#2 Porsche snatches lead from #38 LMP2 ORECA ahead of final hour
Porsche reclaimed the lead of the Le Mans 24 Hours with one hour to go after the #2 car of Timo Bernhard passed Ho-Pin Tung late in the penultimate hour
The #2 Porsche 919 Hybrid has spent the last couple of hours chasing down the leading LMP2 cars - having suffered a motor generator unit issue early in the race - after the sister #1 car retired with four hours to go.
Bernhard caught Tung in the #38 DC-Racing-run Jackie Chan ORECA at a rate of around 10 seconds per lap and eventually made the move on the run out of the second Mulsanne chicane.
He now leads by over a minute after Tung pitted.
Tung is comfortable in second overall and heads the LMP2 class by two laps from the #35 Signatech ORECA of Andre Negrao.
Negrao in turn leads the #13 Rebellion ORECA of Nelson Piquet Jr by 25 seconds after Piquet was handed a 10-second time penalty at his recent stop for causing a collision with the #49 Bratislava Ligier.
A lengthy pitstop added to Piquet's woes and dropped him well behind Negrao, having run much closer previously.
THREE MAKES IN THE MIX FOR GTE WIN
Porsche, Chevrolet and Aston Martin were still vying for the GTE Pro class lead in the penultimate hour, during which Porsche had to service Frederic Makowiecki's #91 car twice, 15 minutes apart.
That left Jan Magnussen leading in the #63 Corvette going into the final hour, and brought the #97 Aston Martin back into the frame as a contender.
Makowiecki was looking to triple-stint his final set of tyres and looked odds-on to move back into the lead during the final hour once Magnussen and Aston's Jonny Adam had pitted.
But a front-left puncture forced him back into the pits shortly after making a routine fuel stop.
Adam pitted the #97 Aston from the lead at the turn of the hour, raising the prospect that it might have to splash-and-dash before the chequered flag.
This handed the advantage to Magnussen, who has one more routine stop to make and leads Adam by 18s.
Makowiecki will now have to make his way past the third-placed Ford GT of Harry Tincknell to get back on the podium.
The Vanthoor/Smith/Stevens #84 Ferrari is on course for a one-lap victory over the similar #55 entry in GTE Am.
POSITIONS AFTER 23 HOURS
| Pos | Class | Car | Drivers | Laps | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | LMP1 | #2 Porsche | Bernhard, Bamber, Hartley | 349 | |
| 2 | LMP2 | #38 Oreca | Tung, Laurent, Jarvis | 349 | + 23.055s |
| 3 | LMP2 | #35 Alpine | Panciatici, Ragues, Negrao | 346 | + 3 Laps |
| 4 | LMP2 | #13 Oreca | Piquet Jr, H. Hansson, Beche | 346 | + 27.443s |
| 5 | LMP2 | #37 Oreca | Cheng, Gommendy, Brundle | 346 | + 1m12.521s |
| 6 | LMP2 | #32 Ligier | Owen, De Sadeleer, Albuquerque | 344 | + 5 Laps |
| 7 | LMP2 | #24 Oreca | Graves, Hirschi, Vergne | 343 | + 6 Laps |
| 8 | LMP2 | #40 Oreca | Allen, Matelli, Bradley | 343 | + 56.658s |
| 9 | LMP1 | #8 Toyota | Buemi, Davidson, Nakajima | 340 | + 9 Laps |
| 10 | LMP2 | #47 Dallara | Lacorte, Sernagiotto, Belicchi | 337 | + 12 Laps |
| 11 | LMP2 | #34 Ligier | Moore, Hanson, Chandhok | 334 | + 15 Laps |
| 12 | LMP2 | #36 Alpine | Dumas, Menezes, Rao | 333 | + 16 Laps |
| 13 | LMP2 | #17 Ligier | Lafargue, Lafargue, Zollinger | 328 | + 21 Laps |
| 14 | LMP2 | #29 Dallara | Lammers, Van Eerd, Barrichello | 327 | + 22 Laps |
| 15 | LMP2 | #21 Oreca | Hedman, Hanley, Rosenqvist | 327 | + 35.166s |
| 16 | LMP2 | #33 Ligier | Nicolet, Nicolet, Maris | 325 | + 24 Laps |
| 17 | GTE Pro | #63 Chevrolet | Magnussen, Garcia, Taylor | 324 | + 25 Laps |
| 18 | GTE Pro | #97 Aston | Turner, Adam, Serra | 323 | + 26 Laps |
| 19 | GTE Pro | #67 Ford | Priaulx, Tincknell, Derani | 323 | + 1m54.142s |
| 20 | GTE Pro | #91 Porsche | Lietz, Makowiecki, Pilet | 323 | + 2m34.601s |
| 21 | GTE Pro | #71 Ferrari | Rigon, Bird, Molina | 323 | + 3m41.064s |
| 22 | LMP2 | #31 Oreca | Prost, Canal, Senna | 322 | + 27 Laps |
| 23 | GTE Pro | #68 Ford | Hand, Muller, Kanaan | 322 | + 3.198s |
| 24 | GTE Pro | #69 Ford | Briscoe, Westbrook, Dixon | 321 | + 28 Laps |
| 25 | GTE Pro | #64 Chevrolet | Gavin, Milner, Fassler | 318 | + 31 Laps |
| 26 | GTE Pro | #95 Aston | Thiim, Sorensen, Stanaway | 317 | + 32 Laps |
| 27 | GTE Am | #84 Ferrari | Smith, Stevens, Vanthoor | 317 | + 2m59.440s |
| 28 | GTE Am | #55 Ferrari | Cameron, Scott, Cioci | 316 | + 33 Laps |
| 29 | GTE Pro | #66 Ford | Mucke, Pla, Johnson | 316 | + 57.768s |
| 30 | GTE Am | #62 Ferrari | Macneil, Sweedler, Bell | 315 | + 34 Laps |
| 31 | GTE Am | #99 Aston | Howard, Gunn, Bryant | 314 | + 35 Laps |
| 32 | GTE Am | #61 Ferrari | Mok, Sawa, Griffin | 314 | + 11.543s |
| 33 | GTE Am | #77 Porsche | Ried, Cairoli, Dienst | 314 | + 3m08.523s |
| 34 | LMP2 | #45 Ligier | Patterson, Mcmurry, Capillaire | 313 | + 36 Laps |
| 35 | GTE Am | #90 Aston | Yoluc, Hankey, Bell | 313 | + 1.795s |
| 36 | GTE Am | #98 Aston | Dalla Lana, Lamy, Lauda | 313 | + 32.481s |
| 37 | LMP2 | #27 Dallara | Aleshin, Sirotkin, Shaitar | 313 | + 1m36.658s |
| 38 | GTE Am | #93 Porsche | Long, Al Faisal, Hedlund | 313 | + 1m44.243s |
| 39 | GTE Am | #86 Porsche | Wainwright, Barker, Foster | 312 | + 37 Laps |
| 40 | GTE Am | #60 Ferrari | Wee, Katoh, Parente | 312 | + 53.678s |
| 41 | LMP2 | #22 Oreca | Rojas, Hirakawa, Gutierrez | 311 | + 38 Laps |
| 42 | GTE Am | #54 Ferrari | Flohr, Castellacci, Beretta | 311 | + 3m04.377s |
| 43 | GTE Am | #65 Ferrari | Nielsen, Balzan, Curtis | 308 | + 41 Laps |
| 44 | GTE Am | #83 Ferrari | Krohn, Jonsson, Bertolini | 305 | + 44 Laps |
| 45 | GTE Pro | #51 Ferrari | Calado, Pier Guidi, Rugolo | 302 | + 47 Laps |
| 46 | LMP2 | #39 Oreca | Guibbert, Trouillet, Winslow | 301 | + 48 Laps |
| 47 | LMP2 | #49 Ligier | Konopka, Calko, Breukers | 297 | + 52 Laps |
| 48 | LMP2 | #43 Riley | Keating, Bleekemolen, Taylor | 296 | + 53 Laps |
| 49 | GTE Am | #50 Chevrolet | Rees, Brandela, Philippon | 293 | + 56 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 |
#2 Porsche closing on race-leading #38 LMP2 ORECA in 22nd hour
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