Le Mans 24 Hours race day
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Pit stop
Alonso is in now, having blitzed sectors two and three on his way to the pits.
Green flag
And we're back to green.
We're allowed to bend the rules during the middle of the night when covering Le Mans live. So here's a picture of Gonzalez during his Champ Car days, because why not (LAT Images)
LMP1
Alonso's closed Lopez's gap down to 1m29.592s.
LMP2
Rusinov takes advantage of the slow zone to come in for his 18th stop. That briefly admits Buret back onto the lead lap in the Panis-Barthez Ligier, but it's only temporary until he comes in for his own stop.
LMP2
It's just popped up on our timing screens, the slow zone is for the DragonSpeed ORECA featuring Pastor Maldonado, which has found it's way into the gravel. Sometime Champ Car backmarker is Roberto Gonzalez is the unfortunate one at the wheel this time.
Slow Zone
We've got a slow zone in place on the Mulsane between the first and second chicanes - not sure yet what it's for.
Seems McLaren forgot to add "following Autosport Live".
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LMP1
There's not much by way of on-track overtaking at present as Lapierre postpones his chase of Buret to pit from third in LMP2. But there is plenty of intrigue unfolding at the front of the pack. From 2m18 behind on lap 171, Alonso has reduced the gap on the #7 Toyota to 1m30.6s by lap 189. He's on it.
That gap is still gradually coming down between the Toyotas during this stint
GTE PRO
Toni Vilander is keeping Ferrari in the hunt in the GTE-Pro ranks in the #52 car, which remember isn't a full-time lineup. It's in fourth place, the last car on the tail of the lead lap, 3m30 off the leading #92 Porsche.
LMP1
3.7s quicker for Alonso this time around! It's a 1m37.073s now in a very impressive stint so far.
LMP1
Alonso is once again over a second quicker than Lopez, he's almost cut the lead to below 1m40s.
GTE PRO
Driver change in the GTE-Pro leading #92 Porsche as in gets Michael Christensen, who looks a bit like 2016 winner Marc Lieb with glasses on under his helmet.
GTE AM
And sure enough, Stolz gets through in sector one. He's got a 1m52s gap to race leader Matt Campbell to close up, so he'd better get a move on!
LMP1
Another Rebellion stop, this time for Bruno Senna. The pressure's off though, the Rebellions are miles behind the Toyotas and miles ahead of the other LMP1 rivals. It even has a two-lap advantage on the LMP2 leader.
But, G-Drive's #26 ORECA line-up has been superb so far.
But, G-Drive's #26 ORECA line-up has been superb so far.
GTE AM
We've got a proper battle in store for second in GTE-Am between the JMW and Keating (read Risi) Ferraris. Cooper MacNeil has been steadily reeled in by Luca Stolz, and it looks like a matter of when, not if.
LMP1
And then responds by going 1.8s faster than Lopez, so the chase is still on.
LMP1
Alonso is lapping slightly slower than Lopez now, but the gap to the leader is still in the 1m40s range.
LMP2
It's not for no reason that Nico Lapierre is a two-time class winner at Le Mans. He was 22s behind Buret when he rejoined, but has already got the gap down to 15s in a matter of laps and is looking the more likely to be in second when the next round of pitstops come around.
And here is the latest on the Porsche 1-2 in the GTE Pro race, which by its own manic standards is relatively sedate at the moment
And now let's see how the LMP2-leading G-Drive entry is getting on against its own competition, where it now leads by a lap
Mukul, you've probably got more energy than we do.
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LMP1
Alonso's now got Lopez's lead down to 1m46.474s, he's proving comfortable in night conditions.
That shows the value of Alonso's attention to detail, he was keen to run in night qualifying even when it was damp.
That shows the value of Alonso's attention to detail, he was keen to run in night qualifying even when it was damp.
Let's run through the race order, starting with the overall top 5, featuring the race-long LMP2 leader
LMP1
We have just seven of the 10 LMP1 cars left and four lock out the top four spots.
It's definitely a race of attrition, rather than outright speed. Unless you're a Toyota. Turns out hybrid power in a car developed over several years is fairly handy. Who knew?
It's definitely a race of attrition, rather than outright speed. Unless you're a Toyota. Turns out hybrid power in a car developed over several years is fairly handy. Who knew?
LMP2
Pleased to report that Patterson has made it back to the pits in the Algarve-Pro Ligier, although a GT Ferrari had to take avoiding action on the inside of the right-hander where Isaakyan came a cropper earlier on.
LMP1
Nope, it's been retired. Only one Manor-Ginetta left.
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LMP2
We've had a change for second in LMP2. Julien Canal has hopped out of the Panis-Barthez Ligier, with Timothe Buret taking over and emerging with a 21s lead over Lapierre's Signatech-Alpine.
LMP1
There's still plenty of work going on with Rowland#s #6 Manor-Ginetta, so there's hope yet that it can rejoin the track.
LMP1
Hanley has cleared the GTE Pro traffic and is now 24th overall. He's got around 6s to find to pass the bottom LMP2 runner.
LMP1
We somehow doubt we'll get a repeat of that breathtaking Alonso v Lopez battle through the traffic on the Mulsanne, but it would be appreciated in keeping us all on our toes.
Information
For those of you worried about the cake situation, it's all been sorted - just a little bit of Marzipan debris to bare witness to what happened. Green flags are waving again in the Media Centre.
Pit stop
Conway's in from the lead for a change of tyres and a top up of fuel and he hands the car over to Lopez.
Staying awake isn't the easiest at this time of night, as the TV cameras have a penchant for showing sleeping mechanics.
Pit stop
Alonso has pitted, with Conway's lead just under two minutes still.
LMP2
Speaking of incidents, gentleman driver Mark Patteron has had a spin in the Algarve-Pro Ligier at Mulsanne Corner. He's got it going again, but is trailing slowly back towards Indianapolis.
By: Matt Beer
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