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

Sebastien Buemi leads a Toyota one-two in the Le Mans 24 Hours, with the lead Porsche making it three cars within two seconds at the top

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

Pos Class Car Drivers Laps Gap
1 LMP1 #5 Toyota Davidson, Buemi, Nakajima 266
2 LMP1 #6 Toyota Sarrazin, Conway, Kobayashi 266 + 0.586s
3 LMP1 #2 Porsche Dumas, Jani, Lieb 266 + 1.835s
4 LMP1 #8 Audi Di Grassi, Duval, Jarvis 264 + 2 Laps
5 LMP1 #7 Audi Fassler, Lotterer, Treluyer 254 + 12 Laps
6 LMP2 #36 Alpine Menezes, Lapierre, Richelmi 247 + 19 Laps
7 LMP2 #26 Oreca Rusinov, Stevens, Rast 246 + 20 Laps
8 LMP2 #37 BR01 Petrov, Shaytar, Ladygin 244 + 22 Laps
9 LMP2 #42 Gibson Leventis, Watts, Kane 244 + 57.899s
10 LMP2 #46 Oreca Thiriet, Beche, Hirakawa 241 + 25 Laps
11 LMP2 #33 Oreca Pu, Gommendy, De Bruijn 241 + 26m33.400s
12 LMP2 #41 Ligier Rojas, Canal, Berthon 240 + 26 Laps
13 LMP2 #31 Ligier Dalziel, Derani, Cumming 240 + 1m45.898s
14 LMP2 #27 BR01 Minassian, Mediani, Aleshin 240 + 2m33.714s
15 LMP2 #49 Ligier Pew, Negri Jr, Vanthoor 238 + 28 Laps
16 LMP2 #23 Ligier Barthez, Chatin, Buret 238 + 20.024s
17 GTE Pro #82 Ferrari Fisichella, Vilander, Malucelli 236 + 30 Laps
18 GTE Pro #68 Ford Hand, Muller, Bourdais 236 + 6.675s
19 LMP2 #30 Ligier Sharp, Brown, Van Overbeek 235 + 31 Laps
20 GTE Pro #69 Ford Briscoe, Westbrook, Dixon 235 + 41.955s
21 LMP2 #40 Ligier Krohn, Jonsson, Barbosa 235 + 52.976s
22 GTE Pro #95 Aston Thiim, Sorensen, Turner 235 + 1m07.776s
23 LMP2 #35 Alpine Cheng, Tung, Panciatici 234 + 32 Laps
24 LMP2 #25 Ligier Munemann, Hoy, Pizzitola 234 + 51m51.078s
25 LMP2 #43 Ligier Gonzalez, Senna, Albuquerque 234 + 51m57.753s
26 GTE Pro #66 Ford Pla, Mucke, Johnson 234 + 54m12.613s
27 GTE Pro #97 Aston Stanaway, Rees, Adam 233 + 33 Laps
28 LMP2 #48 Oreca Keating, Bleekemolen, Goossens 233 + 2m31.092s
29 GTE Pro #63 Chevrolet Magnussen, Garcia, Taylor 232 + 34 Laps
30 LMP2 #44 Oreca Graves, Rao, Merhi 231 + 35 Laps
31 GTE Am #62 Ferrari Sweedler, Bell, Segal 229 + 37 Laps
32 GTE Am #88 Porsche Al Qubaisi, Heinemeier Hansson, Long 229 + 2m41.989s
33 GTE Pro #77 Porsche Lietz, Christensen, Eng 228 + 38 Laps
34 GTE Am #83 Ferrari Perrodo, Collard, Aguas 228 + 32m08.728s
35 LMP1 #1 Porsche Bernhard, Webber, Hartley 228 + 34m16.857s
36 GTE Am #61 Ferrari Mok, Sawa, Bell 227 + 39 Laps
37 GTE Am #55 Ferrari Cameron, Griffin, Scott 226 + 40 Laps
38 GTE Am #86 Porsche Wainwright, Carroll, Barker 226 + 23.106s
39 GTE Am #50 Chevrolet Yamagishi, Ragues, Belloc 226 + 53.629s
40 LMP2 #22 Ligier Capillaire, Maris, Coleman 225 + 41 Laps
41 GTE Am #98 Aston Dalla Lana, Lamy, Lauda 225 + 3m18.570s
42 GTE Am #60 Ferrari Laursen, Mac, Nielsen 224 + 42 Laps
43 LMP2 #38 Gibson Dolan, Dennis, Van Der Garde 222 + 44 Laps
44 LMP1 #12 Rebellion Prost, Heidfeld, Piquet Jr 222 + 1h08m15.685s
45 GTE Pro #64 Chevrolet Gavin, Milner, Taylor 219 + 47 Laps
46 GTE Am #99 Aston Howard, Griffin, Hirsch 219 + 1h12m33.336s
47 CDNT #84 Morgan Sausset, Tinseau, Bouvet 214 + 52 Laps
48 LMP2 #28 Morgan Taittinger, Striebig, Roussel 212 + 54 Laps
49 GTE Am #57 Chevrolet O'Connel, Bryant, Patterson 208 + 58 Laps
50 GTE Pro #67 Ford Franchitti, Priaulx, Tincknell 208 + 1m24.060s
51 LMP1 #13 Rebellion Tuscher, Imperatori, Kraihamer 200 + 66 Laps
52 GTE Am #78 Porsche Ried, Henzler, Camathias 199 + 67 Laps
53 LMP2 #34 Oreca Leutwiler, Nakano, Winslow 195 + 71 Laps
54 LMP1 #4 CLM Trummer, Webb, Kaffer 206 Retired
55 GTE Pro #51 Ferrari Bruni, Calado, Pier Guidi 179 Retired
56 GTE Pro #71 Ferrari Rigon, Bird, Bertolini 143 Retired
57 GTE Pro #92 Porsche Makowiecki, Bamber, Bergmeister 140 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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