LM24 H4: Audi continues to keep Toyota out of top three
Audi continues to hold the top three positions as the Le Mans 24 Hours reached the four-hour mark
Following triple-stints for the starting drivers of three R18 e-tron quattros, Benoit Treluyer has taken over Andre Lotterer's #1 car and leads by over three minutes from Oliver Jarvis in the #3 car.
Audi's Loic Duval and Toyota driver Nicolas Lapierre had a brief, but terrific, battle for third during the overlapping period between pitstops; Lapierre far quicker on the damp parts of the circuit due to his intermediate tyres.
Following a stop for Lapierre to hand over to Alex Wurz, Duval resumed second, only to lose it to Jarvis when he stopped for the fifth time as the race crossed into the fifth hour.
Jarvis, who had taken over the #3 car from Lucas di Grassi, spectacularly locked-up and rain straight on at the first Mulsanne chicane, but lost almost no time in doing so.
Wurz holds fifth, one place behind team-mate Sebastien Buemi and one ahead of Neel Jani, who took over the #12 Rebellion Lola-Toyota shortly after Nick Heidfeld spun at Tertre Rouge.
Alex Brundle has kept the lead in LMP2, the #24 OAK Morgan-Nissan driver increasing his advantage over Mike Conway when the #26 G-Drive/Delta-ADR man went into the gravel at Mulsanne corner as he lapped Stuart Hall's GTE Am Aston Martin.
The closest battle in the class was the one for fifth, with less than a second separating Nicolas Minassian's Pecom ORECA-Nissan and Lucas Luhr's Jota Zytek-Nissan.
The fight ended when Luhr spun approaching Tertre Rouge and then pitted to have any potential damage checked out.
Alexander Rossi's #41 Greaves ORECA-Nissan has lost seven laps so far as a result of a suspension problem while the #39 DKR Lola was delayed when Romain Brandela spun at the Ford chicane.
The #31 Lotus-Praga of Kevin Weeda is currently stuck out on the circuit after spinning at the first Mulsanne chicane and stopping.
Aston Martin, which had to deal with news of the death of its driver Allan Simonsen during the hour, continues to hold the top two positions in GTE Pro. Stefan Mucke in the #97 Vantage is now nine seconds ahead of the Manthey-run factory Porsche of Romain Dumas.
Frederic Makowiecki in the #99 car is right behind Dumas in third.
Matt Griffin has now taken over the leading #61 AF Corse Ferrari in GTE from Marco Cioci. Paolo Ruberti is now second in the Proton Porsche.
POSITIONS AFTER FOUR HOURS Pos Cl Car Drivers Laps Gap 1. P1 #1 Audi Lotterer/Treluyer/Fassler 57 2. P1 #3 Audi Gene/Jarvis/di Grassi 56 + 1 Lap 3. P1 #2 Audi Kristensen/McNish/Duval 56 + 1.434s 4. P1 #8 Toyota Davidson/Sarrazin/Buemi 56 + 1m25.666s 5. P1 #7 Toyota Wurz/Lapierre/Nakajima 56 + 1m37.708s 6. P1 #12 Lola Prost/Jani/Heidfeld 55 + 2 Laps 7. P1 #13 Lola Beche/Belicchi/Cheng 55 + 37.554s 8. P1 #21 HPD Leventis/Kane/Watts 54 + 3 Laps 9. P2 #24 Morgan Pla/Brundle/H Hansson 54 + 2m35.770s 10. P2 #26 Oreca Rusinov/Martin/Conway 53 + 4 Laps 11. P2 #35 Morgan Baguette/Plowman/Gonzalez 53 + 12.756s 12. P2 #46 Oreca Thiriet/Badey/Martin 53 + 42.982s 13. P2 #49 Oreca P-Companc/Kaffer/Minassian 53 + 45.319s 14. P2 #34 Oreca Frey/Niederhauser/Bleekemolen 53 + 1m05.451s 15. P2 #33 HPD Tucker/Franchitti/Briscoe 53 + 1m07.533s 16. P2 #38 Zytek Dolan/Turvey/Luhr 53 + 1m23.815s 17. P2 #42 Zytek Krumm/Mardenborough/Ordonez 53 + 3m01.030s 18. P2 #32 Lotus Holzer/Kraihamer/Charouz 52 + 5 Laps 19. P2 #43 Morgan Gachnang/Mailleux/Lombard 52 + 1m10.633s 20. GTP #97 Aston Mucke/Turner/Dumbreck 52 + 2m18.122s 21. GTP #92 Porsche Lieb/Richard Lietz/Dumas 52 + 2m27.293s 22. GTP #99 Aston Makowiecki/Senna/Bell 52 + 2m27.328s 23. P2 #30 Lola Mowlem/Burgess/Hirschi 51 + 6 Laps 24. GTP #91 Porsche Bergmeister/Pilet/Bernhard 51 + 1m10.575s 25. P2 #48 Oreca Hartley/Chandhok/Patterson 51 + 1m34.671s 26. GTP #51 Ferrari Bruni/Fisichella/Malucelli 51 + 2m01.955s 27. GTP #98 Aston Dalla Lana/Lamy/Auberlen 51 + 2m23.182s 28. GTP #73 Corvette Garcia/Magnussen/Taylor 51 + 2m25.353s 29. GTP #71 Ferrari Beretta/Kobayashi/Vilander 51 + 2m42.852s 30. GTP #74 Corvette Gavin/Milner/Westbrook 51 + 2m49.413s 31. GTP #53 SRT Farnbacher/Goossens/Dalziel 50 + 7 Laps 32. GTA #61 Ferrari Gerber/Griffin/Cioci 50 + 22.324s 33. P2 #47 Morgan Imperatori/Howson/Tung 50 + 1m10.115s 34. P2 #45 Morgan Nicolet/Merlin/Mondolot 50 + 1m27.919s 35. GTA #55 Ferrari Perazzini/O'Young/Case 50 + 2m44.477s 36. GTA #67 Porsche Gibon/Milesi/Henzler 50 + 2m58.118s 37. GTP #93 SRT Wittmer/Kendall/Bomarito 50 + 3m27.104s 38. GTA #88 Porsche Ried/Roda/Ruberti 49 + 8 Laps 39. GTA #77 Porsche Dempsey/Foster/Long 49 + 3.702s 40. P2 #25 Oreca Graves/Hamilton/Nakano 49 + 6.624s 41. GTA #96 Aston Goethe/Campbell-Walter/Hall 49 + 23.474s 42. GTA #81 Ferrari Potolicchio/Aguas/Bright 49 + 25.995s 43. GTA #76 Porsche Narac/Vernay/Bourret 49 + 43.291s 44. P2 #40 Oreca Dagoneau/Downs/Younessi 49 + 1m56.949s 45. GTA #50 Corvette Bornhauser/Canal/Taylor 49 + 2m13.052s 46. GTA #75 Porsche Collard/Perrodo/Crubile 49 + 2m20.894s 47. P2 #36 Alpine Ragues/Panciatici/Gommendy 49 + 2m54.377s 48. GTA #57 Ferrari Krohn/Jonsson/Mediani 48 + 9 Laps 49. P2 #39 Lola Porta/Brandela/Raffin 48 + 1m20.763s 50. P2 #41 Zytek Rossi/K-Smith/Lux 48 + 1m40.917s 51. GTP #66 Ferrari Bertolini/Faisal/Qubaisi 47 + 10 Laps 52. GTA #70 Corvette MacNeil/Rodrigues/Dumas 47 + 2m51.353s 53. GTA #54 Ferrari Mallegol/Bachelier/Blank 46 + 11 Laps 54. P2 #28 Lola Giroix/Haezebrouck/Ihara 19 + 38 Laps 55. P2 #31 Lotus Weeda/Rossiter/Bouchut 17 + 40 Laps 56. GTA #95 Aston Simonsen/Nygaard/Poulsen 2 Retired
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About this article
| Series | WEC |
| Teams | Toyota Racing |
| Author | Jamie O'Leary |
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