Le Mans 24 Hours: Kobayashi holds leading Toyota's gap to Alonso

Kamui Kobayashi started the hour with more than a minute in hand over the #8 TS050 HYBRID driven by Fernando Alonso, although the #7 car forfeited three seconds on two consecutive laps before both made stops just before quarter past the hour.

There was little change in the following stint, however, and Kobayashi ended the hour with 56s in hand over double Formula 1 world champion Alonso.

Both cars made further stops a lap apart in the final quarter of the hour, and at the #8's stop Toyota swapped the car's front nose for a change of aero package.

Nathanael Berthon was still third at the end of the hour in the #3 Rebellion-Gibson R13, but SMP's lead #11 car had reduced its arrears to seven seconds thanks to Stoffel Vandoorne's efforts.

The #11 BR Engineering-AER BR1 is the last car on the lead lap, after the sister #17 car was overtaken by the leading #7 Toyota.

Andre Lotterer ran sixth in the #1 Rebellion that suffered a puncture in the second hour but is three laps down, while the ByKolles car is a further lap down in 12th overall.

LMP2 - G-Drive takes the lead

Job Van Uitert overcame a 10s penalty to take the LMP2 lead shortly before the end of the fourth hour for G-Drive Racing.

After several laps of shadowing, Le Mans rookie Van Uitert passed Pierre Thiriet's #36 Signatech Alpine into the first chicane, and had stretched his advantage to 1.8s at the hour mark.

In his first stint aboard the #26 ORECA after taking over from Jean-Eric Vergne, Van Uitert had already tracked Thiriet's team-mate Nicolas Lapierre and passed him at the second before both headed to the pits at the end of the tour.

Despite Lapierre making way for Thiriet, Van Uitert rejoined behind due to a penalty for Vergne not respecting FCY procedure in the third hour, but by the time of their next pitstops Van Uitert was right on Thiriet's tail, and duly completed the move a short while later.

Gabriel Aubry was third in the #38 Jackie Chan DC Racing ORECA at the end of hour four, after he had taken over from Stephane Richelmi.

Pastor Maldonado ran fourth for DragonSpeed after passing the second Jota-run DC Racing car of David Heinemeier-Hansson shortly before the hour mark.

The trio had run in reverse order at the beginning of the hour as Heinemeier-Hansson's team-mate Jordan King passed DragonSpeed's Roberto Gonzalez.

Richelmi followed Gonzalez into the pits and Aubry came out ahead, later passing King as his tyres began to grain.

Phil Hanson is sixth in the #22 United Autosport Ligier, while polesitter Loic Duval ran seventh in the #28 TDS Racing ORECA, which is climbing back up the leaderboard after two stints by Bronze driver Francois Perrodo.

GTE - Rockenfeller maintains Corvette's lead

The #63 Chevrolet Corvette C7.R continued to lead in GTE Pro through a pitstop in which Jan Magnussen handed over to Mike Rockenfeller.

The 2010 overall winner of Le Mans headed '15 victor Earl Bamber in the #93 Porsche 911 RSR by a shade over a second on the four-hour mark, though the CORE Autosport-run car was due a pitstop.

Daniel Serra was only another second behind in the #51 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo after taking over from James Calado, who had made inroads into Magnussen's lead earlier in the hour.

The #92 Manthey Porsche held fourth with Laurens Vanthoor at the wheel.

The #67 Ganassi Ford GT, which had earlier been second in class, dropped down the order after being given a drive-through penalty for an unsafe release in the pits.

Positions after four hours