Mike Conway extends #7 Toyota's lead in hour 9 at Le Mans
Mike Conway has extended Toyota's advantage in the Le Mans 24 Hours to its biggest margin yet during the race's ninth hour
Conway's lead in the #7 Toyota is now up to 1m04s over Neel Jani in the best of the Porsches.
Jani in turn is in a comfortable second place with the #9 Toyota over a lap behind in third.
The third-place car lost further time during the last hour after requiring a brighter side number panel to be fitted during its latest stop.
Sebastien Buemi has remained in the pits throughout the last hour as the Toyota crew attempt to fix a front motor issue on the #8 car.
He has now been caught by Earl Bamber in the #2 Porsche that suffered a similar front-axle drive issue earlier in the race, which has moved up to fourth in LMP1 but is not yet in the top 30 overall.
LMP2: REBELLIONS SWAP AGAIN
It's still a Rebellion Racing ORECA one-two in LMP2, but once again the two cars have swapped around.
The #13 car of Nelson Piquet Jr held the lead at the start of the hour, but it lost around a minute in a pitstop having a rear-left light problem worked on.
This allowed the #31 Rebellion to take the lead, with Bruno Senna still at the wheel and 74s clear of Mathias Beche in #13.
Thomas Laurent runs third in the #38 Jackie Chan DC Racing ORECA, 1m40s down, with no other cars still on the lead lap.
Simon Trummer runs fourth in the #24 Manor ORECA, with the French manufacturer locking out the top eight places.
ASTON LEADS FORD IN GTE PRO
Aston Martin continued to keep former owner Ford at arm's length as Daniel Serra maintained a 19-second gap in the #97 Vantage over the #67 Ford GT driven by Harry Tincknell.
Michael Christensen was running third for Porsche at the turn of the hour in a GTE Pro class in which many of the top 11 entries behind the Aston and Ford - all still running on the same lap - are out of pitstop sync after encountering problems earlier in the race.
Marco Sorensen is fourth for Aston Martin in the #95 Vantage that led during the opening hours before suffering a puncture, ahead of the #68 Muller/Kanaan/Hand Ford, which has made stealthy forward progress from the rear of the GTE Pro grid.
JMW's #84 Porsche leads GTE Am in the hands of Dries Vanthoor, who has half a minute in hand over the #90 TF Sport Aston Martin driven by Rob Bell.
POSITIONS AFTER NINE HOURS
| Pos | Class | Car | Drivers | Laps | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | LMP1 | #7 Toyota | Conway, Kobayashi, Sarrazin | 145 | |
| 2 | LMP1 | #1 Porsche | Jani, Lotterer, Tandy | 145 | + 1m02.442s |
| 3 | LMP1 | #9 Toyota | Lapierre, Kunimoto, Lopez | 143 | + 2 Laps |
| 4 | LMP2 | #31 Oreca | Prost, Canal, Senna | 137 | + 8 Laps |
| 5 | LMP2 | #13 Oreca | Piquet Jr, H. Hansson, Beche | 136 | + 9 Laps |
| 6 | LMP2 | #38 Oreca | Tung, Laurent, Jarvis | 136 | + 1m05.873s |
| 7 | LMP2 | #25 Oreca | Gonzalez, Trummer, Petrov | 136 | + 4m00.671s |
| 8 | LMP2 | #35 Alpine | Panciatici, Ragues, Negrao | 136 | + 4m13.547s |
| 9 | LMP2 | #40 Oreca | Allen, Matelli, Bradley | 135 | + 10 Laps |
| 10 | LMP2 | #24 Oreca | Graves, Hirschi, Vergne | 135 | + 34.064s |
| 11 | LMP2 | #32 Ligier | Owen, De Sadeleer, Albuquerque | 135 | + 49.657s |
| 12 | LMP2 | #37 Oreca | Cheng, Gommendy, Brundle | 135 | + 2m04.151s |
| 13 | LMP2 | #21 Oreca | Hedman, Hanley, Rosenqvist | 133 | + 12 Laps |
| 14 | LMP2 | #47 Dallara | Lacorte, Sernagiotto, Belicchi | 133 | + 7.559s |
| 15 | LMP2 | #34 Ligier | Moore, Hanson, Chandhok | 132 | + 13 Laps |
| 16 | LMP2 | #23 Ligier | Barthez, Buret, Berthon | 132 | + 2m30.434s |
| 17 | LMP2 | #28 Oreca | Perrodo, Vaxiviere, Collard | 131 | + 14 Laps |
| 18 | LMP2 | #39 Oreca | Guibbert, Trouillet, Winslow | 131 | + 34.736s |
| 19 | LMP2 | #29 Dallara | Lammers, Van Eerd, Barrichello | 129 | + 16 Laps |
| 20 | LMP2 | #33 Ligier | Nicolet, Nicolet, Maris | 129 | + 2m43.546s |
| 21 | GTE Pro | #97 Aston | Turner, Adam, Serra | 127 | + 18 Laps |
| 22 | GTE Pro | #67 Ford | Priaulx, Tincknell, Derani | 126 | + 19 Laps |
| 23 | GTE Pro | #92 Porsche | Christensen, Estre, Werner | 126 | + 1.746s |
| 24 | GTE Pro | #95 Aston | Thiim, Sorensen, Stanaway | 126 | + 7.187s |
| 25 | GTE Pro | #68 Ford | Hand, Muller, Kanaan | 126 | + 15.557s |
| 26 | GTE Pro | #51 Ferrari | Calado, Pier Guidi, Rugolo | 126 | + 24.852s |
| 27 | GTE Pro | #69 Ford | Briscoe, Westbrook, Dixon | 126 | + 31.056s |
| 28 | GTE Pro | #63 Chevrolet | Magnussen, Garcia, Taylor | 126 | + 31.656s |
| 29 | GTE Pro | #91 Porsche | Lietz, Makowiecki, Pilet | 126 | + 36.780s |
| 30 | GTE Pro | #71 Ferrari | Rigon, Bird, Molina | 126 | + 59.074s |
| 31 | GTE Pro | #66 Ford | Mucke, Pla, Johnson | 126 | + 1m12.143s |
| 32 | LMP1 | #2 Porsche | Bernhard, Bamber, Hartley | 126 | + 2m04.179s |
| 33 | LMP2 | #17 Ligier | Lafargue, Lafargue, Zollinger | 126 | + 2m56.401s |
| 34 | LMP1 | #8 Toyota | Buemi, Davidson, Nakajima | 125 | + 20 Laps |
| 35 | LMP2 | #27 Dallara | Aleshin, Sirotkin, Shaitar | 124 | + 21 Laps |
| 36 | GTE Am | #84 Ferrari | Smith, Stevens, Vanthoor | 124 | + 8.746s |
| 37 | GTE Am | #90 Aston | Yoluc, Hankey, Bell | 124 | + 2m25.598s |
| 38 | GTE Am | #77 Porsche | Ried, Cairoli, Dienst | 123 | + 22 Laps |
| 39 | GTE Am | #55 Ferrari | Cameron, Scott, Cioci | 123 | + 1m23.744s |
| 40 | GTE Am | #62 Ferrari | Macneil, Sweedler, Bell | 123 | + 1m27.015s |
| 41 | GTE Am | #99 Aston | Howard, Gunn, Bryant | 123 | + 2m35.758s |
| 42 | GTE Am | #93 Porsche | Long, Al Faisal, Hedlund | 123 | + 4m14.993s |
| 43 | GTE Pro | #64 Chevrolet | Gavin, Milner, Fassler | 122 | + 23 Laps |
| 44 | GTE Am | #65 Ferrari | Nielsen, Balzan, Curtis | 122 | + 2.833s |
| 45 | LMP2 | #36 Alpine | Dumas, Menezes, Rao | 122 | + 33.174s |
| 46 | LMP2 | #45 Ligier | Patterson, Mcmurry, Capillaire | 122 | + 1m03.454s |
| 47 | GTE Am | #61 Ferrari | Mok, Sawa, Griffin | 122 | + 1m53.229s |
| 48 | GTE Am | #83 Ferrari | Krohn, Jonsson, Bertolini | 122 | + 3m06.041s |
| 49 | GTE Am | #86 Porsche | Wainwright, Barker, Foster | 121 | + 24 Laps |
| 50 | GTE Am | #50 Chevrolet | Rees, Brandela, Philippon | 121 | + 1m49.939s |
| 51 | LMP2 | #22 Oreca | Rojas, Hirakawa, Gutierrez | 121 | + 1m52.040s |
| 52 | GTE Am | #54 Ferrari | Flohr, Castellacci, Beretta | 120 | + 25 Laps |
| 53 | GTE Am | #98 Aston | Dalla Lana, Lamy, Lauda | 120 | + 2m10.222s |
| 54 | GTE Am | #60 Ferrari | Wee, Katoh, Parente | 119 | + 26 Laps |
| 55 | LMP2 | #43 Riley | Keating, Bleekemolen, Taylor | 109 | + 36 Laps |
| 56 | LMP2 | #49 Ligier | Konopka, Calko, Breukers | 99 | + 46 Laps |
| 57 | GTE Pro | #82 Ferrari | Vilander, Fisichella, Kaffer | 72 | Retired |
| 58 | LMP2 | #26 Oreca | Rusinov, Thiriet, Lynn | 20 | Retired |
| 59 | GTE Am | #88 Porsche | Bachler, Lemeret, Al Qubaisi | 18 | Retired |
| 60 | LMP1 | #4 Enso | Webb, Kraihamer, Bonanomi | 7 | Retired |
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