Le Mans hour 21: Chasing #7 Toyota loses time to leader with spin

Lopez lost 12 seconds when he spun exiting the Dunlop Chicane and allowed Alonso to increase his lead to more than one minute and 30 seconds in the #8 TS050 HYBRID.

The multiple World Touring Car champion had previously touched the grass on the exit of the Esses in the previous hour as Alonso ran untroubled.

After the race-leading car made its next pitstop, the gap between the two Toyotas stayed just under 40s.

Alonso will be replaced by team-mate Kazuki Nakajima to finish the race, while the #7 will put Kamui Kobayashi in the car after Lopez if everything goes to plan in the final three hours.

Bruno Senna's lead over the sister Rebellion Racing R-13 grew to over 30s following several pitstops for Matevos Beche in the #4 R-13.

Beche had been noted for having a loose door over an hour ago and a slow second pitstop in which the team forcefully closed it aided Senna's lead.

He then took another pitstop in the final five minutes of the hour to help Senna pull a 30s lead.

The hour ended with Rebellion making driver changes in both cars, with Neel Jani replacing Senna and Gustavo Menezes taking over from Beche.

SMP Racing's Vitaly Petrov is likely to make his way into the top 40 after consistently lapping well in the #11 BR1 that is enjoying a trouble-free run after its early race mechanical problems.

The last remaining LMP1 runner of Leo Roussel in the #5 Manor-Ginetta is five laps away from the nearest runner - a GTE Am car.

G-Drive stays strong at the front

Attrition continued to impact the LMP2 field in the 21st hour, although the #26 G-Drive ORECA which has led since the first hour remained peerless at the head of the field.

Andrea Pizzitola has over three laps in hand over the #36 Signatech-Alpine of Andre Negrao, who had come in for the car's 32nd pitstop just prior to the hour mark.

Negrao in turn is safe in second position, after two lengthy pitstops for the pole-sitting IDEC Sport ORECA dropped it out of podium contention.

Paul Lafargue remained in the pits as the hour mark was reached, and it has fallen eight laps behind the leading G-Drive car.

Profiting from IDEC's woes, Vincent Capillaire now runs third in the #39 Graff-So24 ORECA, but has Juan-Pablo Montoya's #32 United Autosport Ligier 14s behind.

TDS Racing's #28 ORECA is not out of podium contention either, with Matthieu Vaxiviere catching them both.

After spending over an hour in the pits to mechanical maladies, the Panis-Barthez Competition Ligier returned to the track 18 laps down in 14th spot with Timothe Buret at the wheel.

Battle for second ignites in GTE Pro

While the #92 Porsche continued to hold a big lead in GTE Pro, the fight for second between the German marque and Ford exploded in the 21st hour of the race.

Two-and-a-half minutes behind Laurens Vanthoor in the #92 Porsche, the sister #91 car of Frederic Makowiecki was busy trying to stave off the advances of Sebastien Bourdais' #68 Ford GT.

Bourdais appeared to have the pace to get ahead, but Makowiecki was robust in his defence, attracting the attention of the stewards in the process - but avoiding a penalty.

It appeared Bourdais had the move done when he pulled off a blistering outside pass approaching Indianapolis, but on the run out of Arnage Makowiecki drafted back by, nudging Bourdais out to very edge of the track.

That gave him the advantage when he made his next stop, staying in the #91 car, while a furious Bourdais handed over the #68 Ford to Joey Hand.

Makowiecki ran 2m23s behind team-mate Vanthoor at the top of the hour, having managed to pull out a 16s gap on Hand after the stops.

Andy Priaulx's #67 Ford ran just behind Hand before stopping at the tail end of the hour.

Jan Magnussen continues to hold a lapped fifth in the #63 Corvette, 18 seconds ahead of Richard Westbrook's #69 Ford.

In GTE Am, Julien Andlauer held the upper hand to the tune of 1m50s in the #77 Dempsey-Proton Porsche, with the #85 Risi/Keating Ferrari remaining second ahead of the #54 Spirit of Race machine.

Positions after 21 hours