Le Mans 24 Hours: Audi troubles leave Porsche comfortable up front

The hour started with rain being reported by spotters and drivers, mainly at Mulsanne corner.

However, the rain never became heavy enough to really affect laptimes or cause incidents on the circuit, so the #19 Porsche continued to lead the race comfortably from the #17 machine.

The #9 Audi - which has struggled for pace this morning due to a suspected hybrid system problem - relinquished third place with a 2m30s visit to the Audi garage for checks to be carried out to the steering system.

That dropped the car to fifth behind the #7 and #8 R18s, but it moved up to fourth when the #8 car made a garage visit of its own to have work carried out on its engine cover.

However, Marco Bonanomi brought the #9 back in for another trip to the garage just before the hour concluded.

Only the #7 Audi remained undisturbed through the hour, with Andre Lotterer passing both lead Porsches on track to get back on the same lap as the second-placed #17 car, and to get within two laps of the race-leading #19 in the hands of Earl Bamber.

Lotterer also set a new fastest lap - a 3m17.475s - as part of his charge with the race heading into its final three hours.

LMP2

Nicolas Lapierre ensured KCMG entered the final three hours with a two-minute lead at the top of LMP2.

Lapierre added another 20 seconds to the car's advantage, which now sits at 2m11s, albeit having made one less pitstop than its closest rivals.

Sam Bird is back in the #26 G-Drive entry, having taken over from Roman Rusinov.

His installation has slowed Mitch Evans's charge towards second in Jota Sport's Gibson - the Kiwi took substantial time out of Rusinov but is more closely-matched with Bird and the margin has steadied around 12s.

OAK Racing and the second G-Drive entry complete the top five, while the #30 Extreme Speed Motorsports Ligier found the barriers with Scott Sharp behind the wheel.

GTE

Ferrari hit the front again in GTE Pro, but only held a slender lead over the chasing Corvette.

Tommy Milner lost out to Gianmaria Bruni with a protracted stop at the top of the hour, and the Italian gained an advantage of around 25 seconds in the #51 AF Corse car as the C7.R took on fresh rubber.

Milner gradually eroded that gap through the stint but when they stopped in unison again at the end of the hour Bruni was replaced by Toni Vilander, which allowed the Corvette to close the gap to less than five seconds.

Porsche's 911 RSR dropped out of contention, losing several laps to a gearbox leak, allowing the #71 Ferrari to make it two AF Corse cars in the Pro top three.

Aston Martin's comfortable lead over the #72 SMP Ferrari in GTE Am remains, with the #98 Vantage now up to third place overall in the GTE category.

POSITIONS AFTER 21 HOURS