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Le Mans 24 Hours: Second Toyota hits major trouble in hour 8

Toyota has lost its second place in the Le Mans 24 Hours after Sebastien Buemi suffered a major problem on his TS050 HYBRID as the race reached one-third distance

The #8 car had briefly lost second to the leading Porsche of Neel Jani during the latest pitstop phase but Buemi quickly regained the place.

Then he was called back into the pits after another 10 laps with the brakes on fire, having suffered a "front motor" problem.

A frustrated Buemi had earlier warned the team over the radio there was some sort of problem, and was annoyed when he was later called in when an issue was finally found.

The car remains in the garage, with the team expecting it to be a "long repair".

At the front Mike Conway's advantage in the #7 Toyota (pictured) is 44s over Jani, while the #9 Toyota has been promoted to third after Buemi's problem.

REBELLION SWITCHAROUND IN LMP2

The Rebellion ORECA squad continues to run first and second in LMP2, but a drive-through penalty cost the #31 car of Bruno Senna the lead.

The Brazilian was deemed to have overtaken a car in a slow zone, and dropped to third place when he made his stop.

At the end of the hour, Piquet Jr in the #13 Rebellion ORECA has a lead of 9s, while Senna moved up to second after the out-of-sync Oliver Jarvis pitted in the #38 Jackie Chan DC Racing ORECA.

With Jarvis just over 40s off the lead and a huge advantage over the rest of the field, the battle for class victory is currently a three-horse race.

Best of the rest is the #25 Manor ORECA of Simon Trummer, who is three minutes down.

The best of the non-ORECAs is the #32 United Autosports Ligier of Filipe Albuquerque in seventh place.

ASTON LOSES A RIVAL IN GTE BATTLE

Aston Martin's #97 Vantage remains in charge of GTE Pro and lost one of its principal rivals during the hour.

Daniel Serra still enjoys a slim lead, barely into double figures, over the #67 Ford GT now driven by Harry Tincknell.

But the #64 Corvette that had been running third in the hands of Oliver Gavin has been pushed into the garage after Tommy Milner took over the car and spun at the Porsche Curves on his out-lap, hitting the wall with his rear-left and damaging a wheel.

Milner got the car going again but then spun in the pitlane entry as a result of the damage and was briefly beached on the kerb.

At the turn of the hour the out-of-sequence #92 Porsche, #66 Ford and #95 Aston - all of which are recovering from earlier incidents - were third, fourth and fifth.

The car that might have benefitted from the Corvette's off, the #71 AF Corse Ferrari, dropped to 11th in class as a result of Sam Bird picking up a penalty for track-limit infringements.

Ferrari moved into the lead of GTE Am after the #98 Aston, which had run at the front for the majority of the race, suffered a huge right-front blow-out after the Mulsanne Kink which damaged that whole corner of the car.

Will Stevens now leads the class in the #84 JMW Ferrari, with nearly a minute in hand over the #90 TF Sport Aston Martin currently driven by Rob Bell.

POSITIONS AFTER EIGHT HOURS

Pos Class Car Drivers Laps Gap
1 LMP1 #7 Toyota Conway, Kobayashi, Sarrazin 131
2 LMP1 #1 Porsche Jani, Lotterer, Tandy 131 + 1m40.258s
3 LMP1 #9 Toyota Lapierre, Kunimoto, Lopez 130 + 1 Lap
4 LMP1 #8 Toyota Buemi, Davidson, Nakajima 125 + 6 Laps
5 LMP2 #13 Oreca Piquet Jr, H. Hansson, Beche 123 + 8 Laps
6 LMP2 #31 Oreca Prost, Canal, Senna 123 + 10.005s
7 LMP2 #38 Oreca Tung, Laurent, Jarvis 123 + 43.511s
8 LMP2 #25 Oreca Gonzalez, Trummer, Petrov 122 + 9 Laps
9 LMP2 #35 Alpine Panciatici, Ragues, Negrao 122 + 7.164s
10 LMP2 #40 Oreca Allen, Matelli, Bradley 122 + 51.765s
11 LMP2 #32 Ligier Owen, De Sadeleer, Albuquerque 122 + 1m24.594s
12 LMP2 #24 Oreca Graves, Hirschi, Vergne 122 + 2m57.830s
13 LMP2 #21 Oreca Hedman, Hanley, Rosenqvist 121 + 10 Laps
14 LMP2 #37 Oreca Cheng, Gommendy, Brundle 121 + 0.270s
15 LMP2 #34 Ligier Moore, Hanson, Chandhok 120 + 11 Laps
16 LMP2 #47 Dallara Lacorte, Sernagiotto, Belicchi 120 + 33.086s
17 LMP2 #23 Ligier Barthez, Buret, Berthon 119 + 12 Laps
18 LMP2 #28 Oreca Perrodo, Vaxiviere, Collard 118 + 13 Laps
19 LMP2 #39 Oreca Guibbert, Trouillet, Winslow 118 + 1m52.334s
20 LMP2 #33 Ligier Nicolet, Nicolet, Maris 116 + 15 Laps
21 LMP2 #29 Dallara Lammers, Van Eerd, Barrichello 116 + 1m08.410s
22 LMP2 #17 Ligier Lafargue, Lafargue, Zollinger 114 + 17 Laps
23 GTE Pro #97 Aston Turner, Adam, Serra 114 + 13m40.075s
24 GTE Pro #67 Ford Priaulx, Tincknell, Derani 114 + 13m51.882s
25 GTE Pro #92 Porsche Christensen, Estre, Werner 114 + 13m53.716s
26 GTE Pro #66 Ford Mucke, Pla, Johnson 114 + 13m55.231s
27 GTE Pro #95 Aston Thiim, Sorensen, Stanaway 114 + 14m06.757s
28 GTE Pro #91 Porsche Lietz, Makowiecki, Pilet 114 + 14m09.901s
29 GTE Pro #68 Ford Hand, Muller, Kanaan 114 + 14m14.510s
30 GTE Pro #69 Ford Briscoe, Westbrook, Dixon 114 + 14m18.348s
31 GTE Pro #51 Ferrari Calado, Pier Guidi, Rugolo 114 + 14m19.938s
32 GTE Pro #63 Chevrolet Magnussen, Garcia, Taylor 114 + 14m22.957s
33 GTE Pro #71 Ferrari Rigon, Bird, Molina 114 + 14m45.463s
34 LMP2 #36 Alpine Dumas, Menezes, Rao 112 + 19 Laps
35 LMP1 #2 Porsche Bernhard, Bamber, Hartley 112 + 3m37.612s
36 GTE Am #84 Ferrari Smith, Stevens, Vanthoor 112 + 3m46.864s
37 GTE Am #90 Aston Yoluc, Hankey, Bell 112 + 4m40.814s
38 GTE Am #55 Ferrari Cameron, Scott, Cioci 111 + 20 Laps
39 GTE Am #99 Aston Howard, Gunn, Bryant 111 + 26.810s
40 GTE Am #77 Porsche Ried, Cairoli, Dienst 111 + 43.261s
41 LMP2 #27 Dallara Aleshin, Sirotkin, Shaitar 111 + 1m13.108s
42 GTE Am #62 Ferrari Macneil, Sweedler, Bell 111 + 2m19.416s
43 GTE Am #93 Porsche Long, Al Faisal, Hedlund 111 + 3m08.808s
44 GTE Pro #64 Chevrolet Gavin, Milner, Fassler 110 + 21 Laps
45 GTE Am #65 Ferrari Nielsen, Balzan, Curtis 110 + 5m07.526s
46 GTE Am #83 Ferrari Krohn, Jonsson, Bertolini 110 + 6m31.387s
47 GTE Am #61 Ferrari Mok, Sawa, Griffin 110 + 6m53.164s
48 GTE Am #86 Porsche Wainwright, Barker, Foster 110 + 8m10.911s
49 LMP2 #45 Ligier Patterson, Mcmurry, Capillaire 109 + 22 Laps
50 GTE Am #50 Chevrolet Rees, Brandela, Philippon 109 + 1m45.788s
51 GTE Am #54 Ferrari Flohr, Castellacci, Beretta 109 + 4m28.199s
52 LMP2 #22 Oreca Rojas, Hirakawa, Gutierrez 108 + 23 Laps
53 GTE Am #98 Aston Dalla Lana, Lamy, Lauda 108 + 32.019s
54 GTE Am #60 Ferrari Wee, Katoh, Parente 107 + 24 Laps
55 LMP2 #43 Riley Keating, Bleekemolen, Taylor 106 + 25 Laps
56 LMP2 #49 Ligier Konopka, Calko, Breukers 96 + 35 Laps
57 GTE Pro #82 Ferrari Vilander, Fisichella, Kaffer 72 Retired
58 LMP2 #26 Oreca Rusinov, Thiriet, Lynn 20 Retired
59 GTE Am #88 Porsche Bachler, Lemeret, Al Qubaisi 18 Retired
60 LMP1 #4 Enso Webb, Kraihamer, Bonanomi 7 Retired

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