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Le Mans 24 Hours: Porsche continues to lead in 13th hour

Earl Bamber kept Porsche in the lead of the Le Mans 24 Hours after taking over the #19 car from Nick Tandy in the 13th hour

As Tandy reached the end of his quadruple stint at the wheel he went from extending his lead over the chasing Audis to just maintaining it, and that gap came down in the first few laps after Bamber took over.

But after Bamber bounced back from three consecutive 3m25s laps, which allowed the #9 Audi of Marco Bonanomi to close to 38s behind, the race leader settled into a rhythm and began to ease away again.

Bonanomi then exited the fight for the lead when he pitted shortly before the completion of the hour, handing the #9 car over to Filipe Albuquerque.

That allowed the #7 car, which Benoit Treluyer took over from Andre Lotterer, to move into second place, albeit more than a minute adrift of the race-leading car.

LMP2: KCMG RALLIES

Any concerns the KCMG squad had after its long pitstop in the previous hour evaporated as Nicholas Lapierre re-established a lead of a minute-and-a-half in LMP2.

There were no signs the #47 ORECA was struggling as the Frenchman continued to set fast times to pull away from the #46 TDS ORECA being driven by Pierre Thiriet.

Roman Rusinov still has third under control in the #26 Ligier as the order seems to have settled down during a quieter mid-race period.

GTE: STANAWAY STARS

Le Mans rookie Richie Stanaway continued his impressive debut in the French enduro by effectively handing Aston Martin a pitstop's lead over Corvette in the GTE fight.

The GP2 race winner ran close to Tommy Milner in the early stages of his stint and by the time the 13th hour ended both cars had pitted - the Corvette near the beginning of the hour and the Aston right at the end.

The net result was Stanaway turning a seven-second deficit into a three-second advantage - and with the Vantage having stopped 13 times to the C7.R's 12 stops.

In GTE Am, Aston's advantage is less substantial after its grip on the class was weakened by a #72 SMP Ferrari charge led by Victor Shaytar.

With Mathias Lauda struggling the Russian slashed the gap down to just a few seconds, and when the Austrian pit it allowed the SMP car through - though it was yet to make its latest stop when the hour ended.

POSITIONS AFTER 13 HOURS

Pos Class Car Drivers Laps Gap
1 LMP1 #19 Porsche Hulkenberg, Bamber, Tandy 209
2 LMP1 #7 Audi Fassler, Lotterer, Treluyer 209 + 1m04.250s
3 LMP1 #9 Audi Albuquerque, Bonanomi, Rast 209 + 2m23.345s
4 LMP1 #17 Porsche Bernhard, Webber, Hartley 208 + 1 Lap
5 LMP1 #8 Audi Di Grassi, Duval, Jarvis 207 + 2 Laps
6 LMP1 #18 Porsche Dumas, Jani, Lieb 207 + 2m07.856s
7 LMP1 #2 Toyota Wurz, Sarrazin, Conway 205 + 4 Laps
8 LMP1 #1 Toyota Davidson, Buemi, Nakajima 202 + 7 Laps
9 LMP1 #13 Rebellion Imperatori, Kraihamer, Abt 195 + 14 Laps
10 LMP2 #47 Oreca Howson, Bradley, Lapierre 190 + 19 Laps
11 LMP2 #46 Oreca Thiriet, Badey, Gommendy 190 + 1m34.171s
12 LMP2 #26 Ligier Rusinov, Canal, Bird 189 + 20 Laps
13 LMP2 #48 Oreca Chandhok, Patterson, Berthon 188 + 21 Laps
14 LMP2 #38 Gibson Dolan, Evans, Turvey 188 + 1m25.646s
15 LMP2 #28 Ligier Yacaman, Derani, Gonzalez 187 + 22 Laps
16 LMP2 #34 Ligier Cumming, Vanthoor, Estre 186 + 23 Laps
17 LMP2 #42 Dome Leventis, Watts, Kane 186 + 9.504s
18 LMP1 #12 Rebellion Prost, Heidfeld, Beche 186 + 2m31.405s
19 LMP2 #45 Oreca Ibanez, Perret, Bellarosa 180 + 29 Laps
20 GTE Pro #99 Aston Rees, Macdowall, Stanaway 179 + 30 Laps
21 GTE Pro #64 Chevrolet Gavin, Milner, Taylor 179 + 56.302s
22 LMP2 #31 Ligier Brown, Van Overbeek, Fogarty 179 + 2m07.517s
23 GTE Pro #51 Ferrari Bruni, Vilander, Fisichella 179 + 2m33.939s
24 LMP2 #27 BR Mediani, Markozov, Minassian 179 + 3m29.673s
25 GTE Pro #91 Porsche Lietz, Christensen, Bergmeister 178 + 31 Laps
26 LMP2 #35 Ligier Nicolet, Merlin, Maris 178 + 1m54.012s
27 GTE Am #72 Ferrari Shaytar, Bertolini, Basov 177 + 32 Laps
28 GTE Am #98 Aston Dalla Lana, Lamy, Lauda 177 + 55.847s
29 LMP2 #29 Morgan Roussel, Tung, Cheng 176 + 33 Laps
30 GTE Am #62 Ferrari Sweedler, Bell, Segal 176 + 1m11.174s
31 GTE Am #77 Porsche Dempsey, Long, Seefried 176 + 2m51.838s
32 GTE Pro #71 Ferrari Rigon, Calado, Beretta 175 + 34 Laps
33 GTE Pro #95 Aston Sorensen, Thiim, Nygaard 175 + 1m27.958s
34 GTE Am #53 Dodge Bleekemolen, Keating, Miller 175 + 3m41.607s
35 GTE Am #55 Ferrari Cameron, Griffin, Mortimer 174 + 35 Laps
36 GTE Am #83 Ferrari Perrodo, Collard, Aguas 172 + 37 Laps
37 GTE Am #61 Ferrari Mann, Giammaria, Cressoni 172 + 1m07.260s
38 GTE Am #68 Porsche Chen, Vannelet, Parisy 172 + 3m15.275s
39 GTE Am #66 Ferrari Al Faisal, Giermaziak, Avenatti 172 + 3m22.367s
40 GTE Am #67 Porsche Chen, Kapadia, Maassen 168 + 41 Laps
41 LMP2 #30 Ligier Sharp, Dalziel, Heinemeier Hansson 167 + 42 Laps
42 LMP2 #40 Ligier Krohn, Jonsson, Barbosa 166 + 43 Laps
43 LMP2 #43 Morgan Ragues, Webb, Amberg 162 + 47 Laps
44 LMP2 #37 BR Aleshin, Ladygin, Ladygin 160 + 49 Laps
45 LMP1 #23 Nissan Pla, Mardenborough, Chilton 147 + 62 Laps
46 LMP1 #4 CLM Trummer, Kaffer, Monteiro 142 + 67 Laps
47 LMP1 #22 Nissan Tincknell, Krumm, Buncombe 141 + 68 Laps
48 GTE Am #96 Aston Goethe, Hall, Castellacci 139 + 70 Laps
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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