Le Mans: Porsche extends advantage

Porsche continues to lead comfortably after 18 hours at the Le Mans 24 Hours while the battle for the second continued between LMP2 entries.

Having taken over control of the race during the night, the #1 Porsche 919 enjoyed a 12-lap advantage over the second placed car overall, and 18 laps over the #2 Porsche which sits second in LMP1.

Though the second Porsche climbed to tenth overall following an early hybrid drive problem, which saw it in the garage for almost two hours on Saturday evening, its pace wasn’t strong enough to reel in those at the front of the LMP2 class.

It makes the battle for the lead of LMP2 also a battle for second and third on the outright podium, the #38 Jackie Chan DC Racing Oreca-Gibson moving beyond the two Rebellion Oreca-Nissan entries which had held the podium places overnight.

Less than a lap separated second and third on the road, while the Nicolas Prost/Julien Canal/Bruno Senna car fell a lap behind the LMP2 class leaders in fourth place overall.

James Allen crashed at Indianapolis with eight and a half hours remaining, the Australian dropping out of sixth place overall and fifth in LMP2 back to ninth in the #40 Oreca-Gibson while James Winslow in the #39 entry also struggled as he fell to 48th place overall.

A tight battle developed at the front of the GTE-Pro class, the #95 Aston Martin Vantage holding a slender advantage before Richie Stanaway ran off the road at Mulsanne Corner.

That promoted the #91 Porsche 911 RSR, while the #67 Ford GT moved into second in place after a quiet race to that stage. Third in class was the #63 Corvette Racing entry, though the top end of the class ran so close that the order continually changed through the pit stop sequence.

The #92 sister car led earlier in the race but became a retirement after spinning at the Ford Chicane while the Briscoe/Dixon #69 entry continued to lap towards the back of the GTE-Pro class.

Nick Foster and Ben Barker held down 10th in GTE-Am at the wheel of the Gulf Racing Porsche 911 RSR, the class led by the #84 Ferrari 488 GTE.