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Mike Conway extends #7 Toyota's lead in hour 9 at Le Mans

Mike Conway has extended Toyota's advantage in the Le Mans 24 Hours to its biggest margin yet during the race's ninth hour

Conway's lead in the #7 Toyota is now up to 1m04s over Neel Jani in the best of the Porsches.

Jani in turn is in a comfortable second place with the #9 Toyota over a lap behind in third.

The third-place car lost further time during the last hour after requiring a brighter side number panel to be fitted during its latest stop.

Sebastien Buemi has remained in the pits throughout the last hour as the Toyota crew attempt to fix a front motor issue on the #8 car.

He has now been caught by Earl Bamber in the #2 Porsche that suffered a similar front-axle drive issue earlier in the race, which has moved up to fourth in LMP1 but is not yet in the top 30 overall.

LMP2: REBELLIONS SWAP AGAIN

It's still a Rebellion Racing ORECA one-two in LMP2, but once again the two cars have swapped around.

The #13 car of Nelson Piquet Jr held the lead at the start of the hour, but it lost around a minute in a pitstop having a rear-left light problem worked on.

This allowed the #31 Rebellion to take the lead, with Bruno Senna still at the wheel and 74s clear of Mathias Beche in #13.

Thomas Laurent runs third in the #38 Jackie Chan DC Racing ORECA, 1m40s down, with no other cars still on the lead lap.

Simon Trummer runs fourth in the #24 Manor ORECA, with the French manufacturer locking out the top eight places.

ASTON LEADS FORD IN GTE PRO

Aston Martin continued to keep former owner Ford at arm's length as Daniel Serra maintained a 19-second gap in the #97 Vantage over the #67 Ford GT driven by Harry Tincknell.

Michael Christensen was running third for Porsche at the turn of the hour in a GTE Pro class in which many of the top 11 entries behind the Aston and Ford - all still running on the same lap - are out of pitstop sync after encountering problems earlier in the race.

Marco Sorensen is fourth for Aston Martin in the #95 Vantage that led during the opening hours before suffering a puncture, ahead of the #68 Muller/Kanaan/Hand Ford, which has made stealthy forward progress from the rear of the GTE Pro grid.

JMW's #84 Porsche leads GTE Am in the hands of Dries Vanthoor, who has half a minute in hand over the #90 TF Sport Aston Martin driven by Rob Bell.

POSITIONS AFTER NINE HOURS

Pos Class Car Drivers Laps Gap
1 LMP1 #7 Toyota Conway, Kobayashi, Sarrazin 145
2 LMP1 #1 Porsche Jani, Lotterer, Tandy 145 + 1m02.442s
3 LMP1 #9 Toyota Lapierre, Kunimoto, Lopez 143 + 2 Laps
4 LMP2 #31 Oreca Prost, Canal, Senna 137 + 8 Laps
5 LMP2 #13 Oreca Piquet Jr, H. Hansson, Beche 136 + 9 Laps
6 LMP2 #38 Oreca Tung, Laurent, Jarvis 136 + 1m05.873s
7 LMP2 #25 Oreca Gonzalez, Trummer, Petrov 136 + 4m00.671s
8 LMP2 #35 Alpine Panciatici, Ragues, Negrao 136 + 4m13.547s
9 LMP2 #40 Oreca Allen, Matelli, Bradley 135 + 10 Laps
10 LMP2 #24 Oreca Graves, Hirschi, Vergne 135 + 34.064s
11 LMP2 #32 Ligier Owen, De Sadeleer, Albuquerque 135 + 49.657s
12 LMP2 #37 Oreca Cheng, Gommendy, Brundle 135 + 2m04.151s
13 LMP2 #21 Oreca Hedman, Hanley, Rosenqvist 133 + 12 Laps
14 LMP2 #47 Dallara Lacorte, Sernagiotto, Belicchi 133 + 7.559s
15 LMP2 #34 Ligier Moore, Hanson, Chandhok 132 + 13 Laps
16 LMP2 #23 Ligier Barthez, Buret, Berthon 132 + 2m30.434s
17 LMP2 #28 Oreca Perrodo, Vaxiviere, Collard 131 + 14 Laps
18 LMP2 #39 Oreca Guibbert, Trouillet, Winslow 131 + 34.736s
19 LMP2 #29 Dallara Lammers, Van Eerd, Barrichello 129 + 16 Laps
20 LMP2 #33 Ligier Nicolet, Nicolet, Maris 129 + 2m43.546s
21 GTE Pro #97 Aston Turner, Adam, Serra 127 + 18 Laps
22 GTE Pro #67 Ford Priaulx, Tincknell, Derani 126 + 19 Laps
23 GTE Pro #92 Porsche Christensen, Estre, Werner 126 + 1.746s
24 GTE Pro #95 Aston Thiim, Sorensen, Stanaway 126 + 7.187s
25 GTE Pro #68 Ford Hand, Muller, Kanaan 126 + 15.557s
26 GTE Pro #51 Ferrari Calado, Pier Guidi, Rugolo 126 + 24.852s
27 GTE Pro #69 Ford Briscoe, Westbrook, Dixon 126 + 31.056s
28 GTE Pro #63 Chevrolet Magnussen, Garcia, Taylor 126 + 31.656s
29 GTE Pro #91 Porsche Lietz, Makowiecki, Pilet 126 + 36.780s
30 GTE Pro #71 Ferrari Rigon, Bird, Molina 126 + 59.074s
31 GTE Pro #66 Ford Mucke, Pla, Johnson 126 + 1m12.143s
32 LMP1 #2 Porsche Bernhard, Bamber, Hartley 126 + 2m04.179s
33 LMP2 #17 Ligier Lafargue, Lafargue, Zollinger 126 + 2m56.401s
34 LMP1 #8 Toyota Buemi, Davidson, Nakajima 125 + 20 Laps
35 LMP2 #27 Dallara Aleshin, Sirotkin, Shaitar 124 + 21 Laps
36 GTE Am #84 Ferrari Smith, Stevens, Vanthoor 124 + 8.746s
37 GTE Am #90 Aston Yoluc, Hankey, Bell 124 + 2m25.598s
38 GTE Am #77 Porsche Ried, Cairoli, Dienst 123 + 22 Laps
39 GTE Am #55 Ferrari Cameron, Scott, Cioci 123 + 1m23.744s
40 GTE Am #62 Ferrari Macneil, Sweedler, Bell 123 + 1m27.015s
41 GTE Am #99 Aston Howard, Gunn, Bryant 123 + 2m35.758s
42 GTE Am #93 Porsche Long, Al Faisal, Hedlund 123 + 4m14.993s
43 GTE Pro #64 Chevrolet Gavin, Milner, Fassler 122 + 23 Laps
44 GTE Am #65 Ferrari Nielsen, Balzan, Curtis 122 + 2.833s
45 LMP2 #36 Alpine Dumas, Menezes, Rao 122 + 33.174s
46 LMP2 #45 Ligier Patterson, Mcmurry, Capillaire 122 + 1m03.454s
47 GTE Am #61 Ferrari Mok, Sawa, Griffin 122 + 1m53.229s
48 GTE Am #83 Ferrari Krohn, Jonsson, Bertolini 122 + 3m06.041s
49 GTE Am #86 Porsche Wainwright, Barker, Foster 121 + 24 Laps
50 GTE Am #50 Chevrolet Rees, Brandela, Philippon 121 + 1m49.939s
51 LMP2 #22 Oreca Rojas, Hirakawa, Gutierrez 121 + 1m52.040s
52 GTE Am #54 Ferrari Flohr, Castellacci, Beretta 120 + 25 Laps
53 GTE Am #98 Aston Dalla Lana, Lamy, Lauda 120 + 2m10.222s
54 GTE Am #60 Ferrari Wee, Katoh, Parente 119 + 26 Laps
55 LMP2 #43 Riley Keating, Bleekemolen, Taylor 109 + 36 Laps
56 LMP2 #49 Ligier Konopka, Calko, Breukers 99 + 46 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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