Le Mans 24 Hours: Nakajima retains lead in #8 Toyota
Toyota's #8 crew held a secure lead in the 88th running of the Le Mans 24 Hours with eight hours to go, helped by drama for the #7 car
Having inherited a one-lap lead as a result of the #7 car's turbo issues just past the halfway point, Brendon Hartley handed over the #8 car to Kazuki Nakajima towards the end of the 14th hour.
Nakajima then proceeded to gain another lap over the second-placed #1 Rebellion R-13, currently driven by Norman Nato, in the 16th hour.
The second Rebellion, the #3 car, was three laps off the pace with Le Mans rookie Louis Deletraz at the wheel, while the #7 Toyota was circulating six laps behind its sister car with Jose Maria Lopez posting some quick lap times.
In LMP2, the all-United Autosports battle for the lead continued to rage. The two ORECAs pitted together at the end of the 15th hour, with the #22 machine taking the advantage by virtue of not changing tyres, putting the two cars on diverging strategies.
Filipe Albuquerque brought in the #22 car to hand over to Phil Hanson midway through the 16th hour, and Job van Uitert in the sister #32 machine was closing fast when the car was hit with a suspected oil leak just shy of the 16-hour mark.
The Goodyear-shod JOTA Sport ORECA had been closing on the lead battle, at one point running only 15 seconds off the lead, but an unscheduled pitstop cost the #38 car around a minute.
Anthony Davidson ran just over a minute off the lead at the 16-hour mark, regaining second place after the problem for the #32 United car.
Matthieu Vaxiviere ran third in the similarly Goodyear-equipped Panis Racing ORECA, but being hunted down rapidly by Roman Rusinov in the G-Drive Racing ORECA, while James Allen was running fifth in the Graff ORECA.
There was more drama for the #29 Racing Team Nederland ORECA, as Nyck de Vries got tangled up with Toni Vilander's WeatherTech Racing Ferrari in an incident at Tertre Rouge - causing terminal damage to the latter car.
In GTE Pro, Aston Martin got the upper hand over Ferrari after Alex Lynn handed over the #97 Vantage GTE to Maxime Martin, who passed Alessandro Pier Guidi in the #51 Ferrari.
Once Pier Guidi pitted to make way for Daniel Serra, Martin was leading by around 15s until he came in to hand over to Harry Tincknell just before the 16-hour mark.
That meant Serra led by 90s over Tincknell but due a stop, while the second works Aston of Marco Sorensen continued to run third, a lap down.
There was more drama for Porsche as the #91 car, which had been fourth in class, was pushed into the garage to fix an electrical problem, elevating the #71 Ferrari to fourth.
In GTE Am, a superb stint from Jonathan Adam in the #90 TF Sport Aston Martin had given that car a handsome lead, even before its nearest rival, the #98 Aston Martin, was struck by a suspension issue that forced the car being driven by Ross Gunn into the garage.
Charlie Eastwood, having taken over from Adam, ran nearly a lap ahead of Matt Campbell in the #77 Dempsey-Proton Porsche, while the #56 Project 1 Porsche of Larry ten Voorde was up to third in class ahead of the #83 AF Corse Ferrari of Nicklas Nielsen.
Le Mans 24 Hours - positions after 16 hours
Pos | Class | Car | Drivers | Laps | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | LMP1 | #8 Toyota | Buemi, Nakajima, Hartley | 254 | |
2 | LMP1 | #1 Rebellion | Senna, Nato, Menezes | 252 | + 2 Laps |
3 | LMP1 | #3 Rebellion | Dumas, Berthon, Deletraz | 250 | + 4 Laps |
4 | LMP1 | #7 Toyota | Conway, Kobayashi, Lopez | 248 | + 6 Laps |
5 | LMP2 | #22 Oreca | Hanson, Albuquerque, Di Resta | 243 | + 11 Laps |
6 | LMP2 | #38 Oreca | Davidson, Da Costa, Gonzalez | 243 | + 57.426s |
7 | LMP2 | #31 Oreca | Jamin, Canal, Vaxiviere | 241 | + 13 Laps |
8 | LMP2 | #26 Aurus | Rusinov, Vergne, Jensen | 241 | + 1m16.481s |
9 | LMP2 | #32 Oreca | Owen, Brundle, Van Uitert | 240 | + 14 Laps |
10 | LMP2 | #39 Oreca | Allen, Capillaire, Milesi | 240 | + 8m50.038s |
11 | LMP2 | #42 Oreca | Lapierre, Borga, Coigny | 240 | + 9m50.949s |
12 | LMP2 | #27 Oreca | Hedman, Hanley, Van der Zande | 240 | + 11m04.410s |
13 | LMP2 | #36 Alpine | Negrao, Ragues, Laurent | 240 | + 11m39.458s |
14 | LMP2 | #28 Oreca | Lafargue, Chatin, Bradley | 239 | + 15 Laps |
15 | LMP2 | #25 Oreca | Falb, Trummer, McMurry | 239 | + 2m00.578s |
16 | LMP2 | #50 Oreca | Calderon, Florsch, Visser | 239 | + 2m08.146s |
17 | LMP2 | #47 Dallara | Lacorte, Belicchi, Sernagiotto | 238 | + 16 Laps |
18 | LMP2 | #17 Oreca | Pilet, Tilley, Kennard | 238 | + 1m06.962s |
19 | LMP2 | #35 Ligier | Yamanaka, Foster, Merhi | 232 | + 22 Laps |
20 | LMP2 | #29 Oreca | Van Eerd, Van der Garde, De Vries | 229 | + 25 Laps |
21 | LMP2 | #24 Oreca | Grist, Kapadia, Wells | 227 | + 27 Laps |
22 | GTE Pro | #51 Ferrari | Pier Guidi, Calado, Serra | 227 | + 20.622s |
23 | GTE Pro | #97 Aston | Martin, Lynn, Tincknell | 227 | + 1m30.664s |
24 | GTE Pro | #95 Aston | Thiim, Sorensen, Westbrook | 226 | + 28 Laps |
25 | LMP2 | #34 Ligier | Smiechowski, Binder, Isaakyan | 223 | + 31 Laps |
26 | GTE Pro | #71 Ferrari | Rigon, Molina, Bird | 223 | + 1m55.889s |
27 | GTE Pro | #82 Ferrari | Pla, Bourdais, Gounon | 223 | + 2m13.240s |
28 | GTE Am | #90 Aston | Yoluc, Eastwood, Adam | 223 | + 2m52.185s |
29 | GTE Am | #77 Porsche | Ried, Pera, Campbell | 222 | + 32 Laps |
30 | GTE Am | #56 Porsche | Perfetti, Ten Voorde, Cairoli | 222 | + 31.386s |
31 | GTE Am | #83 Ferrari | Perrodo, Collard, Nielsen | 221 | + 33 Laps |
32 | GTE Am | #86 Porsche | Wainwright, Barker, Watson | 221 | + 3m49.869s |
33 | GTE Am | #98 Aston | Dalla Lana, Gunn, Farfus | 220 | + 34 Laps |
34 | GTE Am | #66 Ferrari | Heistand, Root, Magnussen | 220 | + 5m04.444s |
35 | GTE Am | #99 Porsche | Inthraphuvasak, Legeret, Andlauer | 220 | + 7m45.677s |
36 | GTE Pro | #91 Porsche | Bruni, Lietz, Makowiecki | 219 | + 35 Laps |
37 | GTE Am | #61 Ferrari | Piovanetti, Negri Jr., Ledogar | 219 | + 17m34.872s |
38 | GTE Am | #72 Ferrari | Chen, Blomqvist, Gomes | 219 | + 20m08.319s |
39 | GTE Am | #85 Ferrari | Gostner, Frey, Gatting | 218 | + 36 Laps |
40 | GTE Am | #60 Ferrari | Schiavoni, Pianezzola, Ruberti | 218 | + 39.648s |
41 | GTE Am | #54 Ferrari | Flohr, Castellacci, Fisichella | 218 | + 2m24.488s |
42 | GTE Am | #78 Porsche | Felbermayr, Beretta, Van Splunteren | 215 | + 39 Laps |
43 | GTE Pro | #92 Porsche | Christensen, Estre, Vanthoor | 214 | + 40 Laps |
44 | GTE Am | #62 Ferrari | Grimes, Mowlem, Hollings | 212 | + 42 Laps |
45 | GTE Am | #75 Ferrari | Mastronardi, Cressoni, Piccini | 211 | + 43 Laps |
46 | GTE Am | #57 Porsche | Keating, Fraga, Bleekemolen | 211 | + 15m31.501s |
47 | GTE Am | #89 Porsche | Brooks, Piguet, Laskaratos | 210 | + 44 Laps |
48 | GTE Am | #88 Porsche | Preining, Bastien, De Leener | 130 | + 124 Laps |
49 | LMP2 | #21 Oreca | Montoya, Buret, Rojas | 192 | + 62 Laps |
50 | GTE Pro | #63 Ferrari | Macneil, Vilander, Segal | 185 | + 69 Laps |
51 | GTE Am | #70 Ferrari | Kimura, Abril, Cozzolino | 172 | + 82 Laps |
52 | LMP2 | #37 Oreca | Tung, Aubry, Stevens | 141 | + 113 Laps |
53 | LMP2 | #16 Aurus | Cullen, Jarvis, Tandy | 105 | + 149 Laps |
54 | LMP2 | #30 Oreca | Hirschi, Tereschenko, Gommendy | 100 | + 154 Laps |
55 | LMP1 | #4 ENSO | Dillmann, Spengler, Webb | 97 | + 157 Laps |
56 | LMP2 | #33 Oreca | Yamashita, Patterson, Fjordbach | 88 | + 166 Laps |
57 | GTE Am | #52 Ferrari | Ulrich, Gorig, West | 80 | + 174 Laps |
58 | GTE Am | #55 Ferrari | Cameron, Scott, Griffin | 78 | + 176 Laps |
59 | LMP2 | #11 Ligier | Tambay, Maris, D'Ansembourg | 26 | + 228 Laps |
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