Le Mans hour 8: Kobayashi builds small lead for #7 Toyota

With the leading pair split by around a second for swathes of the last hour, Kobayashi managed to find a pace advantage halfway through the hour in the #7 TS050.

Sebastien Buemi then took to the wheel of the #8 Toyota and trails Kobayashi by just under seven seconds.

With the LMP1 race having settled down, the only real battle on track took place for the best of privateer LMP1 cars - although it did end prematurely.

SMP Racing's Matevos Isaakyan had his third place reeled in by the Rebellion R-13 of Thomas Laurent - who took over the car from Gustavo Menezes who had put in the hard miles.

But Isaakyan had a high-speed crash at the Porsche Curves, rear-ending the tyre barrier, as the hour ended with a crane approaching to recover the car.

Andre Lotterer returned to the wheel of the #1 Rebellion machine and is the last LMP1 car not to be running among the lower-tier categories in fifth, although he is likely to take fourth from the crashed SMP car.

The Manor-Ginettas made little progress in the hour as Alex Brundle climbed back into the #6 car after his impressive first stint and lies in 17th, two places up from the #5's initial starter Mike Simpson.

Jenson Button drove the #11 SMP Racing BR1 for three hours and put in a stellar stint that has the car in 59th with Mikhail Aleshin now at the wheel.

G-Drive in control of LMP2 battle

Jean-Eric Vergne completed the #26 G-Drive Racing ORECA's 12th pitstop without losing the lead shortly before the end of the hour.

The Frenchman emerged from the pits 1m50s ahead of Will Stevens' #23 Panis-Barthez Competition Ligier on lap 121, although Stevens still owes a pitstop.

Paul Lafargue is third in the #48 IDEC ORECA, which made its 12th stop on lap 113. The Michelin-shod car is competing nine-lap stints, consistently one less than the leading G-Drive car.

Lafargue has been unable to match the pace of his team-mate Paul-Loup Chatin, who qualified the car on pole, and was five seconds ahead of the #36 Signatech-Alpine of Andre Negrao, who took over from Nicolas Lapierre on lap 119.

Vincent Capillaire is fifth in the #39 Graff-So24 ORECA, the first car one lap down, with Francois Perrodo sixth in the #28 TDS Racing ORECA.

Harrison Newey was running eighth in the #35 SMP Dallara when he was slowed by a right-rear puncture at Mulsanne Corner. He made it back to the pits, but lost two laps before Norman Nato returned to the circuit in 13th position.

GTE: Porsche still in control

Porsche maintained its lockout of the top three places in the GTE Pro division as the race reached the eight-hour mark.

The #92 'Pink Pig'-liveried car continues to hold a considerable lead, with Laurens Vanthoor enjoying a 2m20s buffer out front after taking the car over from Michael Christensen.

Moving up to second in the most recent round of stops was Frederic Makowiecki in the #91 car, which has swapped places with the #93 machine that now has Nick Tandy at the wheel.

BMW continues to lead the chase against Porsche, with Philipp Eng running 13 seconds behind Tandy after taking over the #81 M8 from Martin Tomczyk.

Sebastien Bourdais runs fifth in the best of the Fords, the #68 car, while Pipo Derani has the only one of the three AF Corse Ferrari entries that's enjoyed a smooth run so far up to sixth.

Dempsey-Proton's #77 Porsche still leads the GTE Am class, albeit by a reduced margin after JMW Ferrari driver Jeff Segal carved into Christian Ried's lead.

Ried handed over to Julien Andlauer towards the end of the eighth hour, with 28 seconds separating the two leading cars in class.

Matteo Cairoli has the second of the Proton cars, the #88, back up to third place, a further 25 seconds behind.

Positions after eight hours