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Le Mans 24 Hours: Toyota fights back against Porsche

The #6 Toyota continues to lead the Le Mans 24 Hours, although Marc Lieb in the #2 Porsche briefly led midway through the 14th hour

Kamui Kobayashi retained top spot in the #6 TS050 HYBRID, but a longer than planned pitstop to repair slight bodywork damage to the left-hand side of the car allowed Lieb in the chasing to jump into the effective lead.

Lieb was able to extend his advantage slightly in the next five laps, but a slow puncture forced him back to the pits sooner than he had planned and instead ended the hour the best part of a minute off the lead in third.

Toyota's #5 also remains in contention and is now just 17 seconds behind the leader, as Anthony Davidson reeled in Kobayashi in the sister car after a pitstop halfway through the hour.

Lucas di Grassi took over the fourth-placed #8 Audi from Oliver Jarvis midway through the hour, with the #8 well placed to profit from any issues for the leading trio of cars.

Both privateer Rebellions hit trouble in the night, with Matheo Tuscher stopping the #13 car on the Mulsanne straight and Nelson Piquet Jr returning the #12 to the pits.

LMP2 - LAPIERRE BUILDS SIGNATECH'S LEAD
By Mitchell Adam

The Signatech Alpine leads LMP2 by 40 seconds with 10 hours remaining, despite having made one more pitstop than the second-placed Thiriet by TDS Racing ORECA.

Lapierre's pace during the hour was relentless, adding to Signatech's lead to the point that he made the car's 19th stop for fuel late in the hour and emerged with a 40s advantage over Ryo Hirakawa.

The pair now runs sixth and seventh outright, following the issues for the #13 Rebellion.

Will Stevens handed the G-Drive ORECA over to Roman Rusinov and the car remans third and just on the lead lap, with stablemate Giedo van der Garde still fourth, ahead of the Strakka Gibson with Danny Watts behind the wheel.

GTE - FERRARI EDGES AWAY
By Scott Mitchell

The Risi Ferrari's lead over Ford was extended in 14th hour.

When Ryan Briscoe stopped in the #69 GT he was around half a minute behind Giancarlo Fisichella, who had taken over from Matteo Malucelli in the 488 GTE.

But the #69 was wheeled into the garage for the same brake work the #68 car had undergone earlier, and lost a lap.

That handed Fisichella, who set a new best time for the #82 Ferrari late in the hour, a 1m22s advantage over the #68 Ford of Joey Hand.

Aston Martin moved into third by virtue of the #69 Ford's garage stop, but Darren Turner's pitstop right at the end elevated the GT back ahead of the Vantage.

The #62 Scuderia Corse leads GTE Am comfortably.

Townsend Bell extended that car's lead over the #88 Abu Dhabi-Proton Porsche to well over a minute before vacating the driver's seat for Jeff Segal.

POSITIONS AFTER 14 HOURS

Pos Class Car Drivers Laps Gap
1 LMP1 #6 Toyota Sarrazin, Conway, Kobayashi 221
2 LMP1 #5 Toyota Davidson, Buemi, Nakajima 221 + 18.918s
3 LMP1 #2 Porsche Dumas, Jani, Lieb 221 + 53.090s
4 LMP1 #8 Audi Di Grassi, Duval, Jarvis 219 + 2 Laps
5 LMP1 #7 Audi Fassler, Lotterer, Treluyer 209 + 12 Laps
6 LMP2 #36 Alpine Menezes, Lapierre, Richelmi 205 + 16 Laps
7 LMP2 #46 Oreca Thiriet, Beche, Hirakawa 205 + 47.429s
8 LMP2 #26 Oreca Rusinov, Stevens, Rast 204 + 17 Laps
9 LMP2 #38 Gibson Dolan, Dennis, Van Der Garde 203 + 18 Laps
10 LMP2 #42 Gibson Leventis, Watts, Kane 202 + 19 Laps
11 LMP2 #35 Alpine Cheng, Tung, Panciatici 202 + 39.384s
12 LMP2 #37 BR01 Petrov, Shaytar, Ladygin 202 + 1m48.568s
13 LMP1 #13 Rebellion Tuscher, Imperatori, Kraihamer 200 + 21 Laps
14 LMP2 #33 Oreca Pu, Gommendy, De Bruijn 200 + 36m57.290s
15 LMP2 #41 Ligier Rojas, Canal, Berthon 199 + 22 Laps
16 LMP2 #27 BR01 Minassian, Mediani, Aleshin 198 + 23 Laps
17 LMP2 #31 Ligier Dalziel, Derani, Cumming 198 + 22.658s
18 LMP2 #49 Ligier Pew, Negri Jr, Vanthoor 198 + 1m35.261s
19 LMP2 #23 Ligier Barthez, Chatin, Buret 198 + 1m49.126s
20 LMP2 #30 Ligier Sharp, Brown, Van Overbeek 197 + 24 Laps
21 GTE Pro #82 Ferrari Fisichella, Vilander, Malucelli 195 + 26 Laps
22 GTE Pro #68 Ford Hand, Muller, Bourdais 195 + 1m15.963s
23 LMP2 #43 Ligier Gonzalez, Senna, Albuquerque 195 + 2m23.682s
24 GTE Pro #69 Ford Briscoe, Westbrook, Dixon 195 + 4m29.774s
25 GTE Pro #95 Aston Thiim, Sorensen, Turner 194 + 27 Laps
26 GTE Pro #77 Porsche Lietz, Christensen, Eng 194 + 1m37.452s
27 LMP2 #25 Ligier Munemann, Hoy, Pizzitola 194 + 2m11.422s
28 GTE Pro #97 Aston Stanaway, Rees, Adam 194 + 2m17.857s
29 GTE Pro #66 Ford Pla, Mucke, Johnson 194 + 2m25.853s
30 LMP2 #40 Ligier Krohn, Jonsson, Barbosa 194 + 2m41.006s
31 GTE Pro #64 Chevrolet Gavin, Milner, Taylor 194 + 3m03.972s
32 LMP1 #12 Rebellion Prost, Heidfeld, Piquet Jr 193 + 28 Laps
33 GTE Pro #63 Chevrolet Magnussen, Garcia, Taylor 192 + 29 Laps
34 LMP2 #48 Oreca Keating, Bleekemolen, Goossens 192 + 1m40.641s
35 GTE Am #62 Ferrari Sweedler, Bell, Segal 190 + 31 Laps
36 LMP2 #44 Oreca Graves, Rao, Merhi 190 + 1m51.780s
37 GTE Am #88 Porsche Al Qubaisi, Heinemeier Hansson, Long 189 + 32 Laps
38 GTE Am #61 Ferrari Mok, Sawa, Bell 189 + 3m22.281s
39 GTE Am #83 Ferrari Perrodo, Collard, Aguas 189 + 3m26.277s
40 GTE Am #86 Porsche Wainwright, Carroll, Barker 188 + 33 Laps
41 GTE Am #55 Ferrari Cameron, Griffin, Scott 187 + 34 Laps
42 GTE Am #50 Chevrolet Yamagishi, Ragues, Belloc 187 + 32.191s
43 GTE Am #98 Aston Dalla Lana, Lamy, Lauda 186 + 35 Laps
44 LMP2 #22 Ligier Capillaire, Maris, Coleman 185 + 36 Laps
45 GTE Am #60 Ferrari Laursen, Mac, Nielsen 185 + 1m54.179s
46 LMP1 #1 Porsche Bernhard, Webber, Hartley 183 + 38 Laps
47 GTE Am #99 Aston Howard, Griffin, Hirsch 181 + 40 Laps
48 GTE Pro #51 Ferrari Bruni, Calado, Pier Guidi 179 + 42 Laps
49 LMP2 #28 Morgan Taittinger, Striebig, Roussel 175 + 46 Laps
50 LMP1 #4 CLM Trummer, Webb, Kaffer 174 + 47 Laps
51 CDNT #84 Morgan Sausset, Tinseau, Bouvet 173 + 48 Laps
52 GTE Am #57 Chevrolet O'Connel, Bryant, Patterson 171 + 50 Laps
53 GTE Pro #67 Ford Franchitti, Priaulx, Tincknell 169 + 52 Laps
54 GTE Am #78 Porsche Ried, Henzler, Camathias 160 + 61 Laps
55 LMP2 #34 Oreca Leutwiler, Nakano, Winslow 157 + 64 Laps
56 GTE Pro #71 Ferrari Rigon, Bird, Bertolini 143 + 78 Laps
57 GTE Pro #92 Porsche Makowiecki, Bamber, Bergmeister 140 + 81 Laps
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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