Le Mans 24 Hours: F1 driver Nico Hulkenberg lead for Porsche

Formula 1 driver Hulkenberg passed Webber shortly after a restart early in the hour, which at the time was for second place.

The German then inherited the lead when the out-of-sequence Rene Rast made a pitstop in the #9 Audi, and he edged away from Webber who was defending from the #7 Audi of Marcel Fassler.

However, shortly before the end of Webber's quadruple stint - Porsche's first of the race - his car was given a one-minute drive-through penalty for Brendon Hartley overtaking under yellow flags earlier in the race.

Webber served the penalty, then returned to the pits one lap later to hand the car over to Timo Bernhard.

The stewards also issued Hartley with a suspended nine-minute penalty which will only be enforced if the Kiwi offends again in the race.

Out front, Hulkenberg tried to pull a small gap out ahead of Rast, while Fassler ran third around 22 seconds back, and Bernhard picked up the #17 Porsche two minutes adrift of the lead.

Neel Jani kept the #18 Porsche on the lead lap following its off in the previous hour, running around 50 seconds behind the #17 machine.

LMP2

KCMG remains in control of LMP2, despite serving a drive-through penalty for a pitlane infringement.

An investigation was announced during the seventh hour, with stewards eventually awarding a penalty nearly two hours later, which was promptly served on the very next lap.

When racing resumed after the eighth-hour safety car period, Richard Bradley held a 2m30s lead for KCMG over Tristan Gommendy in TDS Racing's similar ORECA 05.

Gommendy started to chip away at the margin, and after serving the drive-through penalty Bradley led by 1m23s.

The pair both completed trouble-free pitstops for fuel, and at the end of the ninth hour Bradley was 1m20s clear.

The G-Drive (OAK) Ligier remains third with Roman Rusinov behind the wheel, ahead of Nathanael Berthon for Murphy Motorsport.

GTE

Richie Stanaway guided Aston Martin Racing back to the top of the GTE pile, and the Vantage victory bid rests on the #99 after an engine failure for the #97.

The New Zealander took over from struggling team-mate Alex MacDowall and pumped in a series of improvements - including the car's best lap of the race - to establish a lead of more than 40 seconds by the end of the ninth hour.

That was aided by Corvette bringing in Jordan Taylor and swapping him for Oliver Gavin, but the Briton could not match Stanaway's pace out front.

The Chevy remains a comfortable second, though, with the #91 Manthey Porsche third and the #51 AF Corse Ferrari a distant fourth after the smokey exit for the #97 Aston at the end of the Mulsanne straight.

Aston's bid for a GTE double remains intact, thanks to the #98's continued domination of the Am class.

The 72 SMP entry has got ahead of the #83 Ferrari in the battle between the AF Corse entries for second.

POSITIONS AFTER NINE HOURS: