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Le Mans 24 Hours: Porsche's Brendon Hartley keeps Audis at bay

Brendon Hartley continued to fend off the challenge of two Audis to keep the #17 Porsche in the lead of the Le Mans 24 Hours during the fifth hour

The Kiwi, whose car inherited the lead when Andre Lotterer suffered a puncture in the #7 Audi in hour three, resisted an on-track challenge from the #9 Audi of Filipe Albuquerque, who was out of sequence with the race leader.

While Albuquerque's stunning set of laps helped him onto the tail of the leader before his first stop in the hour, in the same sequence later on Hartley was able to manage the gap far more comfortably.

Hartley also had the #7 of Benoit Treluyer to contend with, which gradually chipped away at the leader, getting the gap down to around 44-45 seconds.

Even the third #8 Audi, which lost a lap following Loic Duval's crash in hour three, gave Hartley a headache at one stage, as Lucas di Grassi fought with the leader on track to briefly rejoin the lead lap before pitting.

The other two Porsches have gradually slipped out of contention, with the #19 suffering after pitting under the safety car in the previous hour, and the #18 making an early stop and Marc Lieb handing over to Romain Dumas.

LMP2

KCMG maintained a strong lead in LMP2 with Nicolas Lapierre behind the wheel.

Running out of sequence compared to his challengers, Lapierre led by 40s after pitting for a fifth time halfway through the hour, and when TDS Racing made its sixth stop late in the piece, KCMG held a two-minute advantage.

Its closest challenger is now the Greaves Motorsport entry, despite an off for Gary Hirsch at the first Mulsanne chicane.

OAK Racing started the hour second with Kevin Estre, but a slow pitstop to check floor damage meant it dropped to eighth, with Christopher Cumming behind the wheel.

TDS is third, having been leapfrogged by Greaves during the pitstops, with Pierre Thieriet now aboard the ORECA.

The Karun Chandhok-driven Murphy Prototypes entry is fourth, ahead of Nelson Panciatici in the Signatech Alpine.

GTE

Chevrolet's Corvette C7.R continues to lead GTE, but Aston Martin was starting to apply pressure at the close of the fifth hour.

Tommy Milner had edged clear of the #99 and #97 Vantages in the first half of the hour but his lead started to shrink in the closing stages.

Fernando Rees runs second in the #99, with Darren Turner unable to make progress beyond moving back into third following his spin in the fourth hour.

The return to third for the #97 was aided by issues for the AF Corse Ferraris.

The #71 dropped out of sequence almost with a surprisingly early stop, and Olivier Beretta then struggled with a series of four-minute laps early in his stint.

That car, which the Italian shares with James Calado and Davide Rigon, is faring better than the sister #51, which lost almost a lap when Giancarlo Fisichella made a planned pitstop but spent four minutes in the pitlane.

In GTE Am the customer SMP Ferrari is showing strongly, with Victor Shaitar leading comfortably ahead of the #98 Aston Martin and #53 Riley Motorsports Dodge Viper SRT GT3-RSR.

POSITIONS AFTER FIVE HOURS

Pos Class Car Drivers Laps Gap
1 LMP1 #17 Porsche Bernhard, Webber, Hartley 76
2 LMP1 #9 Audi Albuquerque, Bonanomi, Rast 76 + 10.788s
3 LMP1 #7 Audi Fassler, Lotterer, Treluyer 76 + 44.554s
4 LMP1 #19 Porsche Hulkenberg, Bamber, Tandy 75 + 1 Lap
5 LMP1 #18 Porsche Dumas, Jani, Lieb 75 + 48.177s
6 LMP1 #1 Toyota Davidson, Buemi, Nakajima 75 + 1m47.158s
7 LMP1 #2 Toyota Wurz, Sarrazin, Conway 75 + 2m10.741s
8 LMP1 #8 Audi Di Grassi, Duval, Jarvis 74 + 2 Laps
9 LMP1 #12 Rebellion Prost, Heidfeld, Beche 72 + 4 Laps
10 LMP2 #47 Oreca Howson, Bradley, Lapierre 70 + 6 Laps
11 LMP1 #13 Rebellion Imperatori, Kraihamer, Abt 69 + 7 Laps
12 LMP2 #41 Gibson Hirsch, Paletou, Lancaster 69 + 40.059s
13 LMP2 #46 Oreca Thiriet, Badey, Gommendy 69 + 45.704s
14 LMP2 #48 Oreca Chandhok, Patterson, Berthon 69 + 1m39.024s
15 LMP2 #36 Alpine Panciatici, Chatin, Capillaire 69 + 2m17.619s
16 LMP2 #43 Morgan Ragues, Webb, Amberg 69 + 2m54.086s
17 LMP1 #22 Nissan Tincknell, Krumm, Buncombe 68 + 8 Laps
18 LMP2 #26 Ligier Rusinov, Canal, Bird 68 + 12.422s
19 LMP2 #34 Ligier Cumming, Vanthoor, Estre 68 + 47.764s
20 LMP2 #42 Dome Leventis, Watts, Kane 68 + 1m36.955s
21 LMP2 #28 Ligier Yacaman, Derani, Gonzalez 68 + 1m45.978s
22 LMP2 #38 Gibson Dolan, Evans, Turvey 67 + 9 Laps
23 LMP2 #27 BR Mediani, Markozov, Minassian 67 + 1m13.796s
24 LMP2 #30 Ligier Sharp, Dalziel, Heinemeier Hansson 67 + 2m03.769s
25 GTE Pro #64 Chevrolet Gavin, Milner, Taylor 66 + 10 Laps
26 GTE Pro #99 Aston Rees, Macdowall, Stanaway 66 + 2.325s
27 GTE Pro #97 Aston Turner, Mucke, Bell 66 + 9.194s
28 GTE Pro #71 Ferrari Rigon, Calado, Beretta 66 + 47.673s
29 GTE Pro #91 Porsche Lietz, Christensen, Bergmeister 66 + 51.582s
30 LMP2 #35 Ligier Nicolet, Merlin, Maris 65 + 11 Laps
31 LMP2 #40 Ligier Krohn, Jonsson, Barbosa 65 + 10.008s
32 GTE Am #98 Aston Dalla Lana, Lamy, Lauda 65 + 38.970s
33 LMP2 #45 Oreca Ibanez, Perret, Bellarosa 65 + 49.276s
34 GTE Am #72 Ferrari Shaytar, Bertolini, Basov 65 + 1m02.858s
35 GTE Am #53 Dodge Bleekemolen, Keating, Miller 65 + 1m38.449s
36 LMP2 #31 Ligier Brown, Van Overbeek, Fogarty 65 + 1m56.858s
37 GTE Pro #51 Ferrari Bruni, Vilander, Fisichella 65 + 2m11.681s
38 GTE Am #83 Ferrari Perrodo, Collard, Aguas 65 + 2m35.669s
39 GTE Am #62 Ferrari Sweedler, Bell, Segal 64 + 12 Laps
40 GTE Am #66 Ferrari Al Faisal, Giermaziak, Avenatti 64 + 25.681s
41 GTE Am #77 Porsche Dempsey, Long, Seefried 64 + 25.846s
42 LMP2 #29 Morgan Roussel, Tung, Cheng 64 + 29.280s
43 GTE Am #68 Porsche Chen, Vannelet, Parisy 64 + 42.820s
44 LMP1 #21 Nissan Matsuda, Shulzhitskiy, Ordonez 63 + 13 Laps
45 GTE Am #55 Ferrari Cameron, Griffin, Mortimer 63 + 1m29.259s
46 GTE Am #67 Porsche Chen, Kapadia, Maassen 61 + 15 Laps
47 GTE Pro #95 Aston Sorensen, Thiim, Nygaard 61 + 17.160s
48 LMP1 #23 Nissan Pla, Mardenborough, Chilton 61 + 1m00.909s
49 GTE Am #61 Ferrari Mann, Giammaria, Cressoni 61 + 2m13.038s
50 GTE Am #50 Chevrolet Roda, Ruberti, Poulsen 59 + 17 Laps
51 LMP2 #37 BR Aleshin, Ladygin, Ladygin 51 + 25 Laps
52 LMP1 #4 CLM Trummer, Kaffer, Monteiro 50 + 26 Laps
53 GTE Am #96 Aston Goethe, Hall, Castellacci 29 + 47 Laps
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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