LMP1
The lead gap continued to contract with Fernando Alonso edging the #8 Toyota TS050 closer to the leading car.
Jose Maria Lopez had taken over the #7 Toyota from Mike Conway by 3 am local time the gap down to 80 seconds at the top of the hour.
There was bad news for the CEFC TRSM Ginetta squad – the #6 Ginetta posted as a retirement after Oliver Rowland ground to a halt at the second chicane, the car refusing to re-fire despite verbal assistance from TRSM and Ginetta engineers from the other side of the barrier.
The #5 meanwhile pitted for replacement of the left hand number panel but was back out and running soon enough and gradually climbing up within the top 50.
The #10 DragonSpeed BR1 meanwhile had cleared the GTE pack and Ben Hanley – then Renger van dr Zande were looking to set about the weightier task of climbing through the LMP2 order.
LMP2
G-Drive Racing ORECA 07 Gibson still hold – and are gradually increasing – their lead with Nico Lapierre (#36) doing battle with the #23 Panis-Barthez Ligier.
There was trouble in the hour for both the #25 Algarve Pro Ligier (after contact in traffic saw the car in the garage – Mark Patterson admitting some culpability) and the #31 DragonSpeed ORECA, both were back out and running soon enough though.
Graham Goodwin
GTE-Pro
Heading down towards the mid-way point in this 86th running of the Le Mans 24 Hours, and it remained a one-two for Porsche in GTE-Pro, although the on-track order was occasionally disrupted by pitstops. The perfect example came at half-past the hour, following an uneventful first thirty minutes, when the #91 pitted from second place, allowing the #68 Ford GT through, until it too pitted, on schedule, a couple of laps later.
An official statement came from Porsche to confirm the retirement of the #94, with the suspected chassis/suspension damage proving beyond the resources of the team to repair at the track, since there’s a strong probability that (another) new tub may be required.
Only four cars remained on the lead lap of the class, with the #52 AF Corse Ferrari bringing up the final place, fourth in class and 28th overall.
Mildly encouraging news for AMR, with the first of the new Vantage racecars, #95, into tenth place within the class, 34th overall.
The approaching hour heralded the mid-point in the race, with five (technically unconfirmed) retirements noted, including the #94 Porsche from GTE-Pro.
GTE-Am
The leader in GTE-Am continued a fairly serene progress, the #77 comfortably completing pitstops without incurring any positional risk. The sister car, the #88, was less fortunate, and by the mid-point in the hour was running 6th in the class and a lap down on the class lead, having lost ground to the recovering #54 Spirit of Race Ferrari (5th) and the #56 Team Project 1 Porsche, 4th.
Also running strongly in Am was the Keating Motorsport Ferrari, firming up the team’s grasp on second and, before the routine pitstop, just 17 seconds behind the first-placed Dempsey Proton Porsche #77.
The half-distance was reached with, to date, only one confirmed retirement from within the ranks of GTE-Am, in the form of the #98 works Aston’
Marcus Potts
