Le Mans 24 Hours: Toyota leads after six hours, Audi slips back

As was the case in the fifth hour, the #6 Toyota and the #1 Porsche took turns at the head of the field depending on pitstops, with Mark Webber handing the Porsche over to Timo Bernhard shortly before 9pm local time.

Once Bernhard rejoined, he was slightly more than one minute off the leader, which had made one less stop by the top of the hour due to going 14 laps between pitstops.

The #5 Toyota with Anthony Davidson sits third ahead of the #2 Porsche, which Neel Jani has returned to the cockpit of, while Audi's sole car with a chance of competing appears to be slipping out of the fight.

Oliver Jarvis handed the car over to Lucas di Grassi in fifth place, with the Briton admitting Audi seems to have its work cut out trying to stay on terms with Toyota and Porsche.

Loic Duval briefly fought for the lead in the #8 car early in the race, but he fell back towards the end of his stint, a trend that continued for Audi when Jarvis took the car over.

LMP2 - HIRAKAWA BUILDS TDS LEAD
By Mitchell Adam

Thiriet by TDS Racing is now in control of LMP2, following a fine hour from Toyota junior Ryo Hirakawa.

The Japanese driver started the sixth hour with an 11s lead, and added more than 50 seconds to that to ensure he finished it with the same margin over Stephane Richelmi - who took over the Signatech Alpine from Gustavo Menezes - despite pitting.

KCMG remains third with Matt Howson at the wheel, a further 22s behind Hirakawa.

Roman Rusinov is now in the G-Drive ORECA after Will Stevens' stint and in fifth, but a pitstop behind and having served a drive-through penalty for refuelling while the car's engine was on.

Manor's Matt Rao spent the bulk of the hour in a battle with G-Drive's Gibson, driven by Giedo van der Garde before he handed over to Simon Dolan, but emerged on top in sixth, while Strakka's Gibson is seventh with Nick Leventis now on board.

RISI FERRARI HEADS FORD IN GTE
By Scott Mitchell

The Risi Competizione Ferrari leads GTE ahead of a trio of Ford GTs.

Matteo Malucelli hit the front at the end of the hour in his customer 488 GTE and the lead quartet have now all completed three driver changes.

The #68 Ford led comfortably but, along with the #66 Ford, was always going to lose time when it stopped for a driver change.

Malucelli had passed the #69 car of Scott Dixon on track and moved from third to first after long-time leader Joey Hand vacated his GT for Sebastien Bourdais and Stefan Mucke handed the #66 over to Billy Johnson.

He led by four seconds as Bourdais came under pressure from Dixon, with Johnson six seconds further back.

The #88 Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing Porsche continues to lead GTE Am, now in the hands of Khaled Al Qubasi.

Having moved to the front properly in the previous hour the 911 RSR is clear of the similar car run by KCMG (Proton) by over a minute.

POSITIONS AFTER SIX HOURS