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Le Mans 24 Hours: Mark Webber keeps Porsche in front of Audi

The #17 Porsche held onto its lead in the Le Mans 24 Hours, with Brendon Hartley handing the car over to ex-Formula 1 driver Mark Webber in the sixth hour

The longer pitstop for the driver change in the Porsche allowed the Audis of Benoit Treluyer and Filipe Albuquerque to close the gap, but both were coming to the end of quadruple stints, meaning they would have to also perform driver changes at their next stops.

Both Audis appeared to have the measure of Webber, who was severely baulked a few times in traffic in his early laps, meaning he looked set to be fighting a rearguard action as his stint developed.

The #18 and #19 Porsches continued to hold top five positions, having suffered earlier in the race with a suspected slow puncture and a safety car pitstop respectively.

While Lucas di Grassi continued to fight to make the recovering #8 Audi (which was crashed by Loic Duval) a lead-lap regular, behind him Toyota's struggles continued.

Anthony Davidson pitted the #1 TS040 with bodywork and rear suspension damage towards the start of the hour, resulting in a 13-minute stop in the garage for repairs before the car was taken over by Kazuki Nakajima.

LMP2

A relentless Nicolas Lapierre helped KCMG cement a 1m40s lead in LMP2.

Lapierre started the hour with a two-minute lead, but despite making a pair of pitstops to the one of its rivals, the KCMG car only lost 20 seconds, with Matt Howson now behind the wheel.

Greaves Motorsport had been KCMG's closest challenger, but Gary Hirsch stopped at the Esses with a flat battery and was last seen undertaking trackside repairs. The car has lost 14 laps and is now 18th in the class.

TDS Racing and Murphy Prototypes sit second and third, although Pierre Thiriet and Mark Patterson are split by approximately 1m30s.

Vincent Capillaire is now in the fourth-placed Signatech Alpine, while Sam Bird is back behind the wheel of the #26 G-Drive (OAK) Ligier and has moved from seventh to fifth.

The hopes of OAK Racing's Honda-powered entry took a blow when Chris Cumming spun at Indianapolis late in the hour, dropping from seventh to 11th.

GTE

Aston Martin Racing moved back into the lead of both the GTE Pro and GTE Am battles.

Fernando Rees's third consecutive stint helped lift the #99 Vantage ahead of the Chevrolet Corvette C7.R, which stopped for tyres and to swap Tommy Milner with Jordan Taylor.

That dropped it to third in GTE, but Taylor soon caught Darren Turner's triple-stinting 97 Aston and moved back into second, though remained more than 20s off the lead at the quarter-distance mark.

Porsche moved into fourth place as Olivier Beretta's lack of pace cost the #71 AF Corse Ferrari a position, while the #51 Ferrari remains two minutes adrift of the sister car after earlier woes.

AMR's #98 Am-class Vantage took back the lead from the #72 SMP Ferrari, though that battle continues to rage as the two are out of sync in terms of pit strategy.

The #83 AF Corse Ferrari has moved into third after the #77 Proton Porsche slipped back.

POSITIONS AFTER SIX HOURS

Pos Class Car Drivers Laps Gap
1 LMP1 #17 Porsche Bernhard, Webber, Hartley 93
2 LMP1 #7 Audi Fassler, Lotterer, Treluyer 93 + 3.188s
3 LMP1 #9 Audi Albuquerque, Bonanomi, Rast 93 + 11.290s
4 LMP1 #18 Porsche Dumas, Jani, Lieb 92 + 1 Lap
5 LMP1 #19 Porsche Hulkenberg, Bamber, Tandy 92 + 16.404s
6 LMP1 #8 Audi Di Grassi, Duval, Jarvis 92 + 2m07.449s
7 LMP1 #2 Toyota Wurz, Sarrazin, Conway 91 + 2 Laps
8 LMP1 #12 Rebellion Prost, Heidfeld, Beche 89 + 4 Laps
9 LMP1 #1 Toyota Davidson, Buemi, Nakajima 88 + 5 Laps
10 LMP1 #13 Rebellion Imperatori, Kraihamer, Abt 86 + 7 Laps
11 LMP2 #47 Oreca Howson, Bradley, Lapierre 85 + 8 Laps
12 LMP2 #46 Oreca Thiriet, Badey, Gommendy 85 + 1m45.783s
13 LMP2 #48 Oreca Chandhok, Patterson, Berthon 84 + 9 Laps
14 LMP2 #36 Alpine Panciatici, Chatin, Capillaire 84 + 26.300s
15 LMP2 #26 Ligier Rusinov, Canal, Bird 84 + 1m01.126s
16 LMP2 #43 Morgan Ragues, Webb, Amberg 84 + 1m47.559s
17 LMP2 #28 Ligier Yacaman, Derani, Gonzalez 83 + 10 Laps
18 LMP2 #42 Dome Leventis, Watts, Kane 83 + 1m56.082s
19 LMP2 #34 Ligier Cumming, Vanthoor, Estre 82 + 11 Laps
20 LMP2 #38 Gibson Dolan, Evans, Turvey 82 + 11.468s
21 LMP2 #27 BR Mediani, Markozov, Minassian 82 + 53.407s
22 LMP1 #22 Nissan Tincknell, Krumm, Buncombe 82 + 2m08.553s
23 GTE Pro #99 Aston Rees, Macdowall, Stanaway 80 + 13 Laps
24 GTE Pro #64 Chevrolet Gavin, Milner, Taylor 80 + 23.976s
25 GTE Pro #97 Aston Turner, Mucke, Bell 80 + 25.701s
26 LMP2 #40 Ligier Krohn, Jonsson, Barbosa 80 + 1m10.386s
27 GTE Pro #91 Porsche Lietz, Christensen, Bergmeister 80 + 1m33.411s
28 GTE Pro #71 Ferrari Rigon, Calado, Beretta 80 + 2m22.564s
29 LMP2 #31 Ligier Brown, Van Overbeek, Fogarty 80 + 2m38.917s
30 GTE Am #98 Aston Dalla Lana, Lamy, Lauda 80 + 3m12.758s
31 LMP2 #45 Oreca Ibanez, Perret, Bellarosa 80 + 3m17.524s
32 LMP2 #35 Ligier Nicolet, Merlin, Maris 80 + 3m45.315s
33 GTE Pro #51 Ferrari Bruni, Vilander, Fisichella 79 + 14 Laps
34 GTE Am #72 Ferrari Shaytar, Bertolini, Basov 79 + 22.601s
35 GTE Am #83 Ferrari Perrodo, Collard, Aguas 79 + 54.866s
36 GTE Am #53 Dodge Bleekemolen, Keating, Miller 79 + 59.751s
37 LMP1 #21 Nissan Matsuda, Shulzhitskiy, Ordonez 79 + 2m32.284s
38 LMP2 #29 Morgan Roussel, Tung, Cheng 79 + 3m31.407s
39 GTE Am #62 Ferrari Sweedler, Bell, Segal 78 + 15 Laps
40 GTE Am #77 Porsche Dempsey, Long, Seefried 78 + 26.129s
41 GTE Am #66 Ferrari Al Faisal, Giermaziak, Avenatti 77 + 16 Laps
42 GTE Am #55 Ferrari Cameron, Griffin, Mortimer 77 + 2m03.072s
43 GTE Am #68 Porsche Chen, Vannelet, Parisy 76 + 17 Laps
44 LMP1 #23 Nissan Pla, Mardenborough, Chilton 76 + 1m24.197s
45 GTE Pro #95 Aston Sorensen, Thiim, Nygaard 76 + 3m08.433s
46 LMP2 #30 Ligier Sharp, Dalziel, Heinemeier Hansson 75 + 18 Laps
47 GTE Am #67 Porsche Chen, Kapadia, Maassen 75 + 52.691s
48 GTE Am #61 Ferrari Mann, Giammaria, Cressoni 75 + 1m24.442s
49 GTE Am #50 Chevrolet Roda, Ruberti, Poulsen 73 + 20 Laps
50 LMP2 #41 Gibson Hirsch, Paletou, Lancaster 71 + 22 Laps
51 LMP2 #37 BR Aleshin, Ladygin, Ladygin 65 + 28 Laps
52 LMP1 #4 CLM Trummer, Kaffer, Monteiro 53 + 40 Laps
53 GTE Am #96 Aston Goethe, Hall, Castellacci 43 + 50 Laps
54 GTE Am #88 Porsche Ried, Al Qubaisi, Bachler 44 Retired
55 GTE Pro #92 Porsche Pilet, Makowiecki, Henzler 14 Retired

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