Le Mans 24 Hours: #7 Toyota in control ahead of Audi - hour 8
Kazuki Nakajima extended Toyota's lead of the Le Mans 24 Hours over the chasing Audi through the eighth hour
Nakajima gained a dozen or so seconds aboard the #7 Toyota TS040 HYBRID to go 1m57s clear of the Audi R18 e-tron quattro of Marcel Fassler
Marc Gene in third place held the gap to team-mate Fassler stationary at around 1m16s, while Mark Webber, a lap down in fourth, continued to lose ground in the Porsche 919 Hybrid.
The delayed #8 Toyota moved up to seventh place ahead of the LMP2 leaders over the course of the hour.
Jann Mardenborough continues to lead LMP2 in the G-Drive-branded OAK Ligier JSP2.
He leads the TDS Racing-run example of Tristan Gommendy by just over a minute, with Frank Mailleux a further 40 seconds back in the #34 Race Performance ORECA-Judd/BMW.
The #47 KCMG ORECA has been officially retired following Alexander Imperatori's earlier crash on the run out of the Porsche Curves, while the #48 Murphy Prototypes ORECA is again in trouble after stopping on track with a steering problem.
Aston Martin consolidated its lead at the top of the GTE classes, as Vantages continued to dominate each of the Pro and Am divisions.
Darren Turner dropped behind the AF Corse Ferrari of Giancarlo Fisichella early into the eighth hour but took the class lead back with a classy move into the first Mulsanne chicane.
The Briton then extended his advantage as Fisichella struggled with his 458 Italia's handling on the second stint of one set of tyres, before the Italian moved aside for compatriot Gianmaria Bruni.
That pitstop elevated Oliver Gavin and Corvette back into second, having dropped to third when the C7.R was fitted with new tyres when Richard Westbrook was replaced by his fellow Briton.
The Am-class Vantages continued to control the fourth division, with Pedro Lamy in control ahead of Nicki Thiim. Andrea Bertolini is third as the SMP Ferrari 458 Italia continues to pose the biggest threat to the Astons' dominance.
POSITIONS AFTER 8 HOURS Pos Cl Car Drivers Laps Gap 1. LMP1 #7 Toyota Wurz/Sarrazin/Nakajima 119 2. LMP1 #2 Audi Fassler/Lotterer/Treluyer 119 + 1m58.899s 3. LMP1 #1 Audi Di Grassi/Gene/Kristensen 118 + 1 Lap 4. LMP1 #20 Porsche Bernhard/Webber/Hartley 117 + 2 Laps 5. LMP1 #12 Rebellion Prost/Heidfeld/Beche 114 + 5 Laps 6. LMP1 #14 Porsche Dumas/Jani/Lieb 114 + 10.108s 7. LMP1 #8 Toyota Davidson/Lapierre/Buemi 110 + 9 Laps 8. LMP2 #35 Ligier Brundle/Mardenborough/Shulzhitskiy 110 + 7.150s 9. LMP2 #46 Ligier Thiriet/Badey/Gommendy 110 + 1m11.487s 10. LMP2 #34 Oreca Frey/Mailleux/Lancaster 110 + 1m45.451s 11. LMP2 #36 Alpine Chatin/Panciatici/Webb 110 + 2m00.205s 12. LMP2 #26 Morgan Rusinov/Pla/Canal 109 + 10 Laps 13. LMP2 #38 Zytek Dolan/Tincknell/Turvey 109 + 2m42.828s 14. LMP2 #24 Oreca Rast/Charouz/Capillaire 109 + 3m02.054s 15. LMP2 #43 Morgan Klien/Hirsch/Brandela 108 + 11 Laps 16. LMP2 #33 Ligier Cheng/Tung/Fong 107 + 12 Laps 17. LMP2 #50 Morgan Ragues/Taylor/Ihara 106 + 13 Laps 18. GTEP #97 Aston Turner/Mucke/Senna 105 + 14 Laps 19. GTEP #74 Chevrolet Gavin/Milner/Westbrook 105 + 17.181s 20. GTEP #51 Ferrari Bruni/Vilander/Fisichella 105 + 19.522s 21. GTEP #92 Porsche Holzer/Makowiecki/Lietz 105 + 2m00.203s 22. GTEP #91 Porsche Pilet/Bergmeister/Tandy 104 + 15 Laps 23. GTEA #98 Aston Dalla Lana/Lamy/Nygaard 104 + 1m02.917s 24. GTEP #73 Chevrolet Magnussen/Garcia/Taylor 104 + 3m55.983s 25. GTEA #95 Aston Poulsen/Heinemeier-Hansson/Thiim 104 + 3m57.058s 26. GTEA #72 Ferrari Bertolini/Shaitar/Basov 103 + 16 Laps 27. LMP2 #29 Morgan Schell/Leutwiller/Roussel 103 + 17.821s 28. GTEA #88 Porsche Ried/Bachler/Al Qubaisi 103 + 2m07.350s 29. GTEA #61 Ferrari Perez-Companc/Cioci/Venturi 102 + 17 Laps 30. GTEA #77 Porsche Dempsey/Foster/Long 102 + 19.768s 31. GTEA #90 Ferrari Montecalvo/Roda/Ruberti 102 + 53.029s 32. LMP2 #42 Zytek Kimber-Smith/McMurry/Dyson 102 + 1m24.054s 33. GTEA #57 Ferrari Krohn/Jonsson/Collins 102 + 3m19.865s 34. GTEA #70 Ferrari Nakano/Ehret/Rich 101 + 18 Laps 35. GTEA #67 Porsche Maris/Merlin/Helary 101 + 2m00.371s 36. GTEA #60 Ferrari Mann/Case/Giammaria 101 + 2m25.512s 37. GTEA #75 Porsche Perrodo/Collard/Palttala 101 + 3m10.764s 38. GTEA #58 Ferrari Barthez/Pons/Ayari 101 + 3m15.421s 39. GTEA #66 Ferrari Al Faisal/Neiman/Pumpelly 99 + 20 Laps 40. LMP2 #27 Oreca Zlobin/Salo/Ladygin 99 + 1m02.520s 41. GTEA #76 Porsche Narac/Armindo/Hallyday 99 + 1m15.411s 42. GTEP #79 Porsche MacNeil/Curtis/Bleekemolen 96 + 23 Laps 43. GTEA #62 Ferrari Mallegol/Bachelier/Blank 96 + 1m07.892s 44. GTEA #53 Ferrari Mowlem/Patterson/Hamilton 90 + 29 Laps 45. GTEP #52 Ferrari Griffin/Parente/Leo 84 + 35 Laps 46. LMP2 #48 Oreca Berthon/Gonzalez/Chandhok 73 + 46 Laps 47. LMP2 #47 Oreca Howson/Bradley/Imperatori 87 Retired 48. LMP1 #13 Rebellion Kraihamer/Belicchi/Leimer 73 Retired 49. LMP2 #41 Zytek Munemman/Latif/Winslow 31 Retired 50. GTEP #71 Ferrari Rigon/Kaffer/Beretta 28 Retired 51. LMP1 #3 Audi Albuquerque/Bonanomi/Jarvis 25 Retired 52. GTEA #81 Ferrari Wyatt/Rugolo/Bird 22 Retired 53. LMP2 #37 Oreca Ladygin/Minassian/Mediani 9 Retired 54. CDNT #0 Nissan Ordonez/Reip/Motoyama 5 Retired
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