Le Mans 24 Hours: Conway puts the #7 Toyota back in the lead
The #7 Toyota returned to the lead of the Le Mans 24 Hours by jumping the sister #8 car during their round of pitstops in the ninth hour
Kazuki Nakajima had started the hour with a 10-second advantage over Jose Maria Lopez but, when Nakajima pitted to hand over to Sebastien Buemi, Lopez was able to extend the #7 Toyota TS050 HYBRID's lead to one of around a minute.
That meant that even though Buemi produced an outlap that included fastest times of all in the second and third sectors, Mike Conway emerged from the pits after taking over from Lopez with the lead of the race.
Conway steadily increased his advantage before the next round of stops, after which he emerged with a healthier lead.
The #7 therefore ended the hour with just under eight seconds in hand over its sister car.
SMP's #17 and #11 BR Engineering BR1s remain third and fourth respectively in the order, but were being caught by a charging Gustavo Menezes.
Third-placed Stephane Sarrazin now has 21s in hand over the #11 car of Vitaly Petrov, but Gonzales shaved more than a minute off his deficit to the fourth-placed car during the hour, in which he set the #3 Rebellion-Gibson R-13's fastest lap of the race - a 3m18.720s.
Bruno Senna is sixth in the #1 Rebellion, which is four laps down.
The #10 DragonSpeed car was wheeled out into the pitlane after a lengthy spell in the garage, only to be taken back in, but the #4 ByKolles did return to the track after more than an hour away.
LMP2 - G-Drive at the front, Lapierre close on old tyres
Job Van Uitert has returned to the wheel of the LMP2-leading G-Drive ORECA, and had an 11-second lead over Signatech Alpine's Nicolas Lapierre at the 11-hour mark.
G-Drive's advantage had been around 16s before Jean-Eric Vergne stepped out of the car at the 14th round of stops, while Lapierre remained at the wheel of the #36 Alpine-badged ORECA.
Despite his three-stint old Michelin tyres, Lapierre closed to within 3 seconds of Van Uitert but gradually slipped back as the Dunlop-shod Dutchman's fresh boots began to tell.
Stephane Richelmi took third shortly before the hour mark in the #38 Jackie Chan DC Racing ORECA, after Roberto Gonzalez pitted his DragonSpeed ORECA.
Somtime ChampCar racer Gonzalez had taken over from Anthony Davidson around 30 seconds behind the leading #26 G-Drive car, but had lost over a minute during his first two stints by the time of his pitstop.
The Mexican still held fourth at the hour mark, ahead of Jordan King in the #37 DC Racing ORECA and the #22 United Autosports Ligier of Paul di Resta.
GTE - Calado and Ferrari storm to the front
A surge from AF Corse's James Calado put the #51 Ferrari at the front of the GTE Pro field that had been dominated by the #92 Manthey Porsche.
Calado moved to the front inside the final five minutes of the hour after passing Michael Christensen, who had lost swathes of time after taking over from Kevin Estre and inheriting a 10-second lead.
The Ferrari driver Calado quickly built up a lead of almost one second following the pass on the Porsche.
Early on in the hour, Calado had stormed past Harry Tincknell's Ford GT for second in class, with the #67 Ford remaining third at the ninth hour.
A spin for the fellow Ford of Olivier Pla led to an investigation for the contact between the #66 Ford and the #94 CORE Porsche of Sven Muller.
The #63 Corvette, the sole entry from the brand left in the race, slipped from second to fourth in class during the hour.
BMW's difficult Le Mans farewell continued with Formula E racer Antonio Felix da Costa down in 11th in class, with DTM driver Philipp Eng circulating 16th in class among the GTE Am runners.
Eng's #81 MTEK BMW M8 GTE had lost over 10 minutes at the last pitstop that put it at the bottom of the GTE Pro field.
The GTE Am class-leading Keating Motorsports Ford GT continued to run at the head of the field untroubled in the hands of Jeroen Bleekemolen, managing a buffer of almost two minutes.
Positions after nine hours
Pos | Class | Car | Drivers | Laps | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | LMP1 | #7 Toyota | Conway, Kobayashi, Lopez | 145 | |
2 | LMP1 | #8 Toyota | Buemi, Nakajima, Alonso | 145 | + 7.284s |
3 | LMP1 | #17 BR | Sarrazin, Orudzhev, Sirotkin | 143 | + 2 Laps |
4 | LMP1 | #11 BR | Petrov, Aleshin, Vandoorne | 143 | + 21.194s |
5 | LMP1 | #3 Rebellion | Laurent, Berthon, Menezes | 143 | + 1m31.288s |
6 | LMP1 | #1 Rebellion | Jani, Lotterer, Senna | 140 | + 5 Laps |
7 | LMP2 | #26 Aurus | Rusinov, Van Uitert, Vergne | 139 | + 6 Laps |
8 | LMP2 | #36 Alpine | Lapierre, Negrao, Thiriet | 138 | + 7 Laps |
9 | LMP2 | #31 Oreca | Gonzalez, Maldonado, Davidson | 138 | + 1m33.150s |
10 | LMP2 | #38 Oreca | Tung, Richelmi, Aubry | 138 | + 1m48.753s |
11 | LMP2 | #37 Oreca | Heinemeier-Hansson, King, Taylor | 138 | + 3m04.037s |
12 | LMP2 | #22 Ligier | Hanson, Albuquerque, Di Resta | 137 | + 8 Laps |
13 | LMP2 | #28 Oreca | Perrodo, Vaxiviere, Duval | 137 | + 1m18.325s |
14 | LMP2 | #32 Ligier | Cullen, Brundle, Owen | 137 | + 3m04.600s |
15 | LMP2 | #48 Oreca | Lafargue, Chatin, Rojas | 137 | + 3m10.041s |
16 | LMP2 | #23 Ligier | Binder, Canal, Stevens | 136 | + 9 Laps |
17 | LMP2 | #30 Oreca | Jamin, Ragues, Dumas | 136 | + 59.264s |
18 | LMP2 | #25 Oreca | Zollinger, Pizzitola, Falb | 135 | + 10 Laps |
19 | LMP2 | #47 Dallara | Lacorte, Sernagiotto, Belicchi | 134 | + 11 Laps |
20 | LMP2 | #43 Oreca | Farano, Maini, Nato | 134 | + 1m08.417s |
21 | LMP2 | #50 Ligier | Creed, Ricci, Boulle | 134 | + 1m58.841s |
22 | LMP2 | #39 Oreca | Gommendy, Capillaire, Hirschi | 134 | + 2m54.124s |
23 | LMP2 | #29 Dallara | Van Eerd, Van Der Garde, De Vries | 132 | + 13 Laps |
24 | LMP2 | #20 Oreca | Fjordbach, Andersen, Beche | 132 | + 1m20.813s |
25 | LMP2 | #49 Ligier | Konopka, Enqvist, Tereschenko | 131 | + 14 Laps |
26 | LMP2 | #34 Ligier | Smiechowski, Winslow, Moore | 128 | + 17 Laps |
27 | GTE Pro | #51 Ferrari | Pier Guidi, Calado, Serra | 128 | + 14m06.009s |
28 | GTE Pro | #92 Porsche | Christensen, Estre, Vanthoor | 128 | + 14m06.797s |
29 | GTE Pro | #67 Ford | Priaulx, Tincknell, Bomarito | 128 | + 14m16.865s |
30 | GTE Pro | #63 Chevrolet | Magnussen, Garcia, Rockenfeller | 128 | + 14m17.935s |
31 | GTE Pro | #69 Ford | Briscoe, Westbrook, Dixon | 128 | + 14m53.434s |
32 | GTE Pro | #93 Porsche | Pilet, Bamber, Tandy | 128 | + 15m33.467s |
33 | GTE Pro | #71 Ferrari | Rigon, Bird, Molina | 128 | + 15m34.955s |
34 | GTE Pro | #91 Porsche | Lietz, Bruni, Makowiecki | 128 | + 15m45.917s |
35 | GTE Pro | #68 Ford | Hand, Muller, Bourdais | 128 | + 16m03.633s |
36 | GTE Pro | #94 Porsche | Muller, Jaminet, Olsen | 128 | + 17m34.702s |
37 | GTE Pro | #82 BMW | Farfus, Da Costa, Krohn | 127 | + 18 Laps |
38 | GTE Pro | #95 Aston | Thiim, Sorensen, Turner | 127 | + 10.841s |
39 | GTE Pro | #97 Aston | Martin, Lynn, Adam | 127 | + 23.814s |
40 | GTE Pro | #66 Ford | Mucke, Pla, Johnson | 127 | + 37.909s |
41 | GTE Pro | #89 Ferrari | Derani, Jarvis, Gounon | 127 | + 2m16.281s |
42 | GTE Am | #85 Ford | Keating, Bleekemolen, Fraga | 126 | + 19 Laps |
43 | GTE Am | #84 Ferrari | Segal, Baptista, Lu | 125 | + 20 Laps |
44 | GTE Am | #56 Porsche | Bergmeister, Lindsey, Perfetti | 125 | + 12.371s |
45 | GTE Am | #77 Porsche | Campbell, Ried, Andlauer | 125 | + 1m09.740s |
46 | GTE Am | #90 Aston | Yoluc, Hankey, Eastwood | 125 | + 1m11.938s |
47 | GTE Pro | #81 BMW | Catsburg, Tomczyk, Eng | 125 | + 1m16.867s |
48 | GTE Am | #62 Ferrari | Macneil, Vilander, Smith | 125 | + 1m45.132s |
49 | GTE Am | #61 Ferrari | Perez-Companc, Griffin, Cressoni | 124 | + 21 Laps |
50 | GTE Am | #78 Porsche | Prette, Prette, Abril | 124 | + 1m24.137s |
51 | GTE Am | #57 Ferrari | Kimura, Cozzolino, Ledogar | 123 | + 22 Laps |
52 | GTE Am | #86 Porsche | Wainwright, Barker, Preining | 123 | + 22.281s |
53 | GTE Am | #83 Ferrari | Gostner, Frey, Gatting | 123 | + 1m40.743s |
54 | GTE Am | #54 Ferrari | Flohr, Castellacci, Fisichella | 123 | + 2m03.106s |
55 | GTE Am | #70 Ferrari | Ishikawa, Beretta, Cheever | 122 | + 23 Laps |
56 | GTE Am | #60 Ferrari | Schiavoni, Pianezzola, Piccini | 121 | + 24 Laps |
57 | LMP1 | #4 Enso | Dillmann, Webb, Ruberti | 108 | + 37 Laps |
58 | GTE Am | #98 Aston | Dalla Lana, Lamy, Lauda | 87 | + 58 Laps |
59 | GTE Am | #88 Porsche | Hoshino, Roda Jr, Cairoli | 79 | + 66 Laps |
60 | LMP1 | #10 BR | Hedman, Hanley, Van Der Zande | 76 | + 69 Laps |
61 | GTE Pro | #64 Chevrolet | Gavin, Milner, Fassler | 82 | + 63 Laps |
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