Le Mans 24 Hours: Porsche back in front as Audis hit trouble

Former race leader Andre Lotterer was forced to surrender the top spot when the #7 Audi suffered a puncture just three laps into its fourth stint on the same set of tyres.

That dropped the car back to sixth, allowing the #17 Porsche, which changed tyres and was taken over by Brendon Hartley, back into the lead that Timo Bernhard had held early on.

There was more drama for Audi just before the top of the hour when Loic Duval crashed the #8 Audi on the approach to a slow zone (for debris) at Indianapolis.

Duval arrived on a pack of GTE cars (and the then-second #18 Porsche of Marc Lieb), and spun as he tried to avoid them, smashing into the wall on the outside.

Remarkably he was able to bring the Audi back to the pits, and just four minutes later it was back on track with Lucas di Grassi at the wheel.

In all the confusion, Marco Bonanomi managed to get the #9 Audi ahead of Lieb for second, while Nick Tandy, taking over from Nico Hulkenberg, ran fourth in the #19 Porsche.

LMP2

The safety car halted Nicolas Lapierre's charge at the head of the LMP2 field, but its groupings look to have helped KCMG.

Lapierre took over from Richard Bradley halfway through the hour and quickly built on the advantage the polesitter enjoyed over the pursuing TDS Racing ORECA handed from Tristan Gommendy to Ludovic Badey.

With a string of fastest laps late in the hour - his new benchmark of 3m39.168s is a second clear of anything other cars in the class have mustered - Lapierre built a 40s advantage.

Badey pitted just before the safety car was called and re-emerged in second place, while Lapierre's track position means his safety car queue puts him three minutes ahead of Badey, albeit based on the field circulating at reduced speed.

Nelson Panciatici is third for Signatech Alpine, ahead of Karun Chandhok in the Murphy Prototypes ORECA with both cars, like KCMG, still to make a fourth pitstop.

Kevin Estre in OAK's Honda-powered Ligier and the Greaves Motorsport Gibson, now with Gary Hirsch behind the wheel, are fifth and sixth, while Jota Sport is 11th with Mitch Evans.

GTE

The lead Aston Martin Racing Vantage dropped out of the GTE Pro lead right at the end of the third hour, but an AMR car still headed the fielded under safety-car conditions.

Nicki Thiim hit the front in the first half hour and was managing a gap to the #99 car when both Astons pitted in the closing stages of hour three.

But while Richie Stanaway handed over to Fernando Rees and the Brazilian resumed in fourth in class, the #95 was wheeled into the garage with an unknown problem.

That means Stefan Mucke leads in the #97 Aston which, along with the second-placed #71 Ferrari of Davide Rigon and Tommy Milner's third-placed #64 Corvette, had not made its third stop at the end of the hour.

The #99 Aston is fourth ahead of the #51 Ferrari, now in the hands of Giancarlo Fisichella, while the sole remaining Porsche 911 RSR is sixth.

In GTE Am Jeroen Bleekemolen has taken the Riley Motorsports Dodge Viper SRT GTS-R into the lead, just ahead of the #72 AF Corse Ferrari.

Third spot is occupied by the yet-to-stop Abu Dhabi-Proton Porsche, while the #98 Aston, which led early on, is fourth.

The previously podium-running #55 AF Corse 458 Italia dropped out of contention with a puncture early in the hour.

POSITIONS AFTER THREE HOURS