Le Mans 24 Hours: Porsche 919 moves into lead in hour three
The #20 Porsche 919 took the lead of the Le Mans 24 Hours in the third hour of the race, as another rain storm caused a second safety car period
Alexander Wurz had the race under control in the #7 Toyota, leading the #2 Audi of Andre Lotterer by around 1m30s, before another heavy rain shower prompted race officials to send the safety cars out.
Wurz had to pit - and hand over to Stephane Sarrazin - during that break, and the fact the #2 Audi also came in (with Benoit Treluyer taking over) allowed Timo Bernhard to take the lead in the #20 Porsche.
Bernhard then proceeded to pull away from Sarrazin in wet conditions as the hour drew to a close, while the Audis of Treluyer and Tom Kristensen remained on the lead lap.
The #8 Toyota - crashed by Nicolas Lapierre in the second hour - rejoined the race in the hands of Sebastien Buemi after spending 49 minutes in the pits, and is now running eight laps down.
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The #34 Race Performance ORECA continues to lead LMP2 in the hands of Franck Mailleux.
He has an advantage of almost a minute and a half over the #36 Signatech Alpine ORECA of Paul-Loup Chatin.
Karun Chandhok, driving the #48 Murphy ORECA, had a coming together with the #41 Greaves Zytek of Michael Munemann on the Mulsanne Straight during the short green flag period between safety cars after aquaplaning.
Both suffered damage and are in the pits, with the Murphy car needing front end and floor repairs.
Richard Bradley, driving the #47 KCMG ORECA that led early on, also hit trouble, suffering a spin at the Porsche Curves while being lapped by Kristensen's Audi. He recovered and runs 10th.
PORSCHE ALSO LEADS IN GTE
Porsche leapt into a GTE one-two with Marco Holzer and Jorg Bergmeister passing erstwhile GTE Am leader Patrick Long for the overall GTE lead right at the end of the hour.
Long, who took the class lead when Sam Bird crashed in hour two, had moved to the head of the GTE group when Tommy Milner's Corvette and Bergmeister stopped in the pits.
After that Holzer - whose co-driver Patrick Pilet had a minor involvement in the crash between the #3 Audi and #8 Toyota - blasted past Long, who was 30s off the pace on slick tyres with the track still damp.
Long then dropped like a stone, falling behind Milner and also losing the Am class lead to Pedro Lamy's Aston Martin Vantage.
POSITIONS AFTER 3 HOURS Pos Cl Car Drivers Laps Gap 1. LMP1 #20 Porsche Bernhard/Webber/Hartley 40 2. LMP1 #7 Toyota Wurz/Sarrazin/Nakajima 40 + 6.670s 3. LMP1 #2 Audi Fassler/Lotterer/Treluyer 39 + 1 Lap 4. LMP1 #1 Audi Di Grassi/Gene/Kristensen 39 + 58.440s 5. LMP1 #12 Rebellion Prost/Heidfeld/Beche 38 + 2 Laps 6. LMP2 #34 Oreca Frey/Mailleux/Lancaster 37 + 3 Laps 7. LMP2 #36 Alpine Chatin/Panciatici/Webb 37 + 1m08.914s 8. LMP2 #43 Morgan Klien/Hirsch/Brandela 37 + 1m17.339s 9. LMP2 #35 Ligier Brundle/Mardenborough/Shulzhitskiy 37 + 1m19.457s 10. LMP2 #46 Ligier Thiriet/Badey/Gommendy 37 + 1m41.870s 11. LMP1 #13 Rebellion Kraihamer/Belicchi/Leimer 37 + 1m42.763s 12. LMP2 #33 Ligier Cheng/Tung/Fong 36 + 4 Laps 13. LMP2 #26 Morgan Rusinov/Pla/Canal 36 + 1m36.667s 14. LMP2 #24 Oreca Rast/Charouz/Capillaire 36 + 2m45.799s 15. LMP2 #47 Oreca Howson/Bradley/Imperatori 36 + 3m05.401s 16. LMP2 #38 Zytek Dolan/Tincknell/Turvey 36 + 3m10.081s 17. GTEP #92 Porsche Holzer/Makowiecki/Lietz 35 + 5 Laps 18. GTEP #91 Porsche Pilet/Bergmeister/Tandy 35 + 1.330s 19. GTEA #98 Aston Dalla Lana/Lamy/Nygaard 35 + 24.483s 20. GTEA #77 Porsche Dempsey/Foster/Long 35 + 25.127s 21. GTEP #74 Chevrolet Gavin/Milner/Westbrook 35 + 25.210s 22. LMP2 #50 Morgan Ragues/Taylor/Ihara 35 + 46.711s 23. GTEP #51 Ferrari Bruni/Vilander/Fisichella 35 + 1m02.010s 24. LMP2 #42 Zytek Kimber-Smith/McMurry/Dyson 35 + 1m09.288s 25. GTEP #97 Aston Turner/Mucke/Senna 35 + 1m14.097s 26. LMP1 #14 Porsche Dumas/Jani/Lieb 35 + 1m22.389s 27. GTEP #73 Chevrolet Magnussen/Garcia/Taylor 35 + 1m34.511s 28. GTEA #53 Ferrari Mowlem/Patterson/Hamilton 35 + 1m37.855s 29. LMP2 #29 Morgan Schell/Leutwiller/Roussel 35 + 1m56.203s 30. GTEA #95 Aston Poulsen/Heinemeier-Hansson/Thiim 35 + 3m03.976s 31. GTEA #72 Ferrari Bertolini/Shaitar/Basov 35 + 3m14.535s 32. GTEA #67 Porsche Maris/Merlin/Helary 35 + 3m15.761s 33. GTEA #88 Porsche Ried/Bachler/Al Qubaisi 34 + 6 Laps 34. GTEA #57 Ferrari Krohn/Jonsson/Collins 34 + 15.349s 35. GTEA #60 Ferrari Mann/Case/Giammaria 34 + 1m28.396s 36. GTEA #90 Ferrari Montecalvo/Roda/Ruberti 34 + 1m28.894s 37. GTEA #70 Ferrari Nakano/Ehret/Rich 34 + 1m29.202s 38. GTEA #58 Ferrari Barthez/Pons/Ayari 34 + 2m05.274s 39. GTEA #75 Porsche Perrodo/Collard/Palttala 34 + 2m17.123s 40. GTEP #52 Ferrari Griffin/Parente/Leo 34 + 2m34.018s 41. GTEA #61 Ferrari Perez-Companc/Cioci/Venturi 34 + 2m47.589s 42. GTEA #66 Ferrari Al Faisal/Neiman/Pumpelly 34 + 2m53.862s 43. LMP2 #48 Oreca Berthon/Gonzalez/Chandhok 32 + 8 Laps 44. GTEP #79 Porsche MacNeil/Curtis/Bleekemolen 32 + 25m57.608s 45. GTEA #62 Ferrari Mallegol/Bachelier/Blank 32 + 26m14.046s 46. LMP2 #41 Zytek Munemman/Latif/Winslow 31 + 9 Laps 47. LMP1 #8 Toyota Davidson/Lapierre/Buemi 31 + 23m17.300s 48. GTEA #76 Porsche Narac/Armindo/Hallyday 31 + 26m06.807s 49. LMP2 #27 Oreca Zlobin/Salo/Ladygin 30 + 10 Laps 50. GTEP #71 Ferrari Rigon/Kaffer/Beretta 28 Retired 51. LMP1 #3 Audi Albuquerque/Bonanomi/Jarvis 25 Retired 52. GTEA #81 Ferrari Wyatt/Rugolo/Bird 22 Retired 53. LMP2 #37 Oreca Ladygin/Minassian/Mediani 9 Retired 54. CDNT #0 Nissan Ordonez/Reip/Motoyama 5 Retired
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