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#2 Porsche closing on race-leading #38 LMP2 ORECA in 22nd hour

Porsche driver Timo Bernhard has continued to close the gap to the Jackie Chan DC Racing ORECA-Gibson 07 LMP2 car that leads the Le Mans 24 Hours with two hours to go

The #38 LMP2 machine inherited the lead when Andre Lotterer dramatically retired with a lack of oil pressure in the previous hour but Bernhard in the LMP1-specification #2 Porsche 919 Hybrid is chasing hard.

The Porsche unlapped itself from Thomas Laurent in the ORECA towards the end of the last hour having earlier gained further time when the LMP2 machine needed a lengthy pitstop to change its rear light.

The lead gap now stands at 3m04s.

With two hours remaining in the race there should be sufficient time for Bernhard to get ahead and claim the win.

There was a change for third overall after the #13 Rebellion ORECA needed a long pitstop while the rear of the car was examined, promoting Andre Negrao in the #35 Signatech ORECA.

CORVETTE AND PORSCHE IN GTE MIX

Although Daniel Serra's #97 Aston Martin Vantage was leading the class before pitting for Jonny Adam to take over at the turn of the hour, the odds remain in favour of a Porsche or Corvette victory in GTE Pro.

The Vantage and Corvette continued to spend the majority of the 22nd hour lapping independently of Frederic Makowiecki in the #91 Porsche, which pitted out of the lead 20 minutes before the turn of the hour and made what will probably be its final tyre change before the chequered flag.

Though Serra muscled his way past the #63 again, having slipped behind in the previous pitstop cycle, the likelihood is that the Aston will need to make one more pitstop than the cars it is lapping in proximity to.

That makes the fastest of the Ford GTs, currently in fourth place in the hands of Harry Tincknell, a possible candidate to snatch a podium place over the final two hours.

The Rigon/Bird/Molina #71 AF Corse Ferrari remains over a minute behind Tincknell, and made no inroads into that advantage during the hour.

The Stevens/Smith/Vanthoor #84 Ferrari retained its GTE Am class lead, still a lap ahead of the Cioci/Cameron/Scott #55 Ferrari.

POSITIONS AFTER 22 HOURS

Pos Class Car Drivers Laps Gap
1 LMP2 #38 Oreca Tung, Laurent, Jarvis 333
2 LMP1 #2 Porsche Bernhard, Bamber, Hartley 333 + 3m45.200s
3 LMP2 #35 Alpine Panciatici, Ragues, Negrao 331 + 2 Laps
4 LMP2 #13 Oreca Piquet Jr, H. Hansson, Beche 331 + 1m16.296s
5 LMP2 #37 Oreca Cheng, Gommendy, Brundle 330 + 3 Laps
6 LMP2 #32 Ligier Owen, De Sadeleer, Albuquerque 329 + 4 Laps
7 LMP2 #24 Oreca Graves, Hirschi, Vergne 328 + 5 Laps
8 LMP2 #40 Oreca Allen, Matelli, Bradley 328 + 50.639s
9 LMP1 #8 Toyota Buemi, Davidson, Nakajima 323 + 10 Laps
10 LMP2 #47 Dallara Lacorte, Sernagiotto, Belicchi 322 + 11 Laps
11 LMP2 #34 Ligier Moore, Hanson, Chandhok 319 + 14 Laps
12 LMP2 #36 Alpine Dumas, Menezes, Rao 318 + 15 Laps
13 LMP2 #17 Ligier Lafargue, Lafargue, Zollinger 313 + 20 Laps
14 LMP2 #29 Dallara Lammers, Van Eerd, Barrichello 312 + 21 Laps
15 LMP2 #21 Oreca Hedman, Hanley, Rosenqvist 312 + 3m00.119s
16 LMP2 #33 Ligier Nicolet, Nicolet, Maris 311 + 22 Laps
17 GTE Pro #63 Chevrolet Magnussen, Garcia, Taylor 309 + 24 Laps
18 GTE Pro #97 Aston Turner, Adam, Serra 309 + 3.704s
19 GTE Pro #91 Porsche Lietz, Makowiecki, Pilet 309 + 1m41.883s
20 GTE Pro #67 Ford Priaulx, Tincknell, Derani 309 + 2m10.068s
21 GTE Pro #71 Ferrari Rigon, Bird, Molina 308 + 25 Laps
22 GTE Pro #68 Ford Hand, Muller, Kanaan 308 + 1m19.741s
23 LMP2 #31 Oreca Prost, Canal, Senna 307 + 26 Laps
24 GTE Pro #69 Ford Briscoe, Westbrook, Dixon 306 + 27 Laps
25 GTE Pro #64 Chevrolet Gavin, Milner, Fassler 304 + 29 Laps
26 GTE Pro #95 Aston Thiim, Sorensen, Stanaway 303 + 30 Laps
27 GTE Am #84 Ferrari Smith, Stevens, Vanthoor 303 + 2m37.065s
28 GTE Am #55 Ferrari Cameron, Scott, Cioci 302 + 31 Laps
29 GTE Pro #66 Ford Mucke, Pla, Johnson 301 + 32 Laps
30 GTE Am #62 Ferrari Macneil, Sweedler, Bell 301 + 3m26.302s
31 GTE Am #99 Aston Howard, Gunn, Bryant 300 + 33 Laps
32 GTE Am #61 Ferrari Mok, Sawa, Griffin 300 + 44.490s
33 GTE Am #77 Porsche Ried, Cairoli, Dienst 300 + 4m27.609s
34 GTE Am #93 Porsche Long, Al Faisal, Hedlund 299 + 34 Laps
35 GTE Am #98 Aston Dalla Lana, Lamy, Lauda 299 + 0.423s
36 GTE Am #90 Aston Yoluc, Hankey, Bell 299 + 1m22.303s
37 LMP2 #45 Ligier Patterson, Mcmurry, Capillaire 298 + 35 Laps
38 GTE Am #86 Porsche Wainwright, Barker, Foster 298 + 7m19.518s
39 GTE Am #65 Ferrari Nielsen, Balzan, Curtis 298 + 7m49.055s
40 GTE Am #60 Ferrari Wee, Katoh, Parente 297 + 36 Laps
41 LMP2 #27 Dallara Aleshin, Sirotkin, Shaitar 297 + 1m03.979s
42 GTE Am #54 Ferrari Flohr, Castellacci, Beretta 297 + 2m00.827s
43 LMP2 #22 Oreca Rojas, Hirakawa, Gutierrez 297 + 3m21.283s
44 GTE Am #83 Ferrari Krohn, Jonsson, Bertolini 292 + 41 Laps
45 LMP2 #39 Oreca Guibbert, Trouillet, Winslow 291 + 42 Laps
46 GTE Pro #51 Ferrari Calado, Pier Guidi, Rugolo 290 + 43 Laps
47 LMP2 #49 Ligier Konopka, Calko, Breukers 283 + 50 Laps
48 LMP2 #43 Riley Keating, Bleekemolen, Taylor 282 + 51 Laps
49 GTE Am #50 Chevrolet Rees, Brandela, Philippon 280 + 53 Laps
50 LMP1 #1 Porsche Jani, Lotterer, Tandy 318 Retired
51 LMP2 #23 Ligier Barthez, Buret, Berthon 296 Retired
52 LMP2 #28 Oreca Perrodo, Vaxiviere, Collard 213 Retired
53 GTE Pro #92 Porsche Christensen, Estre, Werner 179 Retired
54 LMP1 #9 Toyota Lapierre, Kunimoto, Lopez 160 Retired
55 LMP1 #7 Toyota Conway, Kobayashi, Sarrazin 154 Retired
56 LMP2 #25 Oreca Gonzalez, Trummer, Petrov 152 Retired
57 GTE Pro #82 Ferrari Vilander, Fisichella, Kaffer 72 Retired
58 LMP2 #26 Oreca Rusinov, Thiriet, Lynn 20 Retired
59 GTE Am #88 Porsche Bachler, Lemeret, Al Qubaisi 18 Retired
60 LMP1 #4 Enso Webb, Kraihamer, Bonanomi 7 Retired

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