Le Mans 24 Hours: Porsche still leads after long safety car period

The race was neutralised once it became clear barrier repairs were required following Loic Duval's crash at the end of the third hour.

Crucially, the lead battle was split when the three safety cars were sent out, with Hartley circulating one group ahead of his pursuers.

Once the race restarted that amounted to a lead of 1m09s, which became 18 seconds over the #9 Audi of Filipe Albuquerque once Hartley completed a scheduled pitstop after under green flag conditions.

Benoit Treluyer also had to pit in the #7 Audi shortly after the restart, rejoining in third, ahead of the #18 Porsche of Marc Lieb.

Following a four-minute stop for repairs after Duval's shunt, Lucas di Grassi is the first of the main LMP1 cars to be a lap down in the #8 car, which runs eighth.

LMP2

KCMG retains control of LMP2, but it has a new closest challenger.

Having circulated three minutes clear of TDS Racing's Ludovic Badey for 40 minutes behind the safety car, Nicolas Lapierre pitted as soon as green flag conditions returned.

With its fourth stop completed and racing underway again, KCMG's lead was 40s - its buffer before TDS's pre-safety car stop - and Lapierre ended the hour with 33s up his sleeve.

Having taken over OAK's Honda-powered Ligier from Laurens Vanthoor, Kevin Estre passed Badey on the restart and began to chip away at Lapierre's lead.

Badey remains third, ahead of Gary Hirsch in the Greaves Gibson, and the Signatech Alpine and Murphy Prototypes entries, which pitted while the safety car was out.

GTE

Corvette hit the front of a tight GTE scrap, in which Darren Turner spun the #97 Aston Martin out of second.

Tommy Milner led in the #74 Chevrolet entry, making up time with a pitstop under the safety car before taking advantage of a three-way fight ahead of him to move into the lead in the final 20 minutes of the fourth hour.

That charge to the front was facilitated by Aston's Fernando Rees dropping behind Davide Rigon in the #51 Ferrari after the safety car period ended, with Turner also moving ahead of the sister AMR machine.

But when Turner and Rigon lost time getting passed by prototype machinery Milner, who nipped ahead of Rees, drafted past both on the run out of Tertre Rouge.

He then put up a stern defence from Turner, who lost it on his own at the first Mulsanne chicane and dropped to fourth.

That promoted Rees to second in the #99 Aston ahead of Rigon's AF Corse 458 Italia, those two cars having swapped places when the Brazilian pulled a fine move around the outside on the run into the Mulsanne corner.

The second Ferrari and sole remaining Porsche are within a minute of the lead fight, while the long-time race-leading #95 Aston is five laps down after a power steering problem.

In GTE Am the #72 SMP Ferrari leads again, having got ahead of the #98 Aston Martin in a battle that has raged almost from the very start.

That class featured a spectacular exit for the #88 Abu Dhabi-Proton Porsche, which caught fire at the second Mulsanne chicane and pulled off in a plume of black smoke.

POSITIONS AFTER FOUR HOURS