Sebastien Buemi extends #5 Toyota's lead in Le Mans 24 Hours

The three leading cars started the hour covered by just a handful of seconds, but relentless pace from Sebastien Buemi in the #5 TS050 coupled with a longer stop for a driver change at Porsche, with Mar Lieb relieving Neel Jani, strung the top three out as the race approached 9am local time.

Buemi extended his lead to around 30 seconds over Conway by the end of the hour, with Marc Lieb roughly 50s back in third after taking over the Porsche from Neel Jani.

Audi completes the top five with its two R18 e-tron quattros, but neither is in contention to join the lead battle on merit as things stand.

LMP2 - SIGNATECH STAYS STRONG
By Mitchell Adam

The Signatech Alpine is in a commanding position entering the final quarter of the race, sixth outright and leading LMP2 by one lap.

Its advantage over the second-placed G-Drive ORECA is fluctuating through pitstops, when the latter entry pitting several laps later and getting back on the lead lap during that window.

Stephane Richelmi and Rene Rast in the two cars have otherwise been relatively evenly matched on pace.

The #37 SMP Racing BR01 is third with Victor Shaytar, with Strakka's Jonny Kane 18s behind in the closest battle in the class, while Tristian Gommendy is sixth for Eurasia Motorsport.

Having run second before Pierre Thiriet crashed during the 17th hour, the Thiriet by TDS Racing ORECA has joined the list of official retirements.

GTE - FERRARI ON TOP IN PRO AND AM
By Scott Mitchell

The Risi Ferrari's GTE lead is more than half a minute after the #68 Ford picked up a drive-through penalty.

After Sebastien Bourdais slipped back from Toni Vilander, the two drivers made way for Dirk Muller and Matteo Malucelli respectively.

A longer stop for the Ford dropped Muller to 18.7s off the lead, but he had taken a third out of that before having to serve a drive-through for his car being refuelled with the engine on.

Without that penalty, the two cars would be neck-and-neck again.

As it has for the last few hours, the #69 Ford runs an untroubled third, a lap behind the Risi 488 GTE.

It is a similar story of continuity in GTE Am, which remains led by the #62 Scuderia Corse Ferrari that now has Bill Sweedler aboard.

POSITIONS AFTER 18 HOURS: