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WEC 24 Hours of Le Mans

Le Mans 24 Hours – Race

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Pit Stop
The #69 Ford pits from third in GTE Pro. Just as the second place #82 Ferrari leaves.
Pit Stop
There are tears in Garage 56, as the SRT41 by OAK Morgan makes its final pitstop. Quadruple amputee Sausset gets a hug from Tinseau as Bouvet rejoins. Lovely stuff.
The GTE Am-leading Ferrari makes its final stop, Segal stays at the wheel. He runs his race simulator business just a few blocks from Motorsport.com's Miami HQ, y'know.
Crash
Track limits! Vanthoor visits the Mulsanne gravel trap in the #49 Ligier. No major dramas.
Quote
Vilander on the 82's chase for GTE Pro honours: "We saw my spectacular spin, I was pushing hard on second-stint tyres. I was gaining on the leading Ford car. I spun out at the Porsche Curves, and we lost between 35-40s. "On pure pace their car has been quite impressive. It's been a great race, good team effort. The car has been handling the best of my seven times at Le Mans. The pace is like qualifying last year!"
This is going to be a massive points-paying day for the #2 Porsche in the hunt for the overall WEC title. In the drivers' points it was already 23 points clear of the second-placed factory LMP1 squad, the #8 Audi. Although the Rebellion #13 was actually in second!
Pit Stop
Here we go, the final round of stops for the LMP1 leaders kicks off. #2 Porsche is first in.

Remember the days when the final hour of Le Mans would be little more than a procession? Now we're totally in flat-out mode!

Better back then?

The #5 Toyota on its way into the pits next. Nakajima will stay in the car.
Pit Stop
Outright leader #5 is now in the pits.
Looks like Sausset is going to be hoisted in for a final lap in the Garage 56 entry. Nice touch.
The Porsche crew tell Jani to push. It's a clear race to finish, now.
Jani pressing on in Porsche Curves, little puff of dust as he laps a Ferrari. This race is not over yet.
Quote
GTE Pro leader Hand, who has starred this weekend: "Toni and I had quite the little streetfight yesterday, good, clean racing. You could tell those guys are pushing hard but we are too.
"We didn't come here to leave anything out there. Just ask my arms and legs! This is an amazing thing to be a part, and to be part of the race for the win is big time."
Nakajima leads the race outright by 31 seconds. It should be a straight fight to the end.
Stopwatch
GTE Pro lead is 1m19.3s, Muller over Fisichella, #69 Ford over #82 Ferrari.
Stopwatch
GTE Am lead is 2m05s, Segal over Heinemeier Hansson, Ferrari over Porsche.
Pit Stop
Lapierre brings the leading #36 LMP2 entry into the pits for one last stop.

The big loser in the factory LMP1 teams, again, is the #1 Porsche. It came into this race on 1.5 points from the first two races. And it's going to finish sixth of six cars in the double-points race.

Oh dear, not a great title defence.

But who picked Toyota to win this? It's probably fair to say they were third favourite behind Porsche and Audi – although we knew they had built this car with Le Mans specifically in mind. It really suits its hybrid systems.
Black and orange flag for the #82 Ferrari for non-working lights – that's the second car in GTE Pro!
You could argue that the fastest Toyota was the #6 car, but bodywork damage after an off – which is still evident now – really did kill its chances. Such a shame after some great stints from Conway, Kobayashi and Sarrazin. This was a win that got away.
Amazing consistency from the Signatech Alpine (which is an Oreca) in LMP2. That car has seen off some serious challengers along the way. Metronomic.
With 17 mins to go, the gap right at the front is still the best part of 30 seconds. It's Toyota's to lose from here.

Imagine the fuss Ford will make of its GTE Pro victory over Ferrari – 50 years after its first here. It hasn't been back to Le Mans as a factory force since 1969, and the GT looks to be a winner at the first attempt.

The new GT40? It's certainly history repeating.

Stopwatch
We're officially inside the last quarter of an hour now.

And what a great effort from Scuderia Corsa, on corsa (see what I did there?) for GTE Am success. Another American GT success, and that really emphasises the strength of the GT element of the IMSA series. 

Now they just need to sort out their prototypes. That seems to be going around in circles right now...

Right now we're heading for a Ferrari 1-2 in GTE Am, unless the #83 AF Corse car needs to stop again? It's ahead of the #88 Porsche again.
Plenty of nervous faces in the Toyota garage. 12-and-a-bit minutes to go.
Pit Stop
And pit the #83 Ferrari does.
Sausset is back on track again. What a genuinely amazing human story that is. What a guy. Chapeau!
Pit Stop
The #2 Porsche is back in the pits with 10 mins to go...
The GTE Pro-leading Ford GT causes Nakajima a small heart attack at Mulsanne. That was more Kaz dithering than Muller doing anything wrong.
This can't be scheduled... looks like a puncture, new rubber going on.
There really is no question now. The #5 has to win this. Just 10 mins to go.
"Take it easy, take it easy". That's the message to the race-leading driver Nakajima. It's just a case of surviving the last nine minutes now.
The #5 Toyota has slowed!

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