Le Mans: Kobayashi leads Alonso by over a minute after three hours
The #7 Toyota of Kamui Kobayashi ended the third hour of the 2019 Le Mans 24 Hours with a lead of more than a minute over Fernando Alonso
Kobayashi took over at the wheel of the #7 - which has not been headed in the order so far - from Mike Conway midway through the hour, a lap after double Formula 1 world champion Alonso had replaced Sebastien Buemi in the sister #8 TS050 HYBRID.
The gap between the two Toyotas was around 42 seconds when both had exited the pits, but Kobayashi had increased that beyond 50s by the time a full course yellow was shown with 18 minutes of the hour remaining.
Kobayashi, whose lap secured pole for the #7 crew, then gained around five seconds through the short FCY period and later gained more time to end the hour a minute and three seconds ahead.
Rebellion's #3 car was taken over by Nathanael Berthon and was the only privateer LMP1 car left on the lead lap at the end of the hour - although both SMP Racing BR Engineering-AER BR1s had just pitted.
Stoffel Vandoorne was a little over half a minute behind the lead Rebellion in the #11 SMP entry before the start of the fifth round of stops, with the #17 car that started third a further 21s behind in the hands of Egor Orudzhev.
Rebellion's #1 car went back into the garage briefly - at which point Bruno Senna handed over to Andre Lotterer.
The car is sixth in class and ninth overall, one position ahead of Oliver Webb in the ByKolles ENSO CLM-Gibson P1/01.
The #10 DragonSpeed car, now in the hands of Henrik Hedman, had recovered to 47th overall after a 20-minute delay in the second hour.
LMP2 - Lapierre still holds slim lead
Nicolas Lapierre remained behind the wheel of the #36 Signatech-Alpine at the end of the third hour and held a narrow lead over the #26 G-Drive Racing ORECA being driven by Job Van Uitert.
Lapierre was less than a second ahead of the Dutch rookie at the conclusion of the hour, but Van Uitert will have to serve a 10s penalty at his next pitstop after team-mate Jean-Eric Vergne was penalised for speeding under the FCY.
Behind the leading ORECAs, a left-rear puncture dropped Nyck De Vries out of third place and put the #29 Racing Team Nederland Dallara on an alternative pit strategy.
That promoted Roberto Gonzalez in the #31 DragonSpeed ORECA started by Anthony Davidson, although Gonzalez lost the position to the #37 Jackie Chan DC Racing ORECA of Jordan King at Mulsanne Corner shortly before the hour mark.
King's team-mate Stephane Richelmi was next in line to pressurise Gonzalez in fifth, while Paul Di Resta continued to run sixth in the #22 United Autosport Ligier.
A 30s stop and go penalty for speeding under FCY dropped Matthias Beche's #20 High Class Racing ORECA out of seventh shortly before the end of the hour.
GTE - Corvette holds lead
Corvette maintained its grip on the GTE Pro class, despite the #63 car of Jan Magnussen getting caught out by the full-course yellow.
Magnussen was forced to pit again after only taking an emergency splash of fuel on his third stop, but he managed to hang on to the advantage, helped by a 10s penalty for the #93 Porsche with which he had been battling.
Patrick Pilet was given that penalty for violating the FCY procedure, which meant he slipped to third behind the leading #67 Ford being driven by Jonathan Bomarito.
The #51 Ferrari of James Calado had moved up to third, but he also had to make an emergency stop under the FCY, and ran fourth at the end of the third hour ahead of the #68 Ford - now being driven by Joey Hand - and the #71 Ferrari of Sam Bird.
Both of the Manthey-run WEC entry Porsches slipped back in the third hour, with the best of those being the #91 of Richard Lietz. Laurens Vanthoor was running ninth in the #92.
Dempsey-Proton continued to control GTE Am thanks to the efforts of Julien Andlauer in the #77 Porsche, who ended the hour 20 seconds clear of the Keating Motorsports Ford GT of Felipe Fraga.
JMW Motorsport took over as the lead Ferrari in hour three as the Spirit of Race car that led early on continued to drop back with bronze-rated Thomas Flohr driving.
Positions after three hours
Pos | Class | Car | Drivers | Laps | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | LMP1 | #7 Toyota | Conway, Kobayashi, Lopez | 50 | |
2 | LMP1 | #8 Toyota | Buemi, Nakajima, Alonso | 50 | + 1m03.890s |
3 | LMP1 | #3 Rebellion | Laurent, Berthon, Menezes | 50 | + 2m09.883s |
4 | LMP1 | #11 BR | Petrov, Aleshin, Vandoorne | 49 | + 1 Lap |
5 | LMP1 | #17 BR | Sarrazin, Orudzhev, Sirotkin | 49 | + 1m26.691s |
6 | LMP2 | #36 Alpine | Lapierre, Negrao, Thiriet | 48 | + 2 Laps |
7 | LMP2 | #26 Aurus | Rusinov, Van Uitert, Vergne | 48 | + 1.393s |
8 | LMP2 | #31 Oreca | Gonzalez, Maldonado, Davidson | 47 | + 3 Laps |
9 | LMP2 | #37 Oreca | Heinemeier-Hansson, King, Taylor | 47 | + 0.297s |
10 | LMP2 | #38 Oreca | Tung, Richelmi, Aubry | 47 | + 2.144s |
11 | LMP2 | #22 Ligier | Hanson, Albuquerque, Di Resta | 47 | + 3.032s |
12 | LMP2 | #20 Oreca | Fjordbach, Andersen, Beche | 47 | + 16.850s |
13 | LMP1 | #1 Rebellion | Jani, Lotterer, Senna | 47 | + 23.288s |
14 | LMP1 | #4 Enso | Dillmann, Webb, Ruberti | 47 | + 46.470s |
15 | LMP2 | #48 Oreca | Lafargue, Chatin, Rojas | 47 | + 1m04.996s |
16 | LMP2 | #23 Ligier | Binder, Canal, Stevens | 47 | + 1m06.568s |
17 | LMP2 | #43 Oreca | Farano, Maini, Nato | 47 | + 1m20.100s |
18 | LMP2 | #32 Ligier | Cullen, Brundle, Owen | 47 | + 1m26.838s |
19 | LMP2 | #25 Oreca | Zollinger, Pizzitola, Falb | 47 | + 1m34.645s |
20 | LMP2 | #39 Oreca | Gommendy, Capillaire, Hirschi | 47 | + 1m41.897s |
21 | LMP2 | #28 Oreca | Perrodo, Vaxiviere, Duval | 47 | + 1m55.500s |
22 | LMP2 | #29 Dallara | Van Eerd, Van Der Garde, De Vries | 46 | + 4 Laps |
23 | LMP2 | #47 Dallara | Lacorte, Sernagiotto, Belicchi | 46 | + 1m02.477s |
24 | LMP2 | #34 Ligier | Smiechowski, Winslow, Moore | 46 | + 1m44.549s |
25 | LMP2 | #50 Ligier | Creed, Ricci, Boulle | 46 | + 1m49.127s |
26 | LMP2 | #30 Oreca | Jamin, Ragues, Dumas | 45 | + 5 Laps |
27 | LMP2 | #49 Ligier | Konopka, Enqvist, Tereschenko | 45 | + 24.147s |
28 | GTE Pro | #63 Chevrolet | Magnussen, Garcia, Rockenfeller | 44 | + 6 Laps |
29 | GTE Pro | #67 Ford | Priaulx, Tincknell, Bomarito | 44 | + 12.409s |
30 | GTE Pro | #93 Porsche | Pilet, Bamber, Tandy | 44 | + 15.705s |
31 | GTE Pro | #51 Ferrari | Pier Guidi, Calado, Serra | 44 | + 16.147s |
32 | GTE Pro | #68 Ford | Hand, Muller, Bourdais | 44 | + 19.631s |
33 | GTE Pro | #71 Ferrari | Rigon, Bird, Molina | 44 | + 22.110s |
34 | GTE Pro | #91 Porsche | Lietz, Bruni, Makowiecki | 44 | + 22.503s |
35 | GTE Pro | #64 Chevrolet | Gavin, Milner, Fassler | 44 | + 23.548s |
36 | GTE Pro | #92 Porsche | Christensen, Estre, Vanthoor | 44 | + 29.330s |
37 | GTE Pro | #69 Ford | Briscoe, Westbrook, Dixon | 44 | + 40.336s |
38 | GTE Pro | #66 Ford | Mucke, Pla, Johnson | 43 | + 7 Laps |
39 | GTE Pro | #95 Aston | Thiim, Sorensen, Turner | 43 | + 17.222s |
40 | GTE Pro | #82 BMW | Farfus, Da Costa, Krohn | 43 | + 25.572s |
41 | GTE Pro | #89 Ferrari | Derani, Jarvis, Gounon | 43 | + 30.187s |
42 | GTE Pro | #94 Porsche | Muller, Jaminet, Olsen | 43 | + 34.741s |
43 | GTE Pro | #97 Aston | Martin, Lynn, Adam | 43 | + 37.453s |
44 | GTE Pro | #81 BMW | Catsburg, Tomczyk, Eng | 43 | + 1m08.587s |
45 | GTE Am | #77 Porsche | Campbell, Ried, Andlauer | 43 | + 2m31.302s |
46 | GTE Am | #85 Ford | Keating, Bleekemolen, Fraga | 43 | + 2m52.236s |
47 | GTE Am | #84 Ferrari | Segal, Baptista, Lu | 43 | + 3m10.065s |
48 | GTE Am | #62 Ferrari | Macneil, Vilander, Smith | 43 | + 3m11.293s |
49 | LMP1 | #10 BR | Hedman, Hanley, Van Der Zande | 43 | + 3m35.382s |
50 | GTE Am | #56 Porsche | Bergmeister, Lindsey, Perfetti | 42 | + 8 Laps |
51 | GTE Am | #54 Ferrari | Flohr, Castellacci, Fisichella | 42 | + 1m28.740s |
52 | GTE Am | #90 Aston | Yoluc, Hankey, Eastwood | 42 | + 1m31.080s |
53 | GTE Am | #78 Porsche | Prette, Prette, Abril | 42 | + 1m58.785s |
54 | GTE Am | #86 Porsche | Wainwright, Barker, Preining | 42 | + 2m23.037s |
55 | GTE Am | #61 Ferrari | Perez-Companc, Griffin, Cressoni | 42 | + 2m30.584s |
56 | GTE Am | #83 Ferrari | Gostner, Frey, Gatting | 42 | + 4m25.708s |
57 | GTE Am | #57 Ferrari | Kimura, Cozzolino, Ledogar | 42 | + 4m39.186s |
58 | GTE Am | #60 Ferrari | Schiavoni, Pianezzola, Piccini | 41 | + 9 Laps |
59 | GTE Am | #70 Ferrari | Ishikawa, Beretta, Cheever | 41 | + 34.486s |
60 | GTE Am | #88 Porsche | Hoshino, Roda Jr, Cairoli | 39 | + 11 Laps |
61 | GTE Am | #98 Aston | Dalla Lana, Lamy, Lauda | 37 | + 13 Laps |
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