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WEC 24 Hours of Le Mans

Le Mans 24 Hours – Race

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Stopwatch
Sarrazin's lead is now over a minute over the delayed #1 Porsche: 1m01.886s.
The light is definitely starting to fade here at La Sarthe, as we go past 2130 local time. We're only a couple hours away from bona fide night-time running.
Crash
The #99 Aston Martin is in the gravel!
That's Gary Hirsch at the wheel of the car that started 60th and was running 51st overall, 10th in the GTE Am division.
Yellow Flag
Slow zone in operation for the stricken Aston.
Pit Stop
Our LMP2 leader Hirakawa has pitted the #46 Thiriet by TDS Oreca.
He hands over to Pierre Thiriet.
Pit Stop
Jani pitted the #2 Porsche a moment ago as well, the Swiss is fourth now behind Nakajima's Toyota.
Mechanical problem
The #36 Signatech Alpine, second in LMP2, is getting a dashboard alarm about its water temperature being too low.
In fact, that's the class-leading car following the stop by the #46.
GTE Pro update: Bourdais has pulled away to the tune of nearly seven seconds from Ford teammate Dixon. Malucelli still third, five seconds further back.
Crash
There's a Ford in the tyres at Mulsanne!
It's Marino Franchitti in the #67, the Scot getting his braking all wrong down at Mulsanne. Luckily the impact looked fairly low-speed.
Yellow Flag
However, that Ford GT is well and truly beached. Slow zone being brought in there now.
Stopwatch
Sarrazin must've been fortunately positioned on the track when that slow zone occurred, his last lap being a 3m24s. Bernhard matches that on his next tour, but the gap – that was one minute – is up to 1m18s.
Franchitti's Ford being towed to safety.
That water temperature issue doesn't seem to be slowing down the #36 too much, Richelmi with a 40-second buffer over Thiriet - albeit with another stop still to make.
Green Flag
Slow zone at Mulsanne now clear.
Pit Stop
Flurry of stops in the GTE category just now, as the top four all come in within a lap of each other.

Fisichella back in the #82 Risi Ferrari now.
Franchitti back in the pits now and in the garage. The #67 was 24 laps down on the class lead anyway, owing to its earlier woes.
Car #23, that's the Panis-Barthez Ligier, under investigation for slow zone speeding.
Quote
"I'm leading LMP2!" exclaims Richelmi in the #36 Alpine, as he indicates one (middle) finger to the Eurasia Oreca of Jun Jin Pu at the Mulsanne Chicane.
The #67 is back on track with Priaulx behind the wheel, 59th and last of the current runners.
Incidentally, the #4 ByKolles is the next car Priaulx has to catch, six laps up the road.

Let's have a quick ponder at outright pace between the LMP1 factory hybrids, and look at their best laps.

Toyota #6: 3m21.445s
Porsche #2: 3m21.756s
Audi #7: 3m23.524s

So Audi's attempts to regain lost  ground are not helped by lacking raw speed compared to its rivals.

The #8 Audi is now 2m40s behind the leading #6 Toyota. Now, even though the leader has to stop soon, it's not a million miles from going a lap down in the next couple of hours.
Pit Stop
Our leader is in, the #6 of Sarrazin stopping for fuel only. He will rejoin in the lead.
Pit Stop
Couple of pitstops in LMP2 as Matsuda and Rusinov both come in from third and fourth places in the #47 and #26 Orecas.
Another 14-lap stint for the #6 Toyota there, a strategy that crucially hasn't compromised performance all that much.
Video
Even the TV cameras are struggling to cope with the dwindling light levels at the Circuit de la Sarthe now.
Pit Stop
Richelmi has been in from the lead of LMP2 too as well, so that gives Thiriet in the #46 the advantage once again.
Pit Stop
Toyota #5 pits, sweeping across the bows of the #23 LMP2 Panis-Barthez machine. Risky stuff from Nakajima, but every second counts.
There's been a small change in the order in GTE Am too, as the #98 Aston Martin - the pre-race favourite - climbs to second.

Still the #88 Porsche of Al-Qubaisi out front.
The former class-leading KCMG Porsche has fallen to fifth.
Stopwatch
Gap at the front between leader Sarrazin and Bernhard in P2 is 12.427s. So in this past hour the pendulum truly swung Toyota's way.
Audi has only led for three laps of this race early on, while the rest has flip-flopped between Porsche and Toyota. We're on lap 113 right now.
Quote
Bernhard in the #1 Porsche is encouraged: "OK Timo, just keep pushing, keep pushing." He is 11s behind leader Sarrazin in the #6 Toyota.

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