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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