Le Mans 24 Hours: Toyota leads, Porsches swap places in eighth hour
The #6 Toyota leads the Le Mans 24 Hours at one-third distance, with Stephane Sarrazin at the wheel
The Frenchman brought the car into the pits for its ninth stop late in the eighth hour, re-emerging with a lead of 23 seconds over the lead Porsche.
The Toyota also has a range advantage over the Porsches, completing 14-lap stints meaning there is now a nine-lap pitstop offset in the favour of the Japanese manufacturer.
While the #1 Porsche started the hour in second, it's the #2 car of Neel Jani that now runs seconds after he passed Timo Bernhard on track.
This was after the #1 Porsche endured yet more bad luck with slow zone timing, which has cost it significant ground over the past two hours.
The second Toyota, currently driven by Kazuki Nakajima, lies fourth after pitting at the end of the hour.
Audi lost more ground in this stint, with the #8 car now driven by Loic Duval having a three-and-a-half minute stop that included a visit to the garage.
This echoed the sister car's slightly longer stop earlier in the hour, although that was less costly as the car is now seven laps down after losing time to a turbocharger change early on.
Both cars were forced to the garage for repairs to their race number lighting systems, following instructions from race control.
LMP2 - TDS STRETCHES ITS LEGS, KCMG FALLS
By Mitchell Adam
Pierre Thiriet has rebuilt Thiriet by TDS Racing's lead in LMP2 to more than one minute at the end of the eighth hour.
Thiriet extended the advantage from 15s to 68s, aided by the fact Signatech Alpine made a driver change, replacing Stephane Richelmi with lead driver Nicolas Lapierre approaching 11pm.
Following problems for Manor in the previous hour, KCMG was the latest frontrunner to strike trouble.
While running third, Tsugio Matsuda stopped on the run between Mulsanne and Indianapolis corners, unable to restart the ORECA, which was last seen being pushed from the scene by marshals.
That has put the G-Drive ORECA back into third, albeit a lap down on Richelmi after a puncture and a drive-through penalty in the first third of the race, with pole winner Rene Rast now back behind the wheel.
The second G-Drive entry, with Simon Dolan in the Gibson, is fourth, 80s clear of Nick Leventis in the Strakka Gibson and the second Alpine with Nelson Panciatici behind the wheel.
With Vitaly Petrov and Mikhail Aleshin driving, the SMP Racing BR01s are seventh and eighth, two laps behind Thiriet.
The Manor ORECA has returned to the track with Tor Graves, but has lost 11 laps and is 21st of the 23 runners.
FORD CAN'T SHAKE OFF RISI FERRARI IN GTE
By Scott Mitchell and Jack Cozens
Dirk Muller holds a narrow GTE lead for Ford as the stubborn Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE refuses to give up the chase.
Sebastien Bourdais moved the #68 Ford almost half a minute clear of the chasing sister #69 car and the Risi entry, helped in part by a well-timed slow zone.
That ensured that when Bourdais pitted to hand over to Muller the #68 Ford GT remained in front, but Giancarlo Fisichella is just four seconds behind in the 488.
The #66 Ford has recovered from delays in a slow zone to jump ahead of the #69 GT, in which Scott Dixon struggled for outright pace before handing over to Richard Westbrook.
Olivier Pla is now in the #66 car, which is 27s behind Fisichella.
Pedro Lamy continued his strong form from an hour earlier as he clinched the GTE Am lead in the #98 Aston Martin.
Lamy started the hour in second, but the Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing team's decision to swap Patrick Long back in for his second stint of the day in place of Khaled Al Qubaisi in the #88 Porsche allowed the Aston to nose ahead.
Long fought his way back by in the middle of the stint, only for Lamy to retake first.
Their battle for the lead is now a three-way one, as Jeff Segal hauled the #62 Scuderia Corsa entry back up into third early on in the hour, with the three separated by 2.8s.
POSITIONS AFTER EIGHT HOURS
Pos | Class | Car | Drivers | Laps | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | LMP1 | #6 Toyota | Sarrazin, Conway, Kobayashi | 126 | |
2 | LMP1 | #2 Porsche | Dumas, Jani, Lieb | 126 | + 22.374s |
3 | LMP1 | #1 Porsche | Bernhard, Webber, Hartley | 126 | + 28.381s |
4 | LMP1 | #5 Toyota | Davidson, Buemi, Nakajima | 125 | + 1 Lap |
5 | LMP1 | #8 Audi | Di Grassi, Duval, Jarvis | 124 | + 2 Laps |
6 | LMP1 | #13 Rebellion | Tuscher, Imperatori, Kraihamer | 120 | + 6 Laps |
7 | LMP1 | #7 Audi | Fassler, Lotterer, Treluyer | 118 | + 8 Laps |
8 | LMP2 | #46 Oreca | Thiriet, Beche, Hirakawa | 117 | + 9 Laps |
9 | LMP2 | #36 Alpine | Menezes, Lapierre, Richelmi | 116 | + 10 Laps |
10 | LMP2 | #26 Oreca | Rusinov, Stevens, Rast | 116 | + 3m17.084s |
11 | LMP2 | #38 Gibson | Dolan, Dennis, Van Der Garde | 115 | + 11 Laps |
12 | LMP2 | #42 Gibson | Leventis, Watts, Kane | 115 | + 1m21.668s |
13 | LMP2 | #35 Alpine | Cheng, Tung, Panciatici | 115 | + 1m50.074s |
14 | LMP2 | #37 BR01 | Petrov, Shaytar, Ladygin | 115 | + 2m47.417s |
15 | LMP2 | #27 BR01 | Minassian, Mediani, Aleshin | 115 | + 2m59.997s |
16 | LMP2 | #41 Ligier | Rojas, Canal, Berthon | 113 | + 13 Laps |
17 | LMP2 | #33 Oreca | Pu, Gommendy, De Bruijn | 113 | + 15.921s |
18 | LMP2 | #25 Ligier | Munemann, Hoy, Pizzitola | 112 | + 14 Laps |
19 | LMP2 | #23 Ligier | Barthez, Chatin, Buret | 112 | + 1m51.294s |
20 | LMP2 | #31 Ligier | Dalziel, Derani, Cumming | 112 | + 2m31.790s |
21 | GTE Pro | #68 Ford | Hand, Muller, Bourdais | 111 | + 15 Laps |
22 | GTE Pro | #82 Ferrari | Fisichella, Vilander, Malucelli | 111 | + 4.463s |
23 | GTE Pro | #69 Ford | Briscoe, Westbrook, Dixon | 111 | + 31.123s |
24 | GTE Pro | #66 Ford | Pla, Mucke, Johnson | 111 | + 32.274s |
25 | LMP2 | #30 Ligier | Sharp, Brown, Van Overbeek | 111 | + 56.241s |
26 | LMP2 | #49 Ligier | Pew, Negri Jr, Vanthoor | 111 | + 2m42.200s |
27 | GTE Pro | #95 Aston | Thiim, Sorensen, Turner | 111 | + 2m57.195s |
28 | GTE Pro | #97 Aston | Stanaway, Rees, Adam | 110 | + 16 Laps |
29 | GTE Pro | #71 Ferrari | Rigon, Bird, Bertolini | 110 | + 40.729s |
30 | GTE Pro | #77 Porsche | Lietz, Christensen, Eng | 110 | + 46.573s |
31 | GTE Pro | #64 Chevrolet | Gavin, Milner, Taylor | 110 | + 1m01.087s |
32 | LMP2 | #40 Ligier | Krohn, Jonsson, Barbosa | 110 | + 1m07.409s |
33 | GTE Pro | #63 Chevrolet | Magnussen, Garcia, Taylor | 110 | + 3m07.158s |
34 | GTE Pro | #91 Porsche | Pilet, Estre, Tandy | 110 | + 3m14.606s |
35 | GTE Am | #98 Aston | Dalla Lana, Lamy, Lauda | 108 | + 18 Laps |
36 | GTE Am | #88 Porsche | Al Qubaisi, Heinemeier Hansson, Long | 108 | + 2.175s |
37 | GTE Am | #62 Ferrari | Sweedler, Bell, Segal | 108 | + 2.605s |
38 | CDNT | #84 Morgan | Sausset, Tinseau, Bouvet | 108 | + 16.128s |
39 | LMP2 | #22 Ligier | Capillaire, Maris, Coleman | 108 | + 41.356s |
40 | LMP2 | #43 Ligier | Gonzalez, Senna, Albuquerque | 108 | + 1m22.249s |
41 | GTE Am | #55 Ferrari | Cameron, Griffin, Scott | 108 | + 2m24.707s |
42 | GTE Am | #78 Porsche | Ried, Henzler, Camathias | 107 | + 19 Laps |
43 | GTE Am | #61 Ferrari | Mok, Sawa, Bell | 107 | + 48.401s |
44 | GTE Am | #83 Ferrari | Perrodo, Collard, Aguas | 107 | + 55.474s |
45 | GTE Am | #50 Chevrolet | Yamagishi, Ragues, Belloc | 107 | + 1m33.840s |
46 | LMP1 | #12 Rebellion | Prost, Heidfeld, Piquet Jr | 106 | + 20 Laps |
47 | GTE Am | #86 Porsche | Wainwright, Carroll, Barker | 106 | + 1m14.891s |
48 | LMP2 | #48 Oreca | Keating, Bleekemolen, Goossens | 106 | + 2m28.897s |
49 | LMP2 | #47 Oreca | Matsuda, Howson, Bradley | 105 | + 21 Laps |
50 | LMP2 | #44 Oreca | Graves, Rao, Merhi | 105 | + 43m30.418s |
51 | LMP2 | #34 Oreca | Leutwiler, Nakano, Winslow | 104 | + 22 Laps |
52 | GTE Am | #60 Ferrari | Laursen, Mac, Nielsen | 104 | + 3m14.741s |
53 | GTE Am | #99 Aston | Howard, Griffin, Hirsch | 102 | + 24 Laps |
54 | LMP2 | #28 Morgan | Taittinger, Striebig, Roussel | 100 | + 26 Laps |
55 | GTE Pro | #51 Ferrari | Bruni, Calado, Pier Guidi | 99 | + 27 Laps |
56 | GTE Pro | #92 Porsche | Makowiecki, Bamber, Bergmeister | 96 | + 30 Laps |
57 | GTE Am | #57 Chevrolet | O'Connel, Bryant, Patterson | 92 | + 34 Laps |
58 | LMP1 | #4 CLM | Trummer, Webb, Kaffer | 91 | + 35 Laps |
59 | GTE Pro | #67 Ford | Franchitti, Priaulx, Tincknell | 86 | + 40 Laps |
60 | GTE Am | #89 Porsche | Macneil, Keen, Miller | 50 | Retired |
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