Le Mans 24 Hours: More Audi dramas strengthen Porsche's lead

While Earl Bamber continued to lead the race in the #19 car he shares with Nico Hulkenberg and Nick Tandy, the #17 car of Brendon Hartley became safer in second as all three Audis required unscheduled stops.

The #9 car of Marco Bonanomi, which was third until stopping late in the previous hour, rejoined after 18 minutes in the garage for a front-left driveshaft change, dropping it behind the leading Toyota.

The #8 car also made a couple of short unscheduled pit visits, while the new third placed #7 Audi stopped twice in quick succession for an oil top-up and an engine cover fix.

That left the #7 a distant two laps off the lead, while the gap between the two leading Porsches stabilised at just inside one lap before Hartley pitted at the top of the hour.

LMP2

A Nicolas Lapierre off sent another scare through LMP2 leader KCMG, but he continued to lead Sam Bird and Oliver Turvey.

Having stopped on track for two minutes earlier this morning, Lapierre ran off the circuit at Indianapolis, but was able to avoid beaching the ORECA 05 or finding the tyre barriers.

His lead had been as high as 2m15s before the incident, which occurred as Bird pitted in the G-Drive (OAK) Ligier, but soon stabilised as Lapierre managed the gap.

Before Lapierre and Bird pitted just before the end of the hour, the Frenchman led by 1m25s.

Turvey replaced Mitch Evans aboard the Jota Gibson and couldn't make inroads into Bird's advantage, running about 30 seconds behind before also pitting as the hour concluded.

GTE

Ferrari consolidated its GTE Pro lead in the 22nd hour but Corvette remains a genuine threat to the AF Corse team.

Toni Vilander extended his advantage over Jordan Taylor to 13s by the time the 458 Italia and C7.R pit on the same lap, five minutes from the end of the hour.

While AF Corse performed a fuel top-up and sent Vilander on his way, Corvette swapped Taylor for Gavin and also fitted new tyres to the Chevrolet.

That put the Corvette 36s down on the Ferrari, but with better rubber as the race nears its conclusion.

The GTE Am fight is all but over, save for disaster for the #98 Aston Martin that has been in control for so long.

With two hours to run Pedro Lamy was comfortably third overall in GTE in the Vantage, enjoying a class lead of more than three laps.

POSITIONS AFTER 22 HOURS