2016 WEC 24 Hours of Le Mans
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Le Mans 24 Hours – Race
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Don't forget, a driver change takes around 30 seconds to execute on top of a normal stop, hence how the #68 gave up the lead.
IndyCar stars Bourdais and Dixon practically nose-to-tail in the fight for second in GTE Pro behind Malucelli, who is less than five seconds ahead.
Pit Stop
The #46 Oreca of Hirakawa just made a stop, but still came out in the lead with 10 seconds in hand over Richelmi.
Leading positions after 6 Hours:
1) #6 Toyota2) #1 Porsche
3) #5 Toyota
4) #2 Porsche
5) #8 Audi
6) #13 Rebellion
LMP2:
1) #46 Oreca2) #36 Alpine
3) #47 Oreca
GTE Pro:
1) #82 Ferrari2) #68 Ford
3) #69 Ford
GTE Am:
1) #88 Porsche2) #78 Porsche
3) #98 Aston Martin
Mechanical problem
Remarkably, we're almost a quarter of the way through and only one car is out - the #89 Porsche - although several others have hit serious trouble.
Pit Stop
Now our class leader Hand has come in to hand over the #68 to Sebastien Bourdais, so it's Malucelli now leading the way in GTE Pro.
Pit Stop
Change of position in GTE Pro, as Mucke pits from second to hand over the #66 Ford GT to Le Mans rookie Billy Johnson.
Black-and-white flag for Mathias Lauda in the #98 Aston for ignoring track limits.
Lieb out, our poleman Jani in and back in the race fourth.
Pit Stop
In comes the #2 Porsche from second.
Hirakawa has been flying out front in the LMP2 class. The Japanese has over a minute in hand from Richelmi now.
So that's the #6 car of Kobayashi into the lead, as Bernhard rejoins in third.
Timo Bernhard clambers into the cockpit, taking over the reins from Webber.
Pit Stop
Now the race-leading #1 Porsche is on pit road.
Di Grassi on his way, the #8 car down to fifth after that stop.
The #7 Audi is now up to seventh overall, still behind the #13 Rebellion though.
Pit Stop
Right on cue, here's Jarvis in the pits to hand over to the rapid Brazilian.
Spotted on pitlane: Lucas di Grassi all suited and booted, ready to take over the #8 Audi.
Behind that bunch, van der Garde in the #38 is just a second behind Rao in the #44 Manor car, nice battle shaping up for P4 there.
That G-Drive penalty has put the #36 Signatech, now with Stephane Richelmi driving, in second, with the #47 KCMG of Howson in third.
Nice to see Brad Pitt putting his name (and face!) to the FIA's Action for Road Safety campaign today...
FIA Action for Road Safety photoshoot: FIA President Jean Todt, ACO President Pierre Fillon, actor Brad Pitt with drivers
Penalty
Trouble for the #26 G-Drive car, which just had a drive-through for refuelling with the engine still on. Oopsie.
GTE Am has probably seen the least action of all the classes today. It's still the #78 KCMG Porsche (Camathias) from the #88 Proton car (Al-Qubaisi).
In the GTE stakes, it's still Ford 1-2, Hand leading Mucke, but Dixon has slipped back to fourth behind Malucelli in the #82 Risi Ferrari.
Stopwatch
Overall, Jarvis is fourth in the #8 Audi, having lost time at a recent pitstop to have a door replaced. Of the three LMP1 manufacturers, Audi has suffered all the mechanical issues today.
Davidson is fifth in Toyota #5 but has made an extra pitstop, due to a vibration on his outlap.
LMP2-wise, Hirakawa in the #46 has 30 or so seconds on Stevens in the #26, now that the class-leading #36 Signatech Alpine is in the pits.
Stopwatch
Let's do a post-pitstop #6 reset.
Webber leads in Porsche #1 by 14.338s ahead of Kobayashi in the #6, who put in some great work at the end of the previous stint to make up time he'd lost at the start.
Lieb is third in Porsche #2, 39.6s behind Webber.
You can watch the Ford onboards here...
Giedo van der Garde gets a black-and-white warning flag for abusing track limits in the #38 Gibson.
From the Ford onboard we just saw Scott Dixon have a huuuge moment, not like him! Mr smooth usually...
Pit Stop
Audi #7 pits, it has climbed to a legitimate eighth position overall now, after losing six laps for a turbo change early on.
The #5 and #6 Toyotas are now out of sequence with each other, having previously been pitting simultaneously.
Mechanical problem
That's going to be a long drive back to the pits...
Crash
Oh dear, Cumming has been off again at the final corner. And it looks like something has broken on the #31 ESM car, which had been running well inside the top 10. Broken right-rear suspension?
Pit Stop
Kobayashi pits from the temporary lead in the #6 Toyota.
Yellow Flag
Wonder if he hit the speed limiter, and it locked the rear wheels? It was like he pulled the handbrake on. His rejoin wasn't exactly graceful, either.
Crash
#31 ESM Ligier has spun. That was odd, Cumming seemed to lose it as he approached a yellow flag zone.
Safety car
Slow zones now declared.
Stopwatch
It's that man again. Kobayashi is really getting into the swing of this, a 3m21.445s is the fastest lap of the race by four tenths of a second.
Crash
Spin! And gravel. It's the Team AAI Corvette of Mark Patterson at the Porsche Curves.
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