Le Mans 24 Hours: Porsche maintains lead through first hour

Bernhard moved the #17 Porsche into the lead on the Mulsanne straight on lap one, and he held that position throughout the opening hour.

But Jani, who spent most of the early laps fending off the threat from Audi, closed back up during the first pitstops and ended the hour right on the tail of the leading car.

Porsche enjoyed only a narrow pace advantage over Audi as the race settled down, with Loic Duval and Lucas di Grassi trading third place before and during the pitstops.

Both made short work of the third Porsche of Formula 1 driver Nico Hulkenberg after the start, and the German then slipped into a fight for fifth with the third Audi of Marco Bonanomi.

Hulkenberg repassed Bonanomi in traffic shortly before the first pitstops, but an early stop by Audi got the #9 car back ahead of the Porsche.

Toyota lacked the pace to hang onto the German cars, with Sebastien Buemi and Alex Wurz slipping to around one minute off the lead.

Nissan got its #22 car up to 18th with Harry Tincknell, while the #21 of Lucas Ordonez slipped back after his door came open following his first stop.

The third Nissan of Jann Mardenborough started the race late after work was required on its clutch, meaning it joined the action several laps down.

LMP2

The TDS Racing ORECA driven by Tristian Gommendy leads LMP2 by seven seconds.

Gommendy started sixth, but made gradual progress to take the lead just before pitting for the first time at the 35-minute mark.

He then set about building an advantage over early leader Richard Bradley in the KCMG ORECA and Sam Bird, who dropped from second to fourth on the first lap in the G-Drive (OAK) entry but quickly regrouped.

Defending winner Jota Sport has work to do - as it did at this stage in 2014.

Oliver Turvey ran third initially, but lost time before a lengthy pitstop for a gearshift problem cost the team almost two laps and left it 18th in class.

GTE

Aston Martin leads Ferrari in the fight for GTE honours, with Nicki Thiim rising from fourth to first in the #95 AMR Vantage.

Richie Stanaway led in the #99 Aston from pole, but lost the lead to Gianmari Bruni in the #51 AF Corse Ferrari on the opening lap.

The New Zealander got back ahead next time round though, as Thiim moved ahead of the #97 Aston of Stefan Mucke for third.

Thiim swiftly passed Bruni for second and took the lead from Stanaway 20 minutes in before edging clear, while the #51 Ferrari jumped the #99 Aston in the pitstops just before the end of the hour.

Behind the lead trio the #97 Aston holds fourth ahead of the only Chevrolet Corvette C7.R in the race, which Oliver Gavin moved past the two Manthey-run Porsches early on.

James Calado also made good progress in the opening hour, rising to the back of the lead GTE train and then jumping both 911 RSRs in the pitstops.

The #92 Porsche had a slow lap when it left the pits and dropped back from the lead train.

The #72 SMP Ferrari leads GTE Am.

Andrea Bertolini jumped Pedro Lamy's #98 Aston Martin in the pitstops after the Portuguese led the early stages.

POSITIONS AFTER ONE HOUR