Toyota leads Le Mans 24 Hours at halfway mark

As had been the case ahead of the most recent stops during his stint, Conway pushed to extend Toyota's lead over the chasing #2 Porsche of Romain Dumas.

While the extra time required for the driver change meant Dumas did assume the lead when Conway stopped, the #6 car retook the lead when Dumas came in shortly before the halfway mark.

Toyota changed drivers in its second car as well, with Anthony Davidson taking over the third-placed #5 TS050 from Sebastien Buemi.

While the recovering #7 Audi started the hour well by passing the #13 Rebellion for fifth, it hit trouble just before 3am, forcing Marcel Fassler to stop at the esses before attempting to limp back to the pits.

Another troubled factory LMP1 car - the #1 Porsche - finally rejoined the race after two stays in the garage of over an hour each to fix high engine temperatures.

Brendon Hartley was one of the fastest cars on track once the 919 was back up to speed, with further repairs required after a change of water pump hadn't solved the problem earlier in the night.

The LMP2 battle between the #36 Signatech Alpine, the #46 Thiriet by TDS Racing ORECA and the #26 Jota-run G-Drive ORECA continued for yet another hour.

Gustavo Menezes led the way in the #36, while Mathias Beche was relieved of the pressure being piled on by Rene Rast in the #26 machine when the Audi-contracted driver handed over to ex-F1 racer Will Stevens, who was unable to match Beche's pace.

That allowed the #46 car to ease away from Stevens in third before pitting at the end of the hour to hand over to Ryo Hirakawa.

Risi Competizione continues to lead in GTE Pro, with Matteo Malucelli taking over the car from Toni Vilander.

Ryan Briscoe, in the #69 Ford, did cut the Ferrari's lead during the 12th hour, but remained just under 50 seconds behind at the half-distance mark.

Joey Hand, in the #68 Ford, is third ahead of Aston Martin Racing's Marco Sorensen - with all four cars all on the lead lap.

In GTE Am, the #88 Abu Dhabi-Proton Porsche leads, now in the hands of Khaled Al Qubaisi, with the Scuderia Corsa Ferrari of Towsend Bell almost a minute behind.

POSITIONS AFTER 12 HOURS