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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