Le Mans hour 20: Alonso increases lead for #8 Toyota

Alonso started the hour with a healthy margin of more than a minute over the #7, in part thanks to Lopez catching a slow zone when he left the pits after taking over the car from Mike Conway, although the race was quickly neutralised when a safety car period was called.

A slow zone remained in place when the safety cars were called in, but Alonso increased his lead thereafter to as much as 1m30s before gradually backing off in the later part of the hour either side of a pitstop.

The two-time Formula 1 world champion now holds a 1m19.487-second lead over Lopez with four hours of the race remaining.

After the two Rebellions briefly swapped positions during the previous hour, Bruno Senna is now in an outright third place in the #1 car.

The #1 had reeled in the sister #3 Rebellion-Gibson R-13 earlier in the morning, but Senna was able to leapfrog Matthias Beche when the #3 spent an additional 30s in the pits.

Beche's car was also reported to have a door open at the end of the hour.

The #11 SMP Racing BR1 and #5 Manor-Ginetta are still circulating at the tail end of the field, but the #10 DragonSpeed entry was formally retired in the 20th hour.

All change behind LMP2 leader G-Drive

Andrea Pizzitola continued the #26 G-Drive ORECA's untroubled run at the front of the field in LMP2, as Ligier's challenge faded in hour 20.

Shortly after taking fourth place from Paul-Loup Chatin's IDEC Sport ORECA, Paul di Resta crashed the #22 United Autosports Ligier at the Porsche Curves, which brought out the fourth safety car of the race.

That was followed soon afterwards by Will Stevens losing second place to a mechanical problem on his #23 Panis-Barthez Ligier, which has yet to emerge from the garage after coming in on his 292nd lap.

Behind runaway leader Vergne, who pitted shortly before the hour mark on his 303rd lap, Ligier's problems promoted the #36 Signatech-Alpine of Pierre Thiriet back to second and Chatin to third.

Chatin has gradually closed the gap to Thiriet, which stood at 1m37s at the hour mark prior to the latter's stop on the hour mark.

Vincent Capillaire (#39 Graff-so24 Racing ORECA) caught and passed Francois Perrodo's TDS Racing ORECA to take fourth, but now has Juan-Pablo Montoya in the sole remaining #32 United Autosports Ligier on his tail.

Ford breaks up Porsche party

Although the #92 Porsche continued to dominate the GTE Pro class, the safety car ignited the fight for second towards the end of the 20th hour.

Nearly three minutes behind leader Laurens Vanthoor, who took over from Michael Christensen in the #92 Porsche at the start of the hour, the sister #91 car of Frederic Makowiecki was caught by the two lead Fords of Sebastien Bourdais and Andy Priaulx.

Makowiecki started to pull away when racing resumed, but a trip across the gravel brought the two Ford drivers back into play and Priaulx was able to jump from fourth to second.

The Briton ran 2m48s down on Vanthoor at the end of the hour, holding a one-second advantage over Makowiecki.

Jan Magnussen was a lap down in fifth in the sole remaining Corvette entry, the #63, after the US squad was forced to retire the #64 car due to engine overheating issues.

Dempsey-Proton's lead advantage has been slashed to just 30 seconds in the GTE Am class, with Jeroen Bleekemolen's #85 Risi/Keating Ferrari leading the chase against Julien Andlauer in the #77 Porsche.

The #54 Spirit of Race Ferrari has slipped to third in Thomas Flohr's hands, 1m40s down on Bleekemolen.

Positions after 20 hours