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WEC 24 Hours of Le Mans

Le Mans 24 Hours race day

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The #48 IDEC Sport and #39 Graff So24 Racing ORECAs have become the first two pit-callers of each cycle, and both begin their eighth sequence of pitstops on lap 77 from fourth and fifth places.
SMP driver Stephane Sarrazin reckons it's pretty equal between his BRE and the Rebellion. He thinks the R-13 is quicker in the fast stuff and the BR1 has an advantage on the brakes.
Now the latest round of GTE Am stops has shaken out, Campbell's lead over Griffin is back out to more than two minutes.
Alonso stops and hands the car over to Nakajima, fitting him with new tyres.
As expected, Vaxiviere is setting a very good pace aboard the #28 TDS Oreca. He's 3m10 off the lead, having taken 20s out of race-leader Rusinov in the last four laps.
The #98 Aston, the #67 Ford and the #44 Eurasia Ligier have all been handed drive through penalties for overtaking before the end of the safety car procedure.
Senna brings the Rebellion in to hand over to Jani, with new tyres fitted and returns to the track in fifth.
Lopez has also made a stop, as has the #3 Rebellion of Menezes.
Nakajima has now got a 6s lead over Lopez following the #7 driver's stop.
Van der Zande's currently in eighth with 10s to reel in to catch Thiriet in the LMP2 Signatech Alpine - seventh overall.
Change for third in GTE Pro; the Rothmans-liveried Porsche of Lietz is back ahead of Bamber's rather more lacklustre-looking 911 RSR.
Lopez, who's been in the #7 Toyota for around three hours, is still around 5s behind Nakajima's #8 car.
Besides runaway leader Estre, Felix da Costa is one of the quickest cars in GTE Pro right now. He's just sliced ahead of Joey Hand's Ford for sixth in class, with Giovinazzi's Ferrari next on his hit-list.
The LMP2 leader is in the pits. Rusinov takes on fuel in the G-Drive ORECA but no tyres and rejoins with plenty in hand over the Panis-Barthez Competition Ligier.
That Rusinov stop will help Van der Zande get back to the LMP1 runners, he's less than 20s off the LMP2 leader in sixth place overall.
Nakajima's lead in the #8 Toyota is holding at a stable five seconds.
Alonso's total stint time was two hours and 43 minutes, meaning he has driven slightly longer than Buemi did in the opening stint.
The second-placed LMP2 runner of Buret in the Panis-Barthez Competition Ligier has pitted.
Overall standings, as the gap goes up a little bit between the two leaders

Overall standings, as the gap goes up a little bit between the two leaders

Van der Zande has basically taken a straight line through the Dunlop Curve, doing some rallycross, but continues in seventh and six seconds behind the LMP2 leader Rusinov.
The Panis-Barthez Ligier's stop means the #26 G-Drive ORECA now has a lead of almost a minute and a half over the Signatech-Alpine. Rojas is the best part of 40s further back in the IDEC Sport ORECA that started on pole.
Button's laptimes are on a par with the privateer LMP1 hybrids, despite running in last place and 48 laps off the leaders.
No stopping BMW man Felix da Costa, he's just cleared Giovinazzi's Ferrari for fifth in GTE Pro.
Jani's showing why he was a Porsche LMP1 driver, he's just done a 3m21.065 - that's over a second quicker than Orudzhev's last lap in third overall.

The Rebellion driver is in fifth overall and making up ground on the sister car of Beche.
Nakajima's one-lap pace is as impressive as it has been all week. His latest time is a 3m21.853, two seconds quicker than Lopez and helps grow the #8 Toyota's lead to 12.621s.
Fernando Alonso has told us that he is "happy with the start of the 24".

"Both cars are pulling away from the third car - so far it has been a very good start," he added. "We’re leading with a good margin and hopefully we’ll keep this for Toyota."

Alonso revealed that the second change of rear end for the #8 car was to put the original one back on. It was checked for damage and found to be fine. That suggests there might have been a slight difference in aero configuration.
GTE Pro leader Kevin Estre is in the pits. He's got such a huge advantage now (1m40s) that the #92 Porsche should be able to resume in the lead.
Orudzhev's taken the third place SMP Racing BR1 into the pits and handed over to Isaakyan.
Van der Zande's pitted from sixth, there's likely to be some gravel sweeping there at the very least. He has a good reserve in hand compared to the LMP2 runners behind, so he should return in the same position.
Christensen climbs aboard the 'Pink Pig' for his second stint behind the wheel, while Catsburg has pitted the second-place BMW, handing over to ex-DTM champion Martin Tomczyk.
LMP2 polesitter Paul-Loup Chatin has just taken over from Memo Rojas at the wheel of the #48 IDEC Sport ORECA and comes under pressure for his fourth place from Matthieu Vaxiviere, but cleverly uses the tail-end Algarve-Pro Ligier to give himself a breather. In any case, Vaxiviere is due a pitstop soon.
Paul di Resta has just deposed Frits van Eerd to move up to 11th in LMP2, but is still the first car two laps down after repairs to the GPS tracker cost his #22 United Autosports Ligier seven minutes. But for that, that car would be in the thick of the fight.
And that's because Juan-Pablo Montoya has gone straight on and nosed into the tyre wall. He was running eighth a few minutes ago, one lap off the lead in LMP2.
Nakajima pits from the lead and the #8 Toyota has another bodywork change, with Lopez now leading.
We've had a flurry of LMP1 stops - the two Rebelllions and Van der Zande in the DragonSpeed.

No position changes though - although Van der Zande's stop means that was a short stint.

By: Matt Beer

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