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Le Mans 24 Hours: Nick Tandy keeps Porsche ahead of Audi at halfway

The #19 Porsche led the Le Mans 24 Hours at half distance, with Nick Tandy continuing to keep the pursuing Audis at bay in the middle of the night

Tandy maintained his car's commanding position out front as the leaders cycled through more pitstops, with only a light-on-fuel Andre Lotterer briefly appearing to be a match for the #19 Porsche just before the Audi pitted for another tank of diesel.

Lotterer emerged just behind the #9 Audi of Marco Bonanomi, and the pair were running very close together - more than a minute behind Tandy - as the race reached the 12-hour mark.

Behind the lead battle, Brendon Hartley returned to the cockpit of the #17 Porsche for the first time since it served a penalty he picked up for a yellow flag infringement.

Porsche faced more scrutiny from the race officials in the 12th hour, with the team manager of the #18 car being summoned to race control - so far without a reason given.

LMP2:

A slow stop for Nicholas Lapierre has slashed his advantage at the head of LMP2 as the race reaches half-distance.

The #47 KCMG ORECA had more than four minutes in hand over the second-placed #46 Thiriet by TDS Racing ORECA before the stop but after a lengthy delay this was cut to just 49 seconds at the end of the hour - the smallest margin it has been for a long time.

Behind Pierre Thiriet, Sam Bird has consolidated third place in the #26 G-Drive Racing Ligier, while several of the lower order cars hit problems.

Both the #29 Pegasus Morgan and the #43 Team SARD Morand Morgan brought out the yellow flags when they stopped on track. While the SARD Morand machine has been recovered, the #29 version appears to be out of the race.

GTE:

Fernando Rees kept Aston Martin at the top of the GTE Pro pecking order, despite a mistake that briefly cost it the lead to Corvette.

The Brazilian was under heavy pressure from Oliver Gavin in the fight for the lead, and Rees cracked under braking for the first Mulsanne chicane, locked up and ran across the gravel.

That allowed Gavin to slip through and extend a narrow advantage, before pitting at the end of the lap and handing over to Tommy Milner.

However, Milner stalled and that, combined with Chevrolet fitting a new set of tyres to the C7.R, put the Corvette Racing squad 1m22s down on the #99 Aston with both cars having stopped 11 times.

Toni Vilander ran third for Ferrari by the end of the 12th hour, one stop fewer than the #91 Porsche it leapfrogged by the race's halfway mark.

The #72 SMP Ferrari topped GTE Am at the hour's culmination, but in reality the #98 Aston is in control.

Paul dalla Lana handed the Vantage over to Mathias Lauda, who only ceded the lead to the AF Corse-run SMP car when he pit right before the clock struck 3am local time.

POSITIONS AFTER 12 HOURS

Pos Class Car Drivers Laps Gap
1 LMP1 #19 Porsche Hulkenberg, Bamber, Tandy 192
2 LMP1 #9 Audi Albuquerque, Bonanomi, Rast 192 + 1m03.643s
3 LMP1 #7 Audi Fassler, Lotterer, Treluyer 192 + 1m06.588s
4 LMP1 #17 Porsche Bernhard, Webber, Hartley 191 + 1 Lap
5 LMP1 #8 Audi Di Grassi, Duval, Jarvis 190 + 2 Laps
6 LMP1 #18 Porsche Dumas, Jani, Lieb 189 + 3 Laps
7 LMP1 #2 Toyota Wurz, Sarrazin, Conway 188 + 4 Laps
8 LMP1 #1 Toyota Davidson, Buemi, Nakajima 185 + 7 Laps
9 LMP1 #13 Rebellion Imperatori, Kraihamer, Abt 179 + 13 Laps
10 LMP2 #47 Oreca Howson, Bradley, Lapierre 174 + 18 Laps
11 LMP2 #46 Oreca Thiriet, Badey, Gommendy 174 + 54.503s
12 LMP2 #26 Ligier Rusinov, Canal, Bird 174 + 56.085s
13 LMP2 #48 Oreca Chandhok, Patterson, Berthon 173 + 19 Laps
14 LMP2 #38 Gibson Dolan, Evans, Turvey 172 + 20 Laps
15 LMP2 #28 Ligier Yacaman, Derani, Gonzalez 172 + 58.192s
16 LMP2 #42 Dome Leventis, Watts, Kane 171 + 21 Laps
17 LMP2 #34 Ligier Cumming, Vanthoor, Estre 170 + 22 Laps
18 LMP1 #12 Rebellion Prost, Heidfeld, Beche 170 + 4m12.497s
19 LMP2 #27 BR Mediani, Markozov, Minassian 165 + 27 Laps
20 LMP2 #45 Oreca Ibanez, Perret, Bellarosa 165 + 2m10.690s
21 GTE Pro #99 Aston Rees, Macdowall, Stanaway 165 + 3m26.018s
22 GTE Pro #64 Chevrolet Gavin, Milner, Taylor 164 + 28 Laps
23 LMP2 #31 Ligier Brown, Van Overbeek, Fogarty 164 + 1m10.829s
24 GTE Pro #51 Ferrari Bruni, Vilander, Fisichella 164 + 1m26.676s
25 GTE Pro #91 Porsche Lietz, Christensen, Bergmeister 163 + 29 Laps
26 LMP2 #35 Ligier Nicolet, Merlin, Maris 163 + 2m10.088s
27 LMP2 #43 Morgan Ragues, Webb, Amberg 162 + 30 Laps
28 GTE Am #98 Aston Dalla Lana, Lamy, Lauda 162 + 36m42.836s
29 GTE Am #72 Ferrari Shaytar, Bertolini, Basov 162 + 37m25.565s
30 GTE Am #77 Porsche Dempsey, Long, Seefried 161 + 31 Laps
31 GTE Am #62 Ferrari Sweedler, Bell, Segal 161 + 50.450s
32 GTE Pro #71 Ferrari Rigon, Calado, Beretta 161 + 1m34.413s
33 LMP2 #29 Morgan Roussel, Tung, Cheng 161 + 3m14.382s
34 GTE Am #53 Dodge Bleekemolen, Keating, Miller 160 + 32 Laps
35 GTE Pro #95 Aston Sorensen, Thiim, Nygaard 160 + 24.453s
36 GTE Am #66 Ferrari Al Faisal, Giermaziak, Avenatti 160 + 3m03.263s
37 GTE Am #55 Ferrari Cameron, Griffin, Mortimer 159 + 33 Laps
38 GTE Am #83 Ferrari Perrodo, Collard, Aguas 158 + 34 Laps
39 GTE Am #68 Porsche Chen, Vannelet, Parisy 158 + 50.586s
40 GTE Am #61 Ferrari Mann, Giammaria, Cressoni 157 + 35 Laps
41 GTE Am #67 Porsche Chen, Kapadia, Maassen 154 + 38 Laps
42 LMP2 #30 Ligier Sharp, Dalziel, Heinemeier Hansson 152 + 40 Laps
43 LMP2 #40 Ligier Krohn, Jonsson, Barbosa 151 + 41 Laps
44 LMP2 #37 BR Aleshin, Ladygin, Ladygin 146 + 46 Laps
45 LMP1 #23 Nissan Pla, Mardenborough, Chilton 133 + 59 Laps
46 LMP1 #4 CLM Trummer, Kaffer, Monteiro 130 + 62 Laps
47 LMP1 #22 Nissan Tincknell, Krumm, Buncombe 125 + 67 Laps
48 GTE Am #96 Aston Goethe, Hall, Castellacci 125 + 1m20.556s
49 LMP1 #21 Nissan Matsuda, Shulzhitskiy, Ordonez 115 Retired
50 LMP2 #36 Alpine Panciatici, Chatin, Capillaire 110 Retired
51 GTE Pro #97 Aston Turner, Mucke, Bell 110 Retired
52 GTE Am #50 Chevrolet Roda, Ruberti, Poulsen 94 Retired
53 LMP2 #41 Gibson Hirsch, Paletou, Lancaster 71 Retired
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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