Le Mans 24 Hours: Alonso's #8 Toyota leads after Lopez errors

Lopez started the hour ahead, but had a major moment at Mulsanne corner early on, that included a trip through the gravel, allowed Nakajima into the lead.

Lopez later went off track for a second time, on this occasion at Indianapolis.

Both cars made planned stops in the middle of the hour, with Toyota changing the nose of the #8.

The #7 car, which is now stopping two laps later than the #8, ended the hour 10 seconds in arrears.

The battle for the final podium position between SMP's pair of BR Engineering-AER BR1s was just as tight, but was headed by the #17 car at the end of the hour.

Stephane Sarrazin is 5.962s ahead of Vitaly Petrov in the #11 car, which was delayed in the previous hour by an unscheduled stop to change a front nose that had picked up debris from a crash for the #3 Rebellion.

The #3 remains fifth in the order with Thomas Laurent - who was at the wheel of the Rebellion-Gibson R-13 when it went off - but lost time with a 3m27s pitstop that has dropped it more than two and a half minutes away from the podium battle.

Its sister #1 car remains four laps down in sixth, while neither the ByKolles and the #10 Dragonspeed BRE-Gibson BR1 - which has been affected by a gearbox issue - appeared on track during the hour.

LMP2 - Signatech pit delay improves G-Drive's lead

Jean-Eric Vergne continues to lead the race for G-Drive Racing at the eight hour mark, after chief rival Signatech-Alpine was delayed getting into its pit-box.

Vergne had a very small lead over Signatech's Andre Negrao when the two cars made their 12th stops together.

However, Negrao was unable to park properly due to the proximity of the #47 Cetilar Villorba Corse Dallara in the adjoining box, so his mechanics had to hoist the car up on trolley jacks and manoeuvre it back into position before it could be serviced.

Once Negrao had been replaced by Nicolas Lapierre, the Frenchman rejoined 14 seconds in arrears, a margin that remained stable after the following round of pitstops shortly before the hour mark.

Having benefitted from the timing of a slow zone in the seventh hour, the #31 DragonSpeed ORECA leapfrogged the #38 Jackie Chan DC Racing ORECA into third thanks to a well-timed pitstop while a full course yellow appeared for debris, which put Anthony Davidson inside half a minute of the race lead.

After completing a triple stint, Davidson pitted and handed over to the team's Silver-rated driver Roberto Gonzalez shortly before the hour mark, with the Mexican sitting 46s behind Vergne at the hour.

Stephane Richelmi therefore runs fourth ahead of team-mate Jordan King in the #37 DC Racing ORECA, while Paul di Resta has returned to the wheel of the #22 United Autosports Ligier in sixth place.

GTE - Porsche's Estre stretches lead

Porsche's Kevin Estre stretched a 10-second lead in GTE Pro over the course of the eighth hour, as the sole remaining Corvette moved back up to second.

Antonio Garcia (Corvette) overtook Alessandro Pier Guidi in the #51 Ferrari just shy of the one-third mark of the race, and ran 11s behind Estre's #92 Porsche.

Harry Tincknell held fourth in the best of the Ford GTs, the #67 car, just behind Pier Guidi but over a minute ahead of the fifth-placed #93 Porsche, now driven by Patrick Pilet.

Sam Bird made it two Ferraris inside the top six at the eight-hour mark, followed by Dirk Muller in the #68 Ford and the #91 Porsche of Gianmaria Bruni.

The Keating Motorsports Ford GT had its GTE Am lead significantly eroded during the eighth hour, with owner-driver Ben Keating only 20 seconds clear of Jeff Segal's #84 JMW Motorsports Ferrari of Jeff Segal.

Jorg Bergmiester ran nearly two minutes off the class lead in the Project 1 Porsche in third.

Positions after eight hours