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Le Mans 24 Hours: Porsche takes lead in three-way fight at dawn

Porsche's Marc Lieb moved into the lead of the Le Mans 24 Hours at the start of the 16th hour as the #6 Toyota pitted for fuel

Stephane Sarrazin ended the 15th hour in the lead of the race in the #6 Toyota after a to-and-fro battle with the #2 Porsche for the lead, but forfeited his advantage with the second stop of his spell in the car at 6am.

Sarrazin had earlier inherited the lead when Lieb pitted from first, Sarrazin having taken over the #6 in place of Kamui Kobayashi near the start of the hour.

Lieb had emerged from his stop alongside the #5 Toyota for second before settling in to third behind Kazuki Nakajima, who is now third.

The Japanese driver spent much of his second stint at the wheel of the #5 catching his team-mate for the lead, before pitting from second after another 14-lap run.

Before Nakajima's stop, the leading three were covered by as little as 11 seconds, although Sarrazin was able to respond to the pace of his rivals late on in the stint before serving his stop.

LMP2 - SIGNATECH MARCHES ON
By Mitchell Adam

Nicolas Lapierre extended Signatech Alpine's lead at the front of LMP2 to more than two minutes.

Lapierre maintained a strong pace throughout the hour, and his overall margin of 2m08s is helped by Thiriet by TDS Racing making a driver change, with Pierre Thiriet replacing Ryo Hirakawa.

The G-Drive entries are third and fourth with Roman Rusinov in the ORECA and Simon Dolan in the Gibson.

There has been a change of fifth place, now occupied by the second Alpine run under the Baxi DC Racing banner with Nelson Panciatici behind the wheel and having moved past the Strakka Gibson.

With Nick Leventis taking over the car from Danny Watts, Strakka's hold on sixth is also under threat from Vitaly Petrov in the first of the SMP Racing BR01s.

GTE - FORD MAKES INROADS
By Scott Mitchell

Ford slashed into Risi Competizione's GTE lead when the Ferrari team replaced its brakes in the 15th hour.

Giancarlo Fisichella ended the previous hour with a 90s lead but that was reduced to just over half a minute when his 488 GTE received a swift service in the pitlane.

Sebastien Bourdais ate into that advantage slightly in the next stint, and briefly moved into the lead when Fisichella stopped and was replaced by Toni Vilander.

The #69 Ford holds third place but Scott Dixon is two minutes behind and slightly out of sync on its stops.

Aston Martin Racing's #95 Vantage is battling to remain on the lead lap after a solid stint from Darren Turner, who has now handed over to Nicki Thiim.

GTE Am is still led comfortably by the Scuderia Corse team, with second-placed Patrick Long in the Abu Dhabi-Proton Porsche chasing Jeff Segal's large advantage.

POSITIONS AFTER 15 HOURS

Pos Class Car Drivers Laps Gap
1 LMP1 #2 Porsche Dumas, Jani, Lieb 238
2 LMP1 #6 Toyota Sarrazin, Conway, Kobayashi 238 + 54.277s
3 LMP1 #5 Toyota Davidson, Buemi, Nakajima 238 + 1m04.765s
4 LMP1 #8 Audi Di Grassi, Duval, Jarvis 236 + 2 Laps
5 LMP1 #7 Audi Fassler, Lotterer, Treluyer 226 + 12 Laps
6 LMP2 #36 Alpine Menezes, Lapierre, Richelmi 221 + 17 Laps
7 LMP2 #46 Oreca Thiriet, Beche, Hirakawa 220 + 18 Laps
8 LMP2 #26 Oreca Rusinov, Stevens, Rast 220 + 3m17.598s
9 LMP2 #38 Gibson Dolan, Dennis, Van Der Garde 218 + 20 Laps
10 LMP2 #35 Alpine Cheng, Tung, Panciatici 218 + 1m40.335s
11 LMP2 #37 BR01 Petrov, Shaytar, Ladygin 218 + 3m32.454s
12 LMP2 #42 Gibson Leventis, Watts, Kane 218 + 4m09.830s
13 LMP2 #33 Oreca Pu, Gommendy, De Bruijn 215 + 23 Laps
14 LMP2 #41 Ligier Rojas, Canal, Berthon 214 + 24 Laps
15 LMP2 #31 Ligier Dalziel, Derani, Cumming 214 + 45.484s
16 LMP2 #27 BR01 Minassian, Mediani, Aleshin 214 + 1m53.289s
17 LMP2 #30 Ligier Sharp, Brown, Van Overbeek 213 + 25 Laps
18 LMP2 #23 Ligier Barthez, Chatin, Buret 213 + 59.898s
19 LMP2 #49 Ligier Pew, Negri Jr, Vanthoor 213 + 2m54.297s
20 LMP2 #43 Ligier Gonzalez, Senna, Albuquerque 211 + 27 Laps
21 GTE Pro #68 Ford Hand, Muller, Bourdais 210 + 28 Laps
22 GTE Pro #82 Ferrari Fisichella, Vilander, Malucelli 210 + 1m00.001s
23 GTE Pro #69 Ford Briscoe, Westbrook, Dixon 210 + 3m43.525s
24 LMP2 #40 Ligier Krohn, Jonsson, Barbosa 209 + 29 Laps
25 GTE Pro #95 Aston Thiim, Sorensen, Turner 209 + 17.013s
26 LMP2 #25 Ligier Munemann, Hoy, Pizzitola 209 + 1m46.752s
27 GTE Pro #77 Porsche Lietz, Christensen, Eng 209 + 2m03.596s
28 GTE Pro #97 Aston Stanaway, Rees, Adam 209 + 3m35.916s
29 GTE Pro #66 Ford Pla, Mucke, Johnson 209 + 3m37.449s
30 GTE Pro #64 Chevrolet Gavin, Milner, Taylor 209 + 3m45.089s
31 GTE Pro #63 Chevrolet Magnussen, Garcia, Taylor 207 + 31 Laps
32 LMP2 #48 Oreca Keating, Bleekemolen, Goossens 207 + 33.136s
33 GTE Am #62 Ferrari Sweedler, Bell, Segal 205 + 33 Laps
34 LMP2 #44 Oreca Graves, Rao, Merhi 205 + 57.721s
35 GTE Am #88 Porsche Al Qubaisi, Heinemeier Hansson, Long 204 + 34 Laps
36 GTE Am #83 Ferrari Perrodo, Collard, Aguas 203 + 35 Laps
37 GTE Am #61 Ferrari Mok, Sawa, Bell 203 + 1m12.916s
38 GTE Am #86 Porsche Wainwright, Carroll, Barker 203 + 2m47.350s
39 GTE Am #55 Ferrari Cameron, Griffin, Scott 202 + 36 Laps
40 GTE Am #50 Chevrolet Yamagishi, Ragues, Belloc 202 + 24.395s
41 LMP1 #12 Rebellion Prost, Heidfeld, Piquet Jr 201 + 37 Laps
42 GTE Am #98 Aston Dalla Lana, Lamy, Lauda 201 + 2m27.148s
43 LMP1 #13 Rebellion Tuscher, Imperatori, Kraihamer 200 + 38 Laps
44 LMP2 #22 Ligier Capillaire, Maris, Coleman 200 + 1h36m30.131s
45 LMP1 #1 Porsche Bernhard, Webber, Hartley 200 + 1h38m20.193s
46 GTE Am #60 Ferrari Laursen, Mac, Nielsen 199 + 39 Laps
47 GTE Am #99 Aston Howard, Griffin, Hirsch 195 + 43 Laps
48 LMP1 #4 CLM Trummer, Webb, Kaffer 189 + 49 Laps
49 CDNT #84 Morgan Sausset, Tinseau, Bouvet 189 + 4m43.438s
50 LMP2 #28 Morgan Taittinger, Striebig, Roussel 188 + 50 Laps
51 GTE Am #57 Chevrolet O'Connel, Bryant, Patterson 185 + 53 Laps
52 GTE Pro #67 Ford Franchitti, Priaulx, Tincknell 184 + 54 Laps
53 GTE Am #78 Porsche Ried, Henzler, Camathias 175 + 63 Laps
54 LMP2 #34 Oreca Leutwiler, Nakano, Winslow 169 + 69 Laps
55 GTE Pro #71 Ferrari Rigon, Bird, Bertolini 143 + 95 Laps
56 GTE Pro #92 Porsche Makowiecki, Bamber, Bergmeister 140 + 98 Laps
57 GTE Pro #51 Ferrari Bruni, Calado, Pier Guidi 179 Retired
58 GTE Pro #91 Porsche Pilet, Estre, Tandy 135 Retired
59 LMP2 #47 Oreca Matsuda, Howson, Bradley 116 Retired
60 GTE Am #89 Porsche Macneil, Keen, Miller 50 Retired

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