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WEC
24 Hours of Le Mans
The 79th Le Mans 24 Hours
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15h53m Lotterer is consistently under the 3m30s bracket now as his relentless chase of the two leading Peugeots continues.
15h55m The #73 Corvette comes in from third place in GTE Pro. Antonio Garcia climbs out and Olivier Beretta takes another turn behind the wheel. He rejoins the fight.
15h56m Al Faisal remains stranded in the #88 Porsche after that earlier off at Indianapolis and is phoning a friend - or the team perhaps.
15h56m Lotterer's pace has dropped off just slightly with a 3m32s lap the last time around. The gap between the #2 Audi and the two leading Peugeots is 37 seconds.
15h57m That slower lap was probably traffic-induced. Lotterer is back under 3m30s and the chase resumes.
15h58m Car #48 - the Team Oreca Matmut entry - has now officially retired from the race.
15h59m Bourdais responds with a new fastest lap of his own, but Lotterer comes straight back at him with 3m26.298s. This is turning into a qualifying battle!
16h00m The top three are now covered by 31 seconds, as we reach two-thirds distance in the Le Mans 24 hours.
16h03m They complete lap 227 and the frantic pace continues. Both the leading #9 Peugeot (Bourdais) and third placed #2 (Lotterer) set identical lap times - 3m26.298s!
16h04m Everyone in the pits who was asleep is now wide awake as the reality of the situation dawns. The top three are covered by just 35 seconds.
16h05m The leader pits and Bourdais hits his marks. In fact all three 908s come in for service.
16h05m The #2 Audi flashes by and takes over the lead of the race.
16h06m No driver changes for any of the Peugeot entries and they join the racetrack en masse.
16h07m The #73 Corvette has gone straight on and gently nosed into the tyres at Arnage.
16h07m Beretta was third in GTE Pro and he is trying to reverse the car back onto the circuit, in order to get away again.
16h09m Meantime, the situation changes at the front now. The hunter becomes the hunted and Lotterer will need to stay on it in a bid to keep a good gap to the two chasing Peugeots.
16h10m The pace is amazing as Lotterer posts another new fastest lap of the race - 3m25.289s at the completion of lap 229.
16h12m Nicolas Lapierre pits the #10 Oreca Matmut Peugeot and is currently seventh in the classification, 10 laps down.
16h13m The leader pits and Lotterer brings the #2 Audi in at the end of a superb stint. It's a quick stop, fuel only and he's away again.
16h15m Sebastien Bourdais retakes the lead in the #9 Peugeot.
16h16m The #88 Felbermayr Porsche has now been abandoned following Al Faisal's incident a short while ago.
16h18m Up front, the #9 Peugeot leads the #7 sister car by 12 seconds, with Lotterer now 32 seconds back - more or less the same gap as before the latest round of stops.
16h19m The #81 leading entry in GTE Am runs wide and Seth Neiman takes a trip through the gravel.
16h20m Neiman is able to rejoin in the Flying Lizard Motorsports Porsche, but there is definitely some fluid leaking from the rear of the car.
16h22m With the GTE Am leader limping back into the pits, its rivals take the opportunity to come in as well and battle is resumed.
16h23m Fresh rubber goes on the #81 after its smokey off and the car heads out with Spencer Pumpelly at the controls.
16h24m The #50 Larbre Competition Chevrolet Corvette goes back into the lead of GTE Am for the first time in around four hours.
16h25m Dirk Werner pits the #55 BMW from fifth place in GTE Pro.
16h26m Meanwhile, at the front of the race Sebastien Bourdais continues to hold the lead. He is 15 seconds clear of the #7 Peugeot, with Lotterer now just 29 seconds back in the #2 Audi.
16h28m Gardel took the lead for Larbre Competition in the GTE Am category, but he has since pitted the #50, handing first place back to the #81 Flying Lizard Porsche.
16h29m The #81 is timed at just 1.5s ahead of the #50 as the battle hots up in GTE Am.
16h30m The #81 and #50 are side by side racing for the lead in GTE Am.
16h31m GTE Am grabs the spotlight as Pumpely and Gardel flash across the line covered by no more than one second.
16h33m But there's big news up front - Lotterer is now just eight seconds behind Gene in the #7 Peugeot. The top three are now covered by 26 seconds.
16h34m Sebastien Bourdais in the #9 holds an 18 second lead over Marc Gene, with Lotterer closing fast.
16h36m Gabriele Gardel has passed Spencer Pumpelly to take over the lead in GTE Am, as Larbre Competition surges to the front.
16h37m Contact between two cars and critically one of them is a Corvette. They were running first and third in GTE Pro.
16h38m It's the leader of GTE Pro! The #74 is in the gravel!
16h38m The safety car has been deployed.
16h39m The other car is the #63 Proton Competition Porsche, with Christian Reid at the wheel. We have yet to see how the incident occurred.
By: Emlyn Hughes, Geoff Creighton, Simon Strang
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