Le Mans 24 Hours: Safety car closes up Audi/Porsche lead battle

Two Audis (#9 and #7) and two Porsches (#17 and #19) were separated by 46 seconds before the safety cars were called when the Signatech LMP2 car hit trouble at Mulsanne Corner.

All four of the lead cars were picked up in the same safety car group, closing up the field with Rene Rast leading in the #9 Audi.

Webber was next up in the #17 Porsche, which attempted the marque's first quadruple stint on a set of tyres.

Next up was Nico Hulkenberg, who returned to the cockpit to drag the #19 Porsche back into the thick of the lead battle, just ahead of the #7 Audi of Marcel Fassler.

The #18 Porsche fell out of contention earlier in the hour when Romain Dumas went straight on in dramatic fashion at Mulsanne Corner, hitting the barriers head-on but relatively gently.

The impact only caused enough damage to require a change of front bodywork at the end of the lap, where Neel Jani took the car over during a 1m33s pitstop.

LMP2

Paul-Loup Chatin's crash aboard the Signatech Alpine moved the G-Drive (OAK) Ligier back up to third in LMP2.

Sam Bird started a strong stint in eighth place and finished it fourth, before handing the #28 over to Roman Rusinov.

The car is a lap down on KCMG, which continues to lead, but on the same lap as the second-placed TDS Racing ORECA.

With no update on a potential pit penalty, Matt Howson spent the bulk of the hour running two-and-a-half minutes ahead of TDS's Gommendy, before the safety car intervened.

KCMG took the opportunity to pit, installing Richard Bradley, who is in the restart group behind Gommendy and looking to go a lap clear on the field.

Nathanel Berton is fourth for Murphy Prototypes, ahead of Pierre Ragues for Team SARD Morand and Pipo Derani in the second G-Drive Ligier.

With Laurens Vanthoor behind the wheel, the Honda-powered OAK Racing entry is eighth after Chris Cumming's earlier spin.

GTE

Corvette repelled an attack from the #97 Aston Martin Racing Vantage to lead in GTE Pro, but the four leading cars are almost together after the safety car.

Rob Bell passed team-mate Alex MacDowall to take the #97 into second place, as the Scot continued to struggle after Richie Stanaway's and Fernando Rees's good early work in the #99.

Bell proceeded to take chunks out of Chevrolet man Jordan Taylor's lead, trimming it to just over a second before inexplicably losing a lot of time in the next two laps.

Taylor's lead grew to a dozen seconds, but that was wiped out by the safety car - also handing the #99 a reprieve and bringing the tenacious #91 Porsche 911 RSR into the mix as well.

Ferrari also benefited from the safety car. Toni Vilander had got the lead AF Corse 458 Italia back onto the lead lap, but only just, and the caution period reduced that deficit to about three-quarters of a lap behind the safety car by the end of the eighth hour.

Aston's GTE Am lead remains intact, with Pedro Lamy back aboard the #98 Vantage and well clear of the squabbling Ferraris - the AF Corse #83 and the squad's SMP-badged #72.

POSITIONS AFTER EIGHT HOURS