Le Mans 24 Hours: Toyota 1-2 after 17 hours but Porsche close

Buemi's #5 started the hour in second in the hands of Kazuki Nakajima, as the two Toyotas continued to trade positions with the #2 Porsche.

That trend continued throughout much of the hour before a safety car period was called after a spate of incidents took place in quick succession, which included the #4 ByKolles car catching fire.

Toyota decided to pit its cars under that period and, although they dropped a safety car behind Neel Jani in the leading Porsche, the #5 and #6's strategy proved to be the best as the pair emerged in the lead when Jani pitted two laps after a restart.

Buemi leads by virtue of getting ahead of Conway on the first lap after the restart, with both having swapped into the Toyotas during their pitstops.

LMP2 - CRASHES THIN TOP END
By Mitchell Adam

Crashes all-but eliminated half of the top four in LMP2, as the Signatech Alpine moved nearly one lap clear at the front of the field.

Stephane Richelmi kept it clean during the 17th hour, and the pressure on the team dropped when Pierre Thiriet crashed the Thiriet by TDS Racing ORECA at Mulsanne corner.

While running second, about 90s behind Richelmi, Thiriet appeared to lose the rear end under braking, collecting bollards on his way to the gravel trap.

He made it back to the pits and while a full quote of bodywork was restored, the car stopped between the TDS garage and pit exit as he tried to rejoin the race during the safety car period, and finished the hour in the garage having already fallen to fifth.

The Baxi DC Racing Alpine exited the race altogether when Nelson Panciatici crashed at the first Mulsanne chicane while running fourth.

Rene Rast is now second for G-Drive and managed to get the car back on the lead lap, but is running 3m20s behind Richelmi on the road, while the #37 SMP Racing BR01 is third with Kirill Ladygin behind the wheel and Strakka Racing's Johnny Kane fourth.

GTE - FORD CLOSES IN ON FERRARI
By Scott Mitchell

Ferrari still leads Ford in the GTE battle but the safety car closed the fight right up.

Toni Vilander led Sebastien Bourdais by more than 20s but that gap was completely eradicated when both were picked up by the same safety car.

Bourdais quickly cleared the traffic and had the Ferrari 488 GTE in his sights just two seconds down the road, but Vilander proved the faster of the two and edged clear.

The #69 Ford remains third but is a long way behind the sister #68 GT, while Scuderia Corse continues to dominate the GTE Am class.

POSITIONS AFTER 17 HOURS