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Le Mans 24 Hours: Conway leads for Toyota after opening hour, drama in LMP2

Toyota's Mike Conway is leading the 88th running of the Le Mans 24 Hours after one hour of racing, while reliability issues hit two LMP2 frontrunners

The start of the 88th edition of the race was held without fans in attendance but with the same traditional ceremony at the Circuit de la Sarthe.

Polesitter Mike Conway made a good getaway in the #7 Toyota TS050 Hybrid, while stablemate Sebastien Buemi in the #8 car tried to put pressure on second-starting Bruno Senna in the #1 Rebellion.

Senna held on to second through the Esses and then proved a handful for Buemi to pass, the Rebellion being comfortably quicker on the straights. The second #3 Rebellion of Nathanael Berthon followed in fourth, with the #4 ByKolles of Tom Dillmann bringing up the rear of LMP1.

Berthon pitted early after seven laps, followed by Senna and Buemi on lap eight and leader Conway after nine tours. Thanks to a quicker pitstop by the Toyota crew, Buemi leapfrogged the Brazilian for second, while Conway comfortably kept his lead.

However, a suspected puncture for Buemi that forced an extra pitstop dropped the #8 car back to fourth behind the second Rebellion after the first hour.

In LMP2 Filipe Albuquerque held onto the lead in the polesitting #22 United Autosports Oreca and he quickly pulled a gap to Giedo van der Garde in the #29 Racing Team Nederland Oreca, who passed G-Drive's Jean-Eric Vergne at the start.

The pair were quickly put under pressure by fast-starting Alex Brundle in the #32 United Autosports car, who passed both Vergne and van der Garde to put the Anglo-American outfit first and second.

The #36 Signatech Alpine, one of the contenders for the win, lost early ground when Andre Negrao disappear into the garage with a loss of water pressure. Negrao's repairs cost him two laps.

Van der Garde similarly hit water pressure issues early on and was forced to enter the garage.

During the first set of regular pitstops, Kenta Yamashita vaulted up the order to second in the #33 High Class Oreca, around seven seconds behind leader Albuquerque. By then end of the first hour, Brundle had lost third to James Allen in the #39 Graff Oreca.

Gianmaria Bruni initially hung onto the GTE Pro lead in the #91 Porsche 911 RSR-19, but was powerless to keep AF Corse #51 car of James Calado behind. The Aston Martin duo of Alex Lynn and Nicki Thiim soon followed Calado through to occupy second and third, followed by the second AF Corse of Davide Rigon and both factory Porsches.

Lynn then blasted past Calado in his #97 Aston to take over the class lead after 20 minutes, a lead which he held after the first round of pitstops ahead of Miguel Molina in the #71 AF Corse Ferrari and Thiim.

In GTE Am, polesitting Oswaldo Negri Jr quickly fell down the order, with Team Project 1's Porsche works driver Matteo Cairoli taking the lead. Cairoli was then overtaken by Ross Gunn in the #98 Aston Martin, who remained in the lead during the first hour. TF Sport's Charlie Eastwood occupied second at the top of the hour ahead of Cairoli.

There was early drama in the class when Negri lost the rear of his Ferrari under braking for the Dunlop chicane, which forced the #88 Porsche of Thomas Preining to take evasive action. Preining went onto the grass and was unable to prevent his car from clattering into the barriers, becoming the first retiree of the race.

Nobuya Yamanaka caused a second slow zone by spinning off at exactly the same spot in the #35 Eurasia LMP2 entry, just after Claudio Schiavoni spun off in the #60 GTE Am Iron Lynx Ferrari at the Ford chicane. The Japanese driver was able to continue.

Le Mans 24 Hours - positions after 1 hour

Pos Class Car Drivers Laps Gap
1 LMP1 #7 Toyota Conway, Kobayashi, Lopez 17
2 LMP1 #1 Rebellion Senna, Nato, Menezes 17 + 55.615s
3 LMP1 #3 Rebellion Dumas, Berthon, Deletraz 16 + 1 Lap
4 LMP1 #8 Toyota Buemi, Nakajima, Hartley 16 + 12.612s
5 LMP1 #4 ENSO Dillmann, Spengler, Webb 16 + 1m32.675s
6 LMP2 #22 Oreca Hanson, Albuquerque, Di Resta 16 + 1m52.943s
7 LMP2 #33 Oreca Yamashita, Patterson, Fjordbach 16 + 2m02.262s
8 LMP2 #39 Oreca Allen, Capillaire, Milesi 16 + 2m03.058s
9 LMP2 #32 Oreca Owen, Brundle, Van Uitert 16 + 2m04.357s
10 LMP2 #26 Aurus Rusinov, Vergne, Jensen 16 + 2m05.910s
11 LMP2 #38 Oreca Davidson, Da Costa, Gonzalez 16 + 2m10.547s
12 LMP2 #30 Oreca Hirschi, Tereschenko, Gommendy 16 + 2m11.613s
13 LMP2 #31 Oreca Jamin, Canal, Vaxiviere 16 + 2m15.029s
14 LMP2 #25 Oreca Falb, Trummer, McMurry 16 + 2m16.464s
15 LMP2 #47 Dallara Lacorte, Belicchi, Sernagiotto 16 + 2m34.392s
16 LMP2 #37 Oreca Tung, Aubry, Stevens 16 + 2m50.403s
17 LMP2 #21 Oreca Montoya, Buret, Rojas 16 + 3m04.575s
18 LMP2 #16 Aurus Cullen, Jarvis, Tandy 15 + 2 Laps
19 LMP2 #50 Oreca Calderon, Florsch, Visser 15 + 48.345s
20 LMP2 #42 Oreca Lapierre, Borga, Coigny 15 + 55.050s
21 LMP2 #24 Oreca Grist, Kapadia, Wells 15 + 56.323s
22 LMP2 #11 Ligier Tambay, Maris, D'Ansembourg 15 + 1m04.507s
23 LMP2 #27 Oreca Hedman, Hanley, Van der Zande 15 + 1m17.428s
24 LMP2 #34 Ligier Smiechowski, Binder, Isaakyan 15 + 2m00.841s
25 GTE Pro #97 Aston Martin, Lynn, Tincknell 14 + 3 Laps
26 GTE Pro #71 Ferrari Rigon, Molina, Bird 14 + 1.346s
27 GTE Pro #95 Aston Thiim, Sorensen, Westbrook 14 + 9.561s
28 GTE Pro #51 Ferrari Pier Guidi, Calado, Serra 14 + 11.728s
29 GTE Pro #91 Porsche Bruni, Lietz, Makowiecki 14 + 22.754s
30 GTE Pro #82 Ferrari Pla, Bourdais, Gounon 14 + 23.968s
31 GTE Pro #92 Porsche Christensen, Estre, Vanthoor 14 + 28.208s
32 GTE Pro #63 Ferrari Macneil, Vilander, Segal 14 + 30.262s
33 LMP2 #28 Oreca Lafargue, Chatin, Bradley 14 + 33.685s
34 GTE Am #98 Aston Dalla Lana, Gunn, Farfus 14 + 36.004s
35 GTE Am #90 Aston Yoluc, Eastwood, Adam 14 + 42.577s
36 GTE Am #56 Porsche Perfetti, Ten Voorde, Cairoli 14 + 45.648s
37 LMP2 #17 Oreca Pilet, Tilley, Kennard 14 + 52.103s
38 GTE Am #99 Porsche Inthraphuvasak, Legeret, Andlauer 14 + 56.515s
39 GTE Am #54 Ferrari Flohr, Castellacci, Fisichella 14 + 59.704s
40 GTE Am #55 Ferrari Cameron, Scott, Griffin 14 + 1m03.677s
41 GTE Am #75 Ferrari Mastronardi, Cressoni, Piccini 14 + 1m21.270s
42 GTE Am #57 Porsche Keating, Fraga, Bleekemolen 14 + 1m21.868s
43 GTE Am #78 Porsche Felbermayr, Beretta, Van Splunteren 14 + 1m22.894s
44 GTE Am #72 Ferrari Chen, Blomqvist, Gomes 14 + 1m24.837s
45 GTE Am #86 Porsche Wainwright, Barker, Watson 14 + 1m29.664s
46 GTE Am #66 Ferrari Heistand, Root, Magnussen 14 + 1m33.830s
47 GTE Am #61 Ferrari Piovanetti, Negri Jr., Ledogar 14 + 2m04.872s
48 GTE Am #83 Ferrari Perrodo, Collard, Nielsen 14 + 2m06.731s
49 GTE Am #77 Porsche Ried, Pera, Campbell 14 + 2m08.212s
50 GTE Am #89 Porsche Brooks, Piguet, Laskaratos 14 + 2m59.225s
51 GTE Am #52 Ferrari Ulrich, Gorig, West 13 + 4 Laps
52 GTE Am #62 Ferrari Grimes, Mowlem, Hollings 13 + 25.650s
53 GTE Am #85 Ferrari Gostner, Frey, Gatting 13 + 1m30.598s
54 LMP2 #36 Alpine Negrao, Ragues, Laurent 13 + 2m02.870s
55 LMP2 #29 Oreca Van Eerd, Van der Garde, De Vries 13 + 2m55.529s
56 GTE Am #60 Ferrari Schiavoni, Pianezzola, Ruberti 13 + 3m00.449s
57 LMP2 #35 Ligier Yamanaka, Foster, Merhi 13 + 3m11.208s
58 GTE Am #70 Ferrari Kimura, Abril, Cozzolino 7 + 10 Laps
59 GTE Am #88 Porsche Preining, Bastien, De Leener 5 + 12 Laps

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