Le Mans 24 Hours: #7 Toyota takes the lead in second hour

The two Toyotas enjoyed a close battle at the start of the second hour with Sebastien Buemi initially holding the lead before Conway squeezed ahead.

Buemi was unable to retaliate after running wide at Mulsanne Corner just before his second pitstop and now sits around four seconds behind the leader.

Porsches remain in third and fourth, but Neel Jani is starting to drop around two seconds per lap to the Toyotas ahead and is 24s off the lead.

Nicolas Lapierre completes the five remaining LMP1 cars in the race after the ByKolles retired.

It hit the wall at Terte Rouge on the opening lap of the race and repairs were then attempted.

But it only briefly returned to the track before parking in the garage and its retirement was later confirmed.

LMP2: REBELLION TAKES CHARGE

Rebellion Racing runs first and second in LMP2 with Nicolas Prost leading in the #31 entry after taking over following Bruno Senna's triple stint.

Prost leads Mathias Beche by 18 seconds, with the #38 Jackie Chan DC Racing ORECA of Thomas Laurent just behind in third place.

Jean-Eric Vergne has remained in the car for a fourth stint after starting the race in the #24 Manor ORECA as he got out of synch on tyre use when the team discovered a cut Dunlop at his second stop.

Vergne is 27s off the lead, but almost 20 seconds ahead of the #37 Jackie Chan DC Racing ORECA, which Tristan Gommendy started and Alex Brundle took over.

The #25 Manor ORECA runs sixth, with Simon Trummer having taken over from Vitaly Petrov, who had run as high as second in the early running.

The polesitting TDS-run #26 G-Drive ORECA has retired as Roman Rusinov, who had already lost time in the first hour with a bad first lap and then having to pit for a nose change, had to stop.

This was thanks to damage sustained when he hit the GTE-Am Porsche of Khaled Al Qubaisi while attempting to lap him up the inside in the middle of the Porsche Curves.

While the Porsche ended up in the barrier, Rusinov initially continued before getting out of the car and inspecting rear-right damage. He later limped back to the pits but the damage was discovered to be too severe.

GTE: ASTON MARTIN PULLS AWAY

Aston Martin continues to lead GTE Pro as battles rage further down the field.

Nicki Thiim and Darren Turner pitted to hand over the #95 and #97 cars to Marco Sorensen and Daniel Serra shortly before the turn of the hour, briefly enabling the #69 Ford of Richard Westbrook to lead the field before he made his own stop.

Punctures for the #66 Ford GT and #63 Corvette dropped them out of fifth and seventh respectively and forced them on to alternate strategies, having barely completed half an hour of their second stints.

Sorensen retook the lead in the #95 Aston when Westbrook pitted, running 14 seconds ahead of Pla in the out-of-sequence #66 Ford.

During the second hour, Kevin Estre dropped from third to fifth in the #92 Porsche as Alessandro Pier Guidi and Sam Bird in the AF Corse Ferraris surged past, followed by Westbrook.

Despite giving the #92 car a full service when Estre came in to hand over to Michael Christensen, Porsche managed to get the car out in third again, now ahead of Serra in the #97 Aston.

Magnussen is fifth in the out-of-sequence #63 Corvette, while Westbrook has dropped to the tail of the GTE Pro field owing to a rear-wing change.

Scuderia Corsa remains in control of the GTE Am class after Townsend Bell led throughout the second hour, handing over to William Sweedler at the end of his stint.

Paul Dalla Lana took over the #98 Aston from Pedro Lamy shortly before the turn of the hour and resumed pursuit.

The GTE Am class began to incur casualties as Khaled Al Qubaisi's #88 Porsche was nerfed into the barriers at the Porsche Curves by Roman Rusinov in the #26 G-Drive LMP2.

POSITIONS AFTER TWO HOURS