Le Mans 24h: Alonso, Buemi, Nakajima win again for Toyota

The #7 TS050 Hybrid looked to have an edge over the sister car - and Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez looked well set for a straightforward victory over the #8 car until drama struck the trio with just over an hour of the race remaining.

Lopez had more than two minutes in hand when he pitted to replace a suspected front-right puncture, but it was in fact the left-rear that needed changing, forcing the Argentinian to limp back to the pits. He resumed 50s down on Nakajima in the #8 car once the issue was solved.

After assuming the lead when Nakajima made his final routine stop, Lopez pitted for the final time with 20 minutes to go and took the flag only 16s in arrears.

Victory for Alonso, Nakajima and Buemi also guaranteed them FIA World Endurance Championship honours, with Buemi earning that accolade for the second time after his 2014 triumph.

The best of the non-hybrid LMP1s dropped off the lead lap early in hour five, and by the finish the third-placed car, SMP Racing's #11 BR Engineering BR1, was six laps down on the winning car.

Le Mans debutant Stoffel Vandoorne and his teammates in the #11 car, Mikhail Aleshin and Vitaly Petrov, enjoyed a virtually-trouble free run to ensure SMP came out on top against its main rival Rebellion Racing, which suffered dramas with both of its R-13s.

The #3 survived a crash for Thomas Laurent in the evening without losing a lap, thanks to rapid pitwork and a well-timed safety car, but Gustavo Menezes was less fortunate when he got the car beached in the gravel at the Porsche Curves with just over six hours to go.

That was followed by numerous trips to the garage that left the #3 machine down in fifth and 15 laps down on the winning car, five laps behind the #1 Rebellion of Neel Jani, Bruno Senna and Andre Lotterer which had dropped out of the fight for privateer honours before night fell.

SMP could have made it a three-four if not for a terminal crash at the Porsche Curves for Egor Orudzhev in the #17 BR1 he shared with Stephane Sarrazin and Sergey Sirotkin.

Neither of the remaining LMP1s, the DragonSpeed BR1 and the ByKolles entry, were still in the race by sunrise. The #10 BR1 was plagued and ultimately halted by persistent electronic gremlins, while the #4 ENSO CLM P1/01 suffered a terminal gearshift problem in the early hours.

LMP2: Signatech Alpine seals dominant victory

Signatech trio Nicolas Lapierre, Pierre Thiriet and Andre Negrao secured a dominant victory in the LMP2 division in their #36 Alpine-branded Oreca, backing up their inherited victory of last year and also securing WEC class championship victory in the process.

Their triumph again owed much to G-Drive Racing hitting trouble, as the #26 Aurus-badged Oreca shared by Roman Rusinov, Jean-Eric Vergne and Job van Uitert gave up a dominant three-minute lead after losing 20 minutes to a wiring issue during a routine stop in hour 19.

From there, the #36 crew was not challenged for victory, having already established a lap's buffer over the #38 Jackie Chan DC Racing Oreca shared by Ho-Pin Tung, Stephane Richelmi and Gabriel Aubry, which lost ground when the car lost a lap with a puncture.

Third place went to the polesitting #28 TDS Oreca of Loic Duval, Matthieu Vaxiviere and Francois Perrodo, who enjoyed an easy run to what became the final podium place after Pastor Maldonado crashed the #31 DragonSpeed Oreca at Tertre Rouge with just under seven hours remaining.

Best of the non-Orecas was the fourth-placed United Autosports LMP2 of Phil Hanson, Paul di Resta and Filipe Albuquerque, two laps down, ahead of the IDEC Sport Oreca and the G-Drive car, which was able to recover from its issue to finish sixth, four laps down.

The sister Jackie Chan DC Racing car failed to finish after suffering a gearbox failure while running inside the top five.

GTE Pro: Ferrari wins after Corvette heartbreak

Ferrari scored its first GTE Pro class victory since 2014 thanks to the efforts of James Calado, Alessandro Pier Guidi and Daniel Serra in the #51 AF Corse 488 GTE.

The vagaries of the safety car periods had essentially turned the battle for honours into a two-horse race between the #51 Ferrari and the #63 Corvette of Antonio Garcia, Jan Magnussen and Mike Rockenfeller heading into the morning hours.

However, the 21st-hour intervention caused by Nyck de Vries’ high-speed off in the Racing Team Nederland Dallara at Indianapolis led to the #63 car getting held at the end of pitlane, which handed the #51 Ferrari a one-minute lead it would never lose.

Any chance of Corvette salvaging a podium finish was lost when Magnussen spun at the Porsche Curves, making light contact with the barriers, which cost the car two laps. A further 15-minute trip to the garage left it five laps off the pace.

Corvette had already lost one car when Marcel Fassler hit the barriers at the same part of the track with force towards the end of the sixth hour, the result of contact with the #88 Dempsey-Proton Porsche of Satoshi Hoshino for which the stewards judged Fassler to blame.

Behind the winning Ferrari, Porsche filled out the remaining spots on the podium, with the #91 car of Gianmaria Bruni, Frederic Makowiecki and Richard Lietz beating the best of the IMSA entries, the #93 of Nick Tandy, Earl Bamber and Patrick Pilet, by under 20s.

Ford’s quartet of retro-liveried GTs filled out the next four places, led by the #68 machine of 2016 class winners Sebastien Bourdais, Dirk Muller and Joey Hand.

Exhaust problems in the night cost the #92 Porsche crew any of chance of defending their 2018 victory, but 10th and fifth among the WEC points-scoring cars was enough to ensure Kevin Estre and Michael Christensen came away with title honours.

Both BMW and Aston Martin had races to forget, BMW’s top finisher finishing six laps down in 11th and both Astons suffering problems in the night.

Marco Sorensen’s violent crash at Indianapolis in the #95 Vantage GTE, which had started on pole, made it one of three non-finishers in the class, along with the #64 Corvette and the #71 Ferrari, which suffered engine troubles.

GTE Am: Keating Ford survives late scare

Keating Motorsports' privateer Ford GT, piloted by Ben Keating, Jeroen Bleekemolen and Felipe Fraga, held on for a narrow win in GTE Am, surviving a late scare when owner-driver Keating picked up a stop-and-go-penalty.

The Wynn's-liveried #85 machine had led by as much as a lap, but in the closing hours the #56 Project 1 Porsche of Jorg Bergmeister, Egidio Perfetti and Patrick Lindsey had worked its way back into the fray even before Keating earned his penalty for spinning his wheels in a pitstop.

That infraction reduced a 36s lead to less than 5s, but Bleekemolen was able to pull away in the final hour to secure victory by around 50s, helped by a late splash for Bergmeister - who nonetheless sealed WEC GTE Am class title honours along with his teammates.

The final spot on the class podium went to the JMW Motorsport Ferrari of Rodrigo Baptista, Jeff Segal and Wei Lu, which ended up only 40 seconds behind the Project 1 Porsche.

Full race results:

Cla	#	Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Gap
1	8	Sébastien Buemi Kazuki Nakajima Fernando Alonso	Toyota TS050 Hybrid	LMP1	385
2	7	Mike Conway Kamui Kobayashi Jose Maria Lopez	Toyota TS050 Hybrid	LMP1	385	16.972
3	11	Vitaly Petrov Mikhail Aleshin Stoffel Vandoorne	BR Engineering BR1	LMP1	379	6 Laps
4	1	Neel Jani Andre Lotterer Bruno Senna	Rebellion R13	LMP1	376	9 Laps
5	3	Thomas Laurent Nathanael Berthon Gustavo Menezes	Rebellion R13	LMP1	370	15 Laps
6	36	Nicolas Lapierre Andre Negrao Pierre Thiriet	Alpine A470	LMP2	368	17 Laps
7	38	Ho-Pin Tung Stéphane Richelmi Gabriel Aubry	Oreca 07	LMP2	367	18 Laps
8	28	François Perrodo Matthieu Vaxiviere Loic Duval	Oreca 07	LMP2	366	19 Laps
9	22	Philip Hanson Filipe Albuquerque Paul di Resta	Ligier JSP 217	LMP2	365	20 Laps
10	48	Paul Lafargue Paul-Loup Chatin Memo Rojas	Oreca 07	LMP2	364	21 Laps
11	26	Roman Rusinov Job Van Uitert Jean-Eric Vergne	Aurus 01	LMP2	364	21 Laps
12	30	Nico Jamin Pierre Ragues Romain Dumas	Oreca 07	LMP2	363	22 Laps
13	23	Rene Binder Julien Canal Will Stevens	Ligier JSP 217	LMP2	362	23 Laps
14	39	Tristan Gommendy Vincent Capillaire Jonathan Hirschi	Oreca 07	LMP2	362	23 Laps
15	25	David Zollinger Andrea Pizzitola John Falb	Oreca 07	LMP2	357	28 Laps
16	20	Anders Fjordbach Dennis Andersen Mathias Beche	Oreca 07	LMP2	356	29 Laps
17	50	Erwin Creed Romano Ricci Nicholas Boulle	Ligier JSP 217	LMP2	355	30 Laps
18	47	Roberto Lacorte Giorgio Sernagiotto Andrea Belicchi	Dallara P217	LMP2	352	33 Laps
19	32	Ryan Cullen Alex Brundle	Ligier JSP 217	LMP2	348	37 Laps
20	51	Alessandro Pier Guidi James Calado Daniel Serra	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	342	43 Laps
21	91	Gianmaria Bruni Richard Lietz Frédéric Makowiecki	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE PRO	342	43 Laps
22	93	Patrick Pilet Earl Bamber Nick Tandy	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE PRO	342	43 Laps
23	68	Joey Hand Dirk Muller Sébastien Bourdais	Ford GT	LMGTE PRO	342	43 Laps
24	67	Andy Priaulx Harry Tincknell Jonathan Bomarito	Ford GT	LMGTE PRO	342	43 Laps
25	69	Ryan Briscoe Richard Westbrook Scott Dixon	Ford GT	LMGTE PRO	341	44 Laps
26	66	Stefan Mücke Olivier Pla Billy Johnson	Ford GT	LMGTE PRO	340	45 Laps
27	29	Frits van Eerd Giedo van der Garde Nyck de Vries	Dallara P217	LMP2	340	45 Laps
28	94	Sven Muller Mathieu Jaminet Dennis Olsen	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE PRO	339	46 Laps
29	63	Jan Magnussen Antonio Garcia Mike Rockenfeller	Chevrolet Corvette C7R	LMGTE PRO	337	48 Laps
30	92	Michael Christensen Kevin Estre Laurens Vanthoor	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE PRO	337	48 Laps
31	82	Augusto Farfus Antonio Felix da Costa Jesse Krohn	BMW M8 GTE	LMGTE PRO	335	50 Laps
32	85	Ben Keating Jeroen Bleekemolen Felipe Fraga	Ford GT	LMGTE AM	334	51 Laps
33	56	Jörg Bergmeister Patrick Lindsey Egidio Perfetti	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	334	51 Laps
34	84	Jeff Segal Rodrigo Baptista Wei Lu	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE AM	334	51 Laps
35	62	Cooper MacNeil Toni Vilander Robert Smith	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE AM	333	52 Laps
36	77	Matt Campbell Christian Ried Julien Andlauer	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	332	53 Laps
37	57	Takeshi Kimura Kei Cozzolino Côme Ledogar	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE AM	332	53 Laps
38	78	Louis Prette Philippe Prette Vincent Abril	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	332	53 Laps
39	61	Luis Perez Companc Matthew Griffin Matteo Cressoni	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE AM	331	54 Laps
40	86	Michael Wainwright Benjamin Barker Thomas Preining	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	331	54 Laps
41	83	Manuela Gostner Rahel Frey Michelle Gatting	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE AM	330	55 Laps
42	89	Pipo Derani Oliver Jarvis Jules Gounon	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	329	56 Laps
43	70	Motoaki Ishikawa Olivier Beretta Eddie Cheever III	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE AM	328	57 Laps
44	90	Salih Yoluc Euan Hankey Charles Eastwood	Aston Martin Vantage	LMGTE AM	327	58 Laps
45	54	Thomas Flohr Francesco Castellacci Giancarlo Fisichella	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE AM	327	58 Laps
46	97	Alex Lynn Maxime Martin Jonathan Adam	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE PRO	325	60 Laps
47	34	Jakub Smiechowski James Winslow Nigel Moore	Ligier JSP 217	LMP2	325	60 Laps
48	60	Claudio Schiavoni Andrea Piccini Sergio Pianezzola	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE AM	324	61 Laps
49	81	Nick Catsburg Martin Tomczyk Philipp Eng	BMW M8 GTE	LMGTE PRO	309	76 Laps
	43	John Farano Arjun Maini Norman Nato	Oreca 07	LMP2	295	90 Laps
	31	Roberto Gonzalez Pastor Maldonado Anthony Davidson	Oreca 07	LMP2	245	140 Laps
	37	David Heinemeier Hansson Jordan King Ricky Taylor	Oreca 07	LMP2	199	186 Laps
	17	Stéphane Sarrazin Egor Orudzhev Sergey Sirotkin	BR Engineering BR1	LMP1	163	222 Laps
	4	Tom Dillmann Oliver Webb Paolo Ruberti	ENSO CLM P1/01	LMP1	163	222 Laps
	49	Miro Konopka Henning Enqvist Konstantin Tereshchenko	Ligier JSP 217	LMP2	160	225 Laps
	71	Davide Rigon Sam Bird Miguel Molina	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	140	245 Laps
	95	Marco Sorensen Nicki Thiim Darren Turner	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE PRO	132	253 Laps
	98	Paul Dalla Lana Pedro Lamy Mathias Lauda	Aston Martin Vantage	LMGTE AM	87	298 Laps
	64	Oliver Gavin Tommy Milner Marcel Fassler	Chevrolet Corvette C7R	LMGTE PRO	82	303 Laps
	88	Satoshi Hoshino Giorgio Roda Matteo Cairoli	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	79	306 Laps
	10	Henrik Hedman Ben Hanley Renger van der Zande	BR Engineering BR1	LMP1	76	309 Laps
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