Le Mans 24 Hours: Porsche continues to lead in 13th hour
Earl Bamber kept Porsche in the lead of the Le Mans 24 Hours after taking over the #19 car from Nick Tandy in the 13th hour
As Tandy reached the end of his quadruple stint at the wheel he went from extending his lead over the chasing Audis to just maintaining it, and that gap came down in the first few laps after Bamber took over.
But after Bamber bounced back from three consecutive 3m25s laps, which allowed the #9 Audi of Marco Bonanomi to close to 38s behind, the race leader settled into a rhythm and began to ease away again.
Bonanomi then exited the fight for the lead when he pitted shortly before the completion of the hour, handing the #9 car over to Filipe Albuquerque.
That allowed the #7 car, which Benoit Treluyer took over from Andre Lotterer, to move into second place, albeit more than a minute adrift of the race-leading car.
LMP2: KCMG RALLIES
Any concerns the KCMG squad had after its long pitstop in the previous hour evaporated as Nicholas Lapierre re-established a lead of a minute-and-a-half in LMP2.
There were no signs the #47 ORECA was struggling as the Frenchman continued to set fast times to pull away from the #46 TDS ORECA being driven by Pierre Thiriet.
Roman Rusinov still has third under control in the #26 Ligier as the order seems to have settled down during a quieter mid-race period.
GTE: STANAWAY STARS
Le Mans rookie Richie Stanaway continued his impressive debut in the French enduro by effectively handing Aston Martin a pitstop's lead over Corvette in the GTE fight.
The GP2 race winner ran close to Tommy Milner in the early stages of his stint and by the time the 13th hour ended both cars had pitted - the Corvette near the beginning of the hour and the Aston right at the end.
The net result was Stanaway turning a seven-second deficit into a three-second advantage - and with the Vantage having stopped 13 times to the C7.R's 12 stops.
In GTE Am, Aston's advantage is less substantial after its grip on the class was weakened by a #72 SMP Ferrari charge led by Victor Shaytar.
With Mathias Lauda struggling the Russian slashed the gap down to just a few seconds, and when the Austrian pit it allowed the SMP car through - though it was yet to make its latest stop when the hour ended.
POSITIONS AFTER 13 HOURS
Pos | Class | Car | Drivers | Laps | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | LMP1 | #19 Porsche | Hulkenberg, Bamber, Tandy | 209 | |
2 | LMP1 | #7 Audi | Fassler, Lotterer, Treluyer | 209 | + 1m04.250s |
3 | LMP1 | #9 Audi | Albuquerque, Bonanomi, Rast | 209 | + 2m23.345s |
4 | LMP1 | #17 Porsche | Bernhard, Webber, Hartley | 208 | + 1 Lap |
5 | LMP1 | #8 Audi | Di Grassi, Duval, Jarvis | 207 | + 2 Laps |
6 | LMP1 | #18 Porsche | Dumas, Jani, Lieb | 207 | + 2m07.856s |
7 | LMP1 | #2 Toyota | Wurz, Sarrazin, Conway | 205 | + 4 Laps |
8 | LMP1 | #1 Toyota | Davidson, Buemi, Nakajima | 202 | + 7 Laps |
9 | LMP1 | #13 Rebellion | Imperatori, Kraihamer, Abt | 195 | + 14 Laps |
10 | LMP2 | #47 Oreca | Howson, Bradley, Lapierre | 190 | + 19 Laps |
11 | LMP2 | #46 Oreca | Thiriet, Badey, Gommendy | 190 | + 1m34.171s |
12 | LMP2 | #26 Ligier | Rusinov, Canal, Bird | 189 | + 20 Laps |
13 | LMP2 | #48 Oreca | Chandhok, Patterson, Berthon | 188 | + 21 Laps |
14 | LMP2 | #38 Gibson | Dolan, Evans, Turvey | 188 | + 1m25.646s |
15 | LMP2 | #28 Ligier | Yacaman, Derani, Gonzalez | 187 | + 22 Laps |
16 | LMP2 | #34 Ligier | Cumming, Vanthoor, Estre | 186 | + 23 Laps |
17 | LMP2 | #42 Dome | Leventis, Watts, Kane | 186 | + 9.504s |
18 | LMP1 | #12 Rebellion | Prost, Heidfeld, Beche | 186 | + 2m31.405s |
19 | LMP2 | #45 Oreca | Ibanez, Perret, Bellarosa | 180 | + 29 Laps |
20 | GTE Pro | #99 Aston | Rees, Macdowall, Stanaway | 179 | + 30 Laps |
21 | GTE Pro | #64 Chevrolet | Gavin, Milner, Taylor | 179 | + 56.302s |
22 | LMP2 | #31 Ligier | Brown, Van Overbeek, Fogarty | 179 | + 2m07.517s |
23 | GTE Pro | #51 Ferrari | Bruni, Vilander, Fisichella | 179 | + 2m33.939s |
24 | LMP2 | #27 BR | Mediani, Markozov, Minassian | 179 | + 3m29.673s |
25 | GTE Pro | #91 Porsche | Lietz, Christensen, Bergmeister | 178 | + 31 Laps |
26 | LMP2 | #35 Ligier | Nicolet, Merlin, Maris | 178 | + 1m54.012s |
27 | GTE Am | #72 Ferrari | Shaytar, Bertolini, Basov | 177 | + 32 Laps |
28 | GTE Am | #98 Aston | Dalla Lana, Lamy, Lauda | 177 | + 55.847s |
29 | LMP2 | #29 Morgan | Roussel, Tung, Cheng | 176 | + 33 Laps |
30 | GTE Am | #62 Ferrari | Sweedler, Bell, Segal | 176 | + 1m11.174s |
31 | GTE Am | #77 Porsche | Dempsey, Long, Seefried | 176 | + 2m51.838s |
32 | GTE Pro | #71 Ferrari | Rigon, Calado, Beretta | 175 | + 34 Laps |
33 | GTE Pro | #95 Aston | Sorensen, Thiim, Nygaard | 175 | + 1m27.958s |
34 | GTE Am | #53 Dodge | Bleekemolen, Keating, Miller | 175 | + 3m41.607s |
35 | GTE Am | #55 Ferrari | Cameron, Griffin, Mortimer | 174 | + 35 Laps |
36 | GTE Am | #83 Ferrari | Perrodo, Collard, Aguas | 172 | + 37 Laps |
37 | GTE Am | #61 Ferrari | Mann, Giammaria, Cressoni | 172 | + 1m07.260s |
38 | GTE Am | #68 Porsche | Chen, Vannelet, Parisy | 172 | + 3m15.275s |
39 | GTE Am | #66 Ferrari | Al Faisal, Giermaziak, Avenatti | 172 | + 3m22.367s |
40 | GTE Am | #67 Porsche | Chen, Kapadia, Maassen | 168 | + 41 Laps |
41 | LMP2 | #30 Ligier | Sharp, Dalziel, Heinemeier Hansson | 167 | + 42 Laps |
42 | LMP2 | #40 Ligier | Krohn, Jonsson, Barbosa | 166 | + 43 Laps |
43 | LMP2 | #43 Morgan | Ragues, Webb, Amberg | 162 | + 47 Laps |
44 | LMP2 | #37 BR | Aleshin, Ladygin, Ladygin | 160 | + 49 Laps |
45 | LMP1 | #23 Nissan | Pla, Mardenborough, Chilton | 147 | + 62 Laps |
46 | LMP1 | #4 CLM | Trummer, Kaffer, Monteiro | 142 | + 67 Laps |
47 | LMP1 | #22 Nissan | Tincknell, Krumm, Buncombe | 141 | + 68 Laps |
48 | GTE Am | #96 Aston | Goethe, Hall, Castellacci | 139 | + 70 Laps |
49 | LMP1 | #21 Nissan | Matsuda, Shulzhitskiy, Ordonez | 115 | Retired |
50 | LMP2 | #36 Alpine | Panciatici, Chatin, Capillaire | 110 | Retired |
51 | GTE Pro | #97 Aston | Turner, Mucke, Bell | 110 | Retired |
52 | GTE Am | #50 Chevrolet | Roda, Ruberti, Poulsen | 94 | Retired |
53 | LMP2 | #41 Gibson | Hirsch, Paletou, Lancaster | 71 | Retired |
54 | GTE Am | #88 Porsche | Ried, Al Qubaisi, Bachler | 44 | Retired |
55 | GTE Pro | #92 Porsche | Pilet, Makowiecki, Henzler | 14 | Retired |
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