#1 Porsche edges away from #6 Toyota in fourth hour at Le Mans 24
Porsche extended its lead over Toyota and Audi in the Le Mans 24 Hours during the fourth hour of the race, with Mark Webber taking over the #1 car at the front of the field
Brendon Hartley stretched the previously tight lead battle out in his final stint in the 919, pulling away from the #6 Toyota of Mike Conway and the #8 Audi of Loic Duval.
The Audi lost third position to the #5 Toyota during the pitstops and first driver changes, but the Toyota fell back when it pitted at the end of its outlap for another set of tyres after Anthony Davidson reported a serious vibration.
That dropped the #5 car back to fifth place, behind the #8 Audi with Jarvis now at the wheel, and the #2 Porsche of Marc Lieb.
Webber pulled away from Kobayashi early in their first stints at the wheel, solidifying the Porsche's advantage as it tries to combat the fact the Toyotas are able to go one lap longer on a tank of fuel.
While the #8 Audi was as close as three seconds off the lead at times during the previous hour, in Duval's final stint and Jarvis's first the car lost more than half a minute to the race leader.
LMP2 - MANOR IN CONTROL
By Mitchell Adam
Matt Rao has taken over the Manor ORECA with a healthy class lead, following Roberto Merhi's opening stint.
Merhi stopped twice during the hour, once at the start and once at the end, and his lead had grown from 45s to 60s by the time he handed the Le Mans debutant team's car over to Rao.
KCMG's Richard Bradley jumped Thiriet by TDS Racing's Mathias Beche during the first stop and held second place for the bulk of the hour, but Beche was also able to get past before pitting again and relinquishing the seat to Ryo Hirakawa.
Hirakawa was second at the end of the hour, 28s behind Rao, with Gustavo Menezes third, having taken over the Signatech Alpine from Nicolas Lapierre.
Ex-Formula 1 drivers Will Stevens and Giedo van der Garde turned their first Le Mans race laps, after taking over G-Drive's ORECA and Gibson from Rene Rast and Jake Dennis respectively.
His car out of sequence after a puncture in the third hour, Stevens is fourth in the class order and 50s behind Rao.
Matt Howson - who took over from Bradley at the end of the hour - is fifth, ahead of Extreme Speed Motorsports' Ryan Dalziel, Strakka's Danny Watts and van der Garde.
GTE PRO - RISI EDGES AHEAD
By Scott Mitchell
The Risi Competizione Ferrari edged ahead in its GTE Pro fight with Ford after the first driver changes.
Toni Vilander assumed the Risi 488 GTE from Giancarlo Fisichella and moved clear of the #69 Ford GT that Ryan Briscoe took over from Richard Westbrook.
Briscoe struggled substantially in the first half of his stint and fell 15s behind the Ferrari that had trailed the Ford in the previous hour.
Such was Briscoe's lack of performance that Joey Hand, who took over the #68 car from Dirk Muller, managed to catch his team-mate by an average of 1.6s a lap and pass him before the end of the hour.
Porsche had gamely given chasing to the quicker Fords and Ferraris, but its lead 911 RSR ended the hour in the garage for a quick radiator change after Nick Tandy spent a strong stint in fourth.
GTE AM - ABU DHABI PORSCHE UP FRONT
By Jack Cozens
The #88 Abu Dhabi-Proton Porsche leads the GTE Am field for a second-consecutive hour after Wolf Henzler pitted his #78 KCMG Porsche.
Henzler had enjoyed a comfortable margin over his closest class rival after regaining the lead when Patrick Long stopped and handed over to David Heinemeier Hansson.
That driver change left Henzler with a 25-second advantage over the #88 car, which the German was able to extend before his final stop of his run, handing the #78 over to Joel Camathias who now sits second.
The #89 Proton Competition Porsche shunted just before the four-hour mark, with Marc Miller losing his 911 RSR on the run to the Dunlop chicane shortly after exiting the pits.
POSITIONS AFTER FOUR HOURS:
Pos | Class | Car | Drivers | Laps | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | LMP1 | #1 Porsche | Bernhard, Webber, Hartley | 60 | |
2 | LMP1 | #6 Toyota | Sarrazin, Conway, Kobayashi | 60 | + 24.650s |
3 | LMP1 | #8 Audi | Di Grassi, Duval, Jarvis | 60 | + 44.498s |
4 | LMP1 | #2 Porsche | Dumas, Jani, Lieb | 60 | + 54.504s |
5 | LMP1 | #5 Toyota | Davidson, Buemi, Nakajima | 60 | + 1m27.812s |
6 | LMP1 | #13 Rebellion | Tuscher, Imperatori, Kraihamer | 57 | + 3 Laps |
7 | LMP2 | #44 Oreca | Graves, Rao, Merhi | 56 | + 4 Laps |
8 | LMP2 | #46 Oreca | Thiriet, Beche, Hirakawa | 56 | + 25.858s |
9 | LMP2 | #36 Alpine | Menezes, Lapierre, Richelmi | 56 | + 39.391s |
10 | LMP2 | #26 Oreca | Rusinov, Stevens, Rast | 56 | + 44.531s |
11 | LMP2 | #47 Oreca | Matsuda, Howson, Bradley | 56 | + 47.672s |
12 | LMP2 | #31 Ligier | Dalziel, Derani, Cumming | 56 | + 1m23.842s |
13 | LMP2 | #42 Gibson | Leventis, Watts, Kane | 56 | + 1m33.442s |
14 | LMP2 | #38 Gibson | Dolan, Dennis, Van Der Garde | 56 | + 1m41.417s |
15 | LMP2 | #35 Alpine | Cheng, Tung, Panciatici | 56 | + 2m23.364s |
16 | LMP2 | #37 BR01 | Petrov, Shaytar, Ladygin | 55 | + 5 Laps |
17 | LMP2 | #23 Ligier | Barthez, Chatin, Buret | 55 | + 47.977s |
18 | LMP2 | #27 BR01 | Minassian, Mediani, Aleshin | 55 | + 1m19.304s |
19 | LMP1 | #12 Rebellion | Prost, Heidfeld, Piquet Jr | 55 | + 2m34.519s |
20 | LMP2 | #25 Ligier | Munemann, Hoy, Pizzitola | 55 | + 3m35.870s |
21 | LMP2 | #41 Ligier | Rojas, Canal, Berthon | 54 | + 6 Laps |
22 | LMP1 | #7 Audi | Fassler, Lotterer, Treluyer | 54 | + 20.009s |
23 | LMP2 | #33 Oreca | Pu, Gommendy, De Bruijn | 54 | + 38.716s |
24 | LMP2 | #40 Ligier | Krohn, Jonsson, Barbosa | 54 | + 1m48.722s |
25 | LMP2 | #30 Ligier | Sharp, Brown, Van Overbeek | 54 | + 2m21.622s |
26 | GTE Pro | #82 Ferrari | Fisichella, Vilander, Malucelli | 54 | + 2m35.866s |
27 | GTE Pro | #69 Ford | Briscoe, Westbrook, Dixon | 54 | + 2m43.103s |
28 | GTE Pro | #68 Ford | Hand, Muller, Bourdais | 54 | + 2m45.266s |
29 | GTE Pro | #66 Ford | Pla, Mucke, Johnson | 54 | + 3m14.194s |
30 | GTE Pro | #92 Porsche | Makowiecki, Bamber, Bergmeister | 53 | + 7 Laps |
31 | GTE Pro | #77 Porsche | Lietz, Christensen, Eng | 53 | + 2.530s |
32 | GTE Pro | #95 Aston | Thiim, Sorensen, Turner | 53 | + 32.661s |
33 | GTE Pro | #64 Chevrolet | Gavin, Milner, Taylor | 53 | + 33.388s |
34 | GTE Pro | #71 Ferrari | Rigon, Bird, Bertolini | 53 | + 35.891s |
35 | GTE Pro | #97 Aston | Stanaway, Rees, Adam | 53 | + 1m10.390s |
36 | GTE Pro | #63 Chevrolet | Magnussen, Garcia, Taylor | 53 | + 1m43.616s |
37 | GTE Am | #88 Porsche | Al Qubaisi, Heinemeier Hansson, Long | 53 | + 2m22.561s |
38 | GTE Am | #78 Porsche | Ried, Henzler, Camathias | 53 | + 2m54.243s |
39 | GTE Am | #98 Aston | Dalla Lana, Lamy, Lauda | 52 | + 8 Laps |
40 | LMP2 | #49 Ligier | Pew, Negri Jr, Vanthoor | 52 | + 13.451s |
41 | GTE Pro | #91 Porsche | Pilet, Estre, Tandy | 52 | + 21.133s |
42 | GTE Am | #50 Chevrolet | Yamagishi, Ragues, Belloc | 52 | + 54.863s |
43 | GTE Am | #62 Ferrari | Sweedler, Bell, Segal | 52 | + 1m17.652s |
44 | CDNT | #84 Morgan | Sausset, Tinseau, Bouvet | 52 | + 1m22.835s |
45 | GTE Am | #86 Porsche | Wainwright, Carroll, Barker | 52 | + 1m33.346s |
46 | GTE Am | #61 Ferrari | Mok, Sawa, Bell | 52 | + 1m39.985s |
47 | GTE Am | #57 Chevrolet | O'Connel, Bryant, Patterson | 52 | + 2m08.459s |
48 | GTE Am | #55 Ferrari | Cameron, Griffin, Scott | 52 | + 3m05.311s |
49 | LMP2 | #22 Ligier | Capillaire, Maris, Coleman | 51 | + 9 Laps |
50 | GTE Am | #83 Ferrari | Perrodo, Collard, Aguas | 51 | + 7m40.551s |
51 | GTE Am | #89 Porsche | Macneil, Keen, Miller | 50 | + 10 Laps |
52 | GTE Am | #99 Aston | Howard, Griffin, Hirsch | 50 | + 5m55.221s |
53 | LMP2 | #34 Oreca | Leutwiler, Nakano, Winslow | 49 | + 11 Laps |
54 | GTE Am | #60 Ferrari | Laursen, Mac, Nielsen | 48 | + 12 Laps |
55 | LMP2 | #43 Ligier | Gonzalez, Senna, Albuquerque | 48 | + 2m59.438s |
56 | LMP2 | #28 Morgan | Taittinger, Striebig, Roussel | 48 | + 3m22.740s |
57 | LMP2 | #48 Oreca | Keating, Bleekemolen, Goossens | 47 | + 13 Laps |
58 | LMP1 | #4 CLM | Trummer, Webb, Kaffer | 45 | + 15 Laps |
59 | GTE Pro | #51 Ferrari | Bruni, Calado, Pier Guidi | 41 | + 19 Laps |
60 | GTE Pro | #67 Ford | Franchitti, Priaulx, Tincknell | 31 | + 29 Laps |
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