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Le Mans 24 Hours: Marc Gene puts Mark Webber Porsche a lap down

The leading Audi R18 e-tron quattro put the second-placed Porsche a lap down over the course of the 18th hour of the Le Mans 24 Hours

Audi driver Marc Gene comprehensively outpaced the Porsche 919 Hybrid driven by Mark Webber and was able to lap him into the Dunlop Chicane just after halfway through the hour.

Gene subsequently stopped for fuel, but the Audi's one-lap advantage was restored when Webber made his scheduled stop for fuel.

The #2 Audi was consistently the fastest car on the circuit as Marcel Fassler strived to make up the ground lost with a 20-minute stop to replace the turbocharger in the previous hour.

The Swiss was consistently five or six seconds a lap faster than ex-Formula 1 driver Webber, suggesting that Audi can make it a one-two before the end of the race.

The fourth-place Toyota was nine laps down, but setting fast times in the remaining TS040 HYBRID.

The #35 OAK Ligier continues to dominate LMP2, with Jann Mardenborough leading the #36 Signatech Alpine ORECA, which was taken over by Paul-Loup Chatin shortly before the 18-hour mark.

Ludovic Badey runs third in the #46 TDS Ligier, while the #38 Jota Sport Zytek of Oliver Turvey has moved up to fourth after the #34 Race Performance ORECA had a lengthy stay in the pits to fix a problem.

Rene Rast is now fifth in the Sebastian Loeb Racing ORECA.

The remaining GTE Pro Aston Martin Vantage and AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia engaged in a thrilling fight for class honours through the hour.

Stefan Mucke took the lead from Giancarlo Fisichella early on, but the Ferrari fought back in Gianmaria Bruni's hands and was challenging Bruno Senna for the top spot in class at the top of the hour and looking set to take the lead.

In GTE Am, the #95 Aston Martin has a two-lap lead over the #88 Porsche.

POSITIONS AFTER 18 HOURS

Pos Cl       Car       Drivers                             Laps  Gap
 1. LMP1 #1  Audi      Di Grassi/Gene/Kristensen           279  
 2. LMP1 #20 Porsche   Bernhard/Webber/Hartley             278  +      1 Lap
 3. LMP1 #2  Audi      Fassler/Lotterer/Treluyer           277  +     2 Laps
 4. LMP1 #8  Toyota    Davidson/Lapierre/Buemi             271  +     8 Laps
 5. LMP1 #14 Porsche   Dumas/Jani/Lieb                     269  +    10 Laps
 6. LMP2 #35 Ligier    Brundle/Mardenborough/Shulzhitskiy  263  +    16 Laps
 7. LMP2 #36 Alpine    Chatin/Panciatici/Webb              262  +    17 Laps
 8. LMP2 #46 Ligier    Thiriet/Badey/Gommendy              262  +     2.087s
 9. LMP1 #12 Rebellion Prost/Heidfeld/Beche                261  +    18 Laps
10. LMP2 #38 Zytek     Dolan/Tincknell/Turvey              260  +    19 Laps
11. LMP2 #24 Oreca     Rast/Charouz/Capillaire             259  +    20 Laps
12. LMP2 #43 Morgan    Klien/Hirsch/Brandela               258  +    21 Laps
13. LMP2 #34 Oreca     Frey/Mailleux/Lancaster             257  +    22 Laps
14. LMP2 #33 Ligier    Cheng/Tung/Fong                     254  +    25 Laps
15. LMP2 #42 Zytek     Kimber-Smith/McMurry/Dyson          252  +    27 Laps
16. GTEP #97 Aston     Turner/Mucke/Senna                  250  +    29 Laps
17. GTEP #51 Ferrari   Bruni/Vilander/Fisichella           250  +     0.830s
18. LMP2 #50 Morgan    Ragues/Taylor/Ihara                 248  +    31 Laps
19. GTEP #92 Porsche   Holzer/Makowiecki/Lietz             248  +    43.125s
20. LMP2 #29 Morgan    Schell/Leutwiller/Roussel           248  +  1m56.296s
21. GTEP #73 Chevrolet Magnussen/Garcia/Taylor             247  +    32 Laps
22. LMP2 #27 Oreca     Zlobin/Salo/Ladygin                 247  +    58.782s
23. GTEA #95 Aston     Poulsen/Heinemeier-Hansson/Thiim    246  +    33 Laps
24. GTEA #88 Porsche   Ried/Bachler/Al Qubaisi             244  +    35 Laps
25. GTEA #61 Ferrari   Perez-Companc/Cioci/Venturi         243  +    36 Laps
26. GTEP #74 Chevrolet Gavin/Milner/Westbrook              242  +    37 Laps
27. GTEA #57 Ferrari   Krohn/Jonsson/Collins               242  +    18.241s
28. GTEA #90 Ferrari   Montecalvo/Roda/Ruberti             242  +  1m37.514s
29. GTEA #77 Porsche   Dempsey/Foster/Long                 242  +  1m38.281s
30. GTEA #66 Ferrari   Al Faisal/Neiman/Pumpelly           240  +    39 Laps
31. GTEA #70 Ferrari   Nakano/Ehret/Rich                   240  +    13.469s
32. GTEA #98 Aston     Dalla Lana/Lamy/Nygaard             239  +    40 Laps
33. GTEA #58 Ferrari   Barthez/Pons/Ayari                  239  +    35.887s
34. GTEA #76 Porsche   Narac/Armindo/Hallyday              236  +    43 Laps
35. GTEP #79 Porsche   MacNeil/Curtis/Bleekemolen          233  +    46 Laps
36. GTEA #67 Porsche   Maris/Merlin/Helary                 232  +    47 Laps
37. GTEA #53 Ferrari   Mowlem/Patterson/Hamilton           231  +    48 Laps
38. GTEP #91 Porsche   Pilet/Bergmeister/Tandy             219  +    60 Laps
39. GTEA #62 Ferrari   Mallegol/Bachelier/Blank            212  +    67 Laps
40. LMP1 #7  Toyota    Wurz/Sarrazin/Nakajima              219  Retired
41. GTEA #72 Ferrari   Bertolini/Shaitar/Basov             196  Retired
42. GTEA #75 Porsche   Perrodo/Collard/Palttala            194  Retired
43. GTEP #52 Ferrari   Griffin/Parente/Leo                 140  Retired
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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