LMP1
Just after the first hour mark passed, the pit stop cycle resumed, with Stephane Sarrazin in the #17 SMP first to stop from fifth. Ben Hanley also stopped in the DragonSpeed a lap or two early, wth the team having a look front and back to find the issue for the car’s supposedly slow speed.
A lap later third and fourth-placed #3 Rebellion and #11 SMP pitted, with both Gustavo Menezes and Vitaly Petrov staying on board. Two laps later and Sebastien Buemi in the second-placed #8 Toyota pitted, and a lap after that, the leading #7 Toyota, with Mike Conway at the wheel, pitted as well, right on schedule, only taking on fuel.
An hour and a half in and Conway led Buemi by 30 seconds. Menezes was a further 28 seconds back in third, with Petrov 12 seconds behind. Sarrazin had slipped to over a a minute and a half behind the leader, while Tom Dillmann in the #4 ByKolles was a further behind, with Ben Hanley’s #10 DragonSpeed a further 30 seconds adrift.
Finally, Bruno Senna in the #1 Rebellion was attempting to catch up following the earlier tyre sensor issues, making his way through the LMP2 field. The ByKolles had to then make an unscheduled stop to fix a loose door, with Olly Webb telling Radio Le Mans that it occurred after the car’s previous stop a few laps earlier.
A full-course yellow was briefly called for debris on track, which somewhat messed up the pitstop schedule. It meant that Menezes had pit once for fuel under FCY, when the pits were officially closed, meaning he could only take five seconds of fuel, then pit again for the scheduled stop for a full tank a lap later. Petrov, on the other hand, was able to pit a lap later, just as the pits were re-opened, meaning he did not have to pit again, as Menezes did.
The #10 DragonSpeed was also beset by issues, with the car being pushed into the garage for around 10 minutes and dropping way down the field. After leaving the pits just before the second hour was complete, Hanley would also need to make a stop-and-go penalty for exceeding the amount of fuel per stint.
Bruno Senna meanwhile had caught back up to the rest of the LMP1 pack, now in sixth behind Sarrazin’s SMP. At the end of the hour Dillmann in the ByKolles had dropped behind the leading LMP2s, to ninth.
LMP2
Nicolas Lapierre continues to lead the LMP2 class in the #36 Signatech Alpine, but Jean Eric-Vergne is currently keeping him honest in the #26 G-Drive Racing Oreca.
After the second cycle of stops and the introduction of the second hour, it was still Lapierre and the Signatech Alpine at the head of the class order, but another earlier stop for the #28 TDS Racing Oreca saw it drop to third, thanks in part to a driver change.
Once behind the wheel, new driver Francois Perrodo started to drop through the order, losing places thanks to an average lap time roughly five seconds off the front-running pace. Anthony Davidson in the #31 Dragonspeed Oreca inherited the position, but now had a 30-second gap between he and the top two.
While Vergne re-joined the track in second and just tenths back from Lapierre, the Signatech driver had extended the lead to 10 seconds as the 90-minute mark of the race passed.
The third round of stops arrived slightly later than anticipated, with the teams settling in to slightly higher fuel loads and longer stints.
At 45 minutes into the second hour, a majority of the class finally arrived in pitlane for the third time. Lapierre left at the head of the order, which was expected, given the former Toyota LMP1 driver had increased the gap between he and Vergne to over 15 seconds before the FCY.
Once back out on the track, the gap was down to just seven seconds, but more significantly, the duo were more than 50 seconds clear of third-placed Nyck de Vries in the #29 Racing Team Nederland Dallara.
Further down the class top ten, Paul di Resta inherited the #22 United Autosports Ligier, and Andrea Pizzitola took over the #25 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca. The pair re-joined in eighth and ninth, and had an interesting exchange for position between Mulsanne and Indianpolis, which Di Resta would ultimately win.
Both drivers have looked to be among the top hotshoes in class this weekend, so expect to see this pair move through the order in hour three.
As we enter the third hour, Vergne is closing in on Lapierre; this, along with the shorter pitstop from the G-Drive Oreca outfit, suggests a lighter fuel load for Vergne in this stint.
GTE Pro
Corvette maintained its position at the head of the GTE Pro field, with the #63 leading the #92 and #93 Porsches by the end of the second hour.
The race settled into its stride in the second hour with the field largely running line-astern but the jostling for position ending in preference for a more conservative approach.
The #63 Corvette of Antonio Garcia led a trio of Porsches half way through the hour. Nick Tandy in the #93 Porsche led the #92 Porsche of Michael Christensen and #91 of Gimmi Bruni.
The #64 Corvette with Oliver Gavin at the wheel had been holding fourth, but started to lose some ground, ceding positions to Dirk Muller in the #68 Ford, Harry Tincknell in the #67 Ford and the #51 Ferrari of Alessandro Pier Guidi
Gavin started to lose around three seconds a lap to the cars around it, though the reason for its time loss was unknown. Other cars were also dropping pace at this point in the race.
After a strong start for Nikki Thiim, the #95 Aston Martin dropped back and was finding itself in a fight for 12th with the #81 BMW of Martin Tomczyk. The drop off for the Aston Martin was significant with some speculation over whether double-stinting their tyres was providing more issues than time saving on a warm track.
The next round of pitstops came 45 minutes through the hour. The #91 Porsche took on wheels, fuel and a new door during the stop. Richard Lietz also jumped in the car, but it dropped down to lie 12th in class.
The Corvette team took its chance to change the drivers with Jan Magnussen taking over from Garcia in the leading #63. They maintained their lead ahead of the #93 Porsche of Patrick Pilet with #92 Porsche of Christensen in third.
The leading Corvette had suffered some brake light problems with one of the lights only on intermittently – something to keep an eye on. Finally, the #94 Porsche of Mathieu Jaminet was able to stay out an extra lap, which could be beneficial later in the race.
GTE Am
The #77 Dempsey-Proton Porsche led at the end of the second hour, taking the lead from the #54 Ferrari at the second round of pitstops.
Key in the hour was the team-mate to the leading car. After spinning at the end of the first hour, the #88 Proton Dempsey Porsche made it back to the pits with Satoshi Hoshino at the wheel. However, upon returning to the track, he did spin and take to the gravel in Dunlop Curves but was able to continue.
At the front of the field, there was not a lot of action, with Giancarlo Fisicella’s #54 Ferrari leading Matt Campbell’s #77 Porsche and Ben Barker in the #86 Porsche.
The big fight in the class was for sixth to eighth with the Project 1 Porsche of Jorg Bergmeister 0.5 seconds ahead of Jeff Segal in the #84 Ferrari and a further 0.5 seconds ahead of Charlie Eastwood in the #90 Aston Martin – with some changes during each of the laps.
The #88 Porsche with Hoshino was back in the wars again, suffering damage to the front of the car 38 minutes through the hour. A front headlight was missing from the car as he crawled back to pitlane.
The car made it back to the pits and was pushed into the garage for repairs. Certainly a tough stint for the Japanese driver.
There was also trouble for Eddie Cheever in the #70 MR Racing Ferrari. The car suffered a right-rear puncture, possibly from the debris from the Porsche. He had to crawl back to the pits but suffered some additional bodywork damage. It was in addition to a track-limits infringement for Cheever that was issued earlier in the hour.
The teams took their chance at the end of the hour to make their second round of stops.
The #77 Dempsey Proton Porsche took the lead of the class as Julian Andlauer jumped in the car and exited the pits ahead of the #54 Ferrari, now with Thomas Flohr behind the wheel. Third is the #85 Ford with Jeroen Bleekemolen in the car.
It was a disaster for the #98 Aston Martin with Pedro Lamy bringing the car into the pits with power-steering problems. The car remained in the garage at the end of the hour.
