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Le Mans 24 Hours: Huge GTE Pro battle takes centre stage

The battle for GTE honours at the Le Mans 24 Hours took centre stage as Toyota edged further ahead in the fight at the front

Aston Martin, Corvette and Ferrari remain locked in a sensational fight for victory in GTE Pro, with the trio of manufacturers running nose-to-tail at one point during the 11th hour.

It was the Vantage that emerged on top, Bruno Senna resisting tremendous pressure from Tommy Milner and Tony Vilander to hang onto the lead it has generally held for the last six hours.

Vilander was the first to attack Senna, his 458 Italia filling the Brazilian's mirrors before an attempt to get past cost him momentum and allowed Milner, who had held a watching brief in third but closed right up behind them as they squabbled, to move into second.

As Vilander dropped back, the C7.R pushed on. Senna rebuffed the American time and time again, and while the gap reached two seconds at one point, it was less than half that for the majority of the fight.

At the front of the race, the #7 Toyota in the hands of Alexander Wurz continued to extend its lead over the chasing Audis.

Wurz was more consistent than Andre Lotterer and Tom Kristensen giving chase, meaning that his lead was creeping towards two and a half minutes as half-distance drew ever-closer.

Alex Brundle built on team-mate Jann Mardenborough's good work in the #35 G-Drive-backed OAK Ligier, extending his lead over the Signatech Alpine ORECA of Pierre-Loup Chatin.

Michel Frey holds third in the #34 Race Performance ORECA ahead of the #46 TDS Ligier that started on pole position.

Twelve out of 17 starters remain on track in LMP2, with the #26 OAK-run G-Drive Morgan of Olivier Pla now officially retired.

In GTE Am, Kristian Poulsen extended Aston Martin's lead over the #72 SMP Ferrari to almost a lap as Christian Ried consolidated third for the Proton Competition Porsche.

POSITIONS AFTER 11 HOURS

Pos Cl       Car       Drivers                             Laps  Gap
 1. LMP1 #7  Toyota    Wurz/Sarrazin/Nakajima              171  
 2. LMP1 #2  Audi      Fassler/Lotterer/Treluyer           170  +  2m24.135s
 3. LMP1 #1  Audi      Di Grassi/Gene/Kristensen           170  +      1 Lap
 4. LMP1 #20 Porsche   Bernhard/Webber/Hartley             168  +     3 Laps
 5. LMP1 #14 Porsche   Dumas/Jani/Lieb                     165  +     6 Laps
 6. LMP1 #8  Toyota    Davidson/Lapierre/Buemi             158  +    13 Laps
 7. LMP2 #35 Ligier    Brundle/Mardenborough/Shulzhitskiy  158  +  2m43.282s
 8. LMP1 #12 Rebellion Prost/Heidfeld/Beche                157  +    14 Laps
 9. LMP2 #36 Alpine    Chatin/Panciatici/Webb              157  +    36.973s
10. LMP2 #34 Oreca     Frey/Mailleux/Lancaster             157  +  2m01.953s
11. LMP2 #46 Ligier    Thiriet/Badey/Gommendy              157  +  2m45.060s
12. LMP2 #38 Zytek     Dolan/Tincknell/Turvey              157  +  3m36.730s
13. LMP2 #43 Morgan    Klien/Hirsch/Brandela               155  +    16 Laps
14. LMP2 #24 Oreca     Rast/Charouz/Capillaire             154  +    17 Laps
15. LMP2 #33 Ligier    Cheng/Tung/Fong                     153  +    18 Laps
16. GTEP #97 Aston     Turner/Mucke/Senna                  150  +    21 Laps
17. GTEP #74 Chevrolet Gavin/Milner/Westbrook              150  +    57.258s
18. GTEP #51 Ferrari   Bruni/Vilander/Fisichella           150  +  1m02.236s
19. GTEP #92 Porsche   Holzer/Makowiecki/Lietz             150  +  2m16.540s
20. LMP2 #29 Morgan    Schell/Leutwiller/Roussel           149  +    22 Laps
21. LMP2 #42 Zytek     Kimber-Smith/McMurry/Dyson          149  +    35.786s
22. GTEP #73 Chevrolet Magnussen/Garcia/Taylor             148  +    23 Laps
23. GTEA #95 Aston     Poulsen/Heinemeier-Hansson/Thiim    148  +    24.839s
24. GTEA #72 Ferrari   Bertolini/Shaitar/Basov             148  +  3m08.376s
25. GTEA #88 Porsche   Ried/Bachler/Al Qubaisi             147  +    24 Laps
26. LMP2 #50 Morgan    Ragues/Taylor/Ihara                 147  +    57.808s
27. GTEA #61 Ferrari   Perez-Companc/Cioci/Venturi         146  +    25 Laps
28. GTEA #90 Ferrari   Montecalvo/Roda/Ruberti             146  +  1m36.960s
29. GTEA #77 Porsche   Dempsey/Foster/Long                 145  +    26 Laps
30. GTEA #57 Ferrari   Krohn/Jonsson/Collins               145  +  1m15.103s
31. LMP2 #27 Oreca     Zlobin/Salo/Ladygin                 145  +  2m00.841s
32. GTEA #70 Ferrari   Nakano/Ehret/Rich                   144  +    27 Laps
33. GTEA #58 Ferrari   Barthez/Pons/Ayari                  143  +    28 Laps
34. GTEA #66 Ferrari   Al Faisal/Neiman/Pumpelly           143  +     6.725s
35. GTEA #76 Porsche   Narac/Armindo/Hallyday              143  +    16.326s
36. GTEA #67 Porsche   Maris/Merlin/Helary                 143  +  2m32.569s
37. GTEA #98 Aston     Dalla Lana/Lamy/Nygaard             140  +    31 Laps
38. GTEA #75 Porsche   Perrodo/Collard/Palttala            138  +    33 Laps
39. GTEP #79 Porsche   MacNeil/Curtis/Bleekemolen          138  +  2m09.268s
40. GTEA #53 Ferrari   Mowlem/Patterson/Hamilton           134  +    37 Laps
41. GTEA #62 Ferrari   Mallegol/Bachelier/Blank            123  +    48 Laps
42. GTEP #52 Ferrari   Griffin/Parente/Leo                 121  +    50 Laps
43. GTEP #91 Porsche   Pilet/Bergmeister/Tandy             120  +    51 Laps
44. LMP2 #26 Morgan    Rusinov/Pla/Canal                   120  Retired
45. GTEA #60 Ferrari   Mann/Case/Giammaria                 115  Retired
46. LMP2 #47 Oreca     Howson/Bradley/Imperatori            87  Retired
47. LMP1 #13 Rebellion Kraihamer/Belicchi/Leimer            73  Retired
48. LMP2 #48 Oreca     Berthon/Gonzalez/Chandhok            73  Retired
49. LMP2 #41 Zytek     Munemman/Latif/Winslow               31  Retired
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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