP2
GTE PRO
Makowiecki emerges from that last round of stops with his recently-acquired GTE Pro lead intact, the Frenchman leading Porsche squadmate Vanthoor by half a second. Bourdais keeps third, seven seconds down the road in the best of the Fords, while Tandy has vaulted up to fourth.
GTE PRO
The loser from that round of stops was Westbrook, who slumps from fourth to seventh behind Farfus - who in turn has taken back the controls of the leading BMW from Felix da Costa.
We had to let the latest stops shake out, but here is the GTE Pro order
Quote
Here's Buemi on his first double stint now he's out of the #8: “I had a massive fuel cut in the last sector, so the #7 passed me, and then the slow zone made us switch again.
"I had maybe one moment, where I went over a bump. I lost the drink system in the middle of the first stint, so I had water everywhere, but that’s been sorted.”
"I had maybe one moment, where I went over a bump. I lost the drink system in the middle of the first stint, so I had water everywhere, but that’s been sorted.”
GTE PRO
Westbrook manages to get back around Farfus at the Dunlop Chicane, aided somewhat by a GTE Am class Ferrari. That puts the #69 Ford back into sixth.
The top six, therefore, is all Porsche and Fords.
The top six, therefore, is all Porsche and Fords.
GTE AM
The GTE Am cars have had their third round of stops, and Andlauer is looking good in the #77 Porsche. He's now 26 seconds up the road from MacNeil's #84 Ferrari.
LMP1
Hedman is back in the pits in the DragonSpeed car. He had dropped 28s off the back of Senna's car when he stopped.
LMP1
The lead gap is a fairly stable 12.5s at the moment.
Further back, the ByKolles car is now up to ninth with Kraihamer at the wheel, with the two Manor-Ginettas both three laps down in 17th (#6) and 20th (#5) overall.
Further back, the ByKolles car is now up to ninth with Kraihamer at the wheel, with the two Manor-Ginettas both three laps down in 17th (#6) and 20th (#5) overall.
LMP1
Sorry, the gap was 12.5s, it's now 7.2s after Alonso went more than 3s faster than Lopez last time around.
Gary Watkins
SMP Racing's prediction that it would be nip and tuck in the privateer P1 battle with Rebellion is playing out. The Rebellions in third and fifth probably have the slight edge over the BRE in fourth, but it is close. Both the R-13 and the BR1 are lapping regularly in the 3m22/23s bracket. 
LMP1
The lead gap drops once more - this time to 4s - as Lopez and Alonso fight their way through traffic. Alonso definitely had the better run there.
Things are closing up at the front between the Toyotas
LMP1
Hedman is now two laps down in the DragonSpeed car and 2m25s back from Senna - although the #10 has made one conventional stop more than Senna's Rebellion. His last lap, in traffic, was a 3m36s - that's 12s slower than Senna managed and 8s off the pace of the ninth-place ByKolles, which is 1m40s back down the road.
LMP2
Pizzitola's lead stood at over 1m20s a few minutes ago, but Negrao has chipped away at it and the gap now stands around 1m15s, with Canal a further 38s back in third. Both are due to make their fifth pitstops soon - Perrodo has already been in from fourth.
Poor effort from one of the Toyota mechanics, who's already fallen asleep. We're only three hours in, and there's still another four hours until the sun sets.
LMP1
Alonso's going to be right with Lopez soon. The gap is now just 1.5s between the two Toyotas.
Pit stop
A purple second sector from Alonso assisted that time gain, but he's since headed for the pits in the #8. Toyota changes the rear of the car for the second time this afternoon, but leaves him on the same set of tyres.
GTE PRO
Makowiecki had been as little as 0.2s ahead in the GTE Pro lead fight, but now he's pulled 1.4s clear of Vanthoor. Bourdais has closed to within 3.4s of the Belgian driver.
Information
Toyota says that rear-end change was for set-up purposes.
Autosport
Need a recap of the last hour's racing? Here you go: 
LMP2
Perrodo continues to slip back down the order - he's just lost fourth position to Vincent Capillaire, who is quietly doing a good job aboard the #39 Graff-So24 ORECA. After his pitlane antics last year, Kazuki Nakajima would rather him be in the car than out of it, one would expect.
LMP1
Orudzhev gets the #17 SMP BR1 moving at the Dunlop chicane. He's doing a decent job at this point in fourth, lapping in the 3m23s and catching the #3 Rebellion by a second or so a lap at the moment.
Yellow flag
Problems out on track, we've go Felipe Nasr in the gravel in the #47 Dallara. Get ready for another slow zone...
Pit stop
In comes Lopez now. The gap between the two Toyotas was a minute, so it's going to be pretty close between the two cars when he rejoins.
LMP1
Lopez does come back out ahead and has 2.8s in hand over Alonso.
GTE PRO
Bit of a wild moment for Tony Kanaan in the #67 Ford at Arnage, he loses ground in the battle for ninth in the GTE Pro class with Jan Magnussen's Corvette.
Pit stop
Rowland has stopped in the leading Manor-Ginetta. He had got the car back up into the top 15 before his visit to the pits.
By: Matt Beer
Published:
Page:
