Le Mans hour 2: Slow zone helps #7 Toyota take the lead

Buemi sat a comfortable distance ahead of Conway in the early part of the hour, but Conway made up time on his team-mate as the pair negotiated their way through heavier traffic.

Conway was later able to make up a heap of time after Buemi stopped - aided by a slow zone from Mulsanne corner to Indianapolis for barrier repairs after Michael Wainwright crashed in the #86 GTE Am Porsche - and emerged with a three-second lead in the #7 TS050 HYBRID when he stopped on lap 32.

Thomas Laurent wrestled third place off SMP driver Stephane Sarrazin in the middle of the hour with a well-executed move at the esses before Tertre Rouge, slipping past a Ferrari GTE Pro car on the inside as Sarrazin went the other way round.

Rebellion driver Laurent stretched his legs over the remainder of the hour and now has a 23-second advantage over the #17 SMP car.

Ben Hanley is ahead of the pitstop schedule as a result of an early visit to the pits in the #10 DragonSpeed BRE-Gibson BR1 and went a lap down during his third stop on lap 25.

He still runs fifth and is a minute clear of the #1 Rebellion - the nose of which hit the DragonSpeed car at the start when it broke free.

The ByKolles car spent more than three minutes in the pits at its most recent stop for a change to the rear end of the car after Tom Dillmann was hit while in traffic and runs 15th, two places ahead of the #6 Manor-Ginetta that lost time on track to a reported "electrical control" issue at the end of the first hour.

The #5 Manor is 25th and a further lap down, while the second SMP car spent the second hour in the pits and is last in the classification.

Vergne continues to lead in LMP2

The #26 G-Drive Racing ORECA continued to lead at the end of the second hour in the hands of Jean-Eric Vergne, as DragonSpeed's assault fell by the wayside.

Vergne extended his advantage over the sister TDS-entered machine of Loic Duval during the second sequence of pitstops, building a lead of up to 25 seconds before Duval pegged him back to around 22 seconds.

After Duval's third stop on lap 28, Vergne stayed out one lap longer, but found his lead had grown to 57 seconds by lap 31 at the close of the hour, due to a slow zone on the approach to Indianapolis.

Andre Negrao has taken over the #36 Signatech-Alpine from Nicolas Lapierre and runs third, ahead of Will Stevens in the Panis-Barthez Competition Ligier and Vincent Capillaire's Graff-So24 Racing ORECA.

After a strong triple-stint from Giedo van der Garde aboard the Racing Team Netherlands Dallara, 1988 winner Jan Lammers runs sixth in his 24th appearance at Le Mans, while the pole-sitting IDEC Sport ORECA has fallen to eighth with Silver-rated Paul Lafargue taking over from Paul-Loup Chatin.

The #31 DragonSpeed ORECA which led the early laps in the hands of Nathanael Berthon dropped three laps down after it lost the right-front wheel on approach to Arnage.

Meanwhile defending class winner Jota Sport's difficult start continued, as Ho-Pin Tung trailed back to the pits with a right-front puncture in the #38 Jackie Chan DC Racing ORECA.

The sister #37 car with Jazeman Jaafar at the wheel runs in 57th overall after losing several laps to a mechanical problem in the opening minutes of the race.

#92 Porsche holds narrow lead in GTE Pro

Porsche continued to hold a small lead in the GTE Pro battle, with the #92 'Pink Pig' car that took the lead in the opening hour keeping the advantage.

Michael Christensen handed over to Laurens Vanthoor at the second round of stops and the Belgian was able to maintain a small lead of two seconds.

Sebastien Bourdais's #68 Ford and Frederic Makowiecki's #91 Porsche were locked in battle for second, having taken over from Dirk Muller and Gianmaria Bruni respectively, with Makowiecki getting the move done just before the top of the hour.

A further 10 seconds behind, Olivier Pla was fourth in the #66 Ford ahead of Antonio Felix da Costa's #82 BMW, which made solid progress thanks to a rapid stint for Alexander Sims.

Both Ferrari and Corvette suffered problems, as James Calado picked up a puncture in the #51 Ferrari and the #64 Corvette stopped for 13 minutes with suspension damage.

There was likewise drama in GTE Am as Michael Wainwright spun the #86 Gulf Racing Porsche, which had led thanks to Ben Barker's efforts in the first two stints, into the barriers at Indianapolis.

That promoted the #54 Spirit of Race Ferrari, now driven by Thomas Flohr into a commanding 48 second lead over Cooper MacNeil's #88 JMW Ferrari and Julien Andlauer in the leading Dempsey-Proton Porsche.

Positions after two hours