LeMans Hour 9: Porsche and Toyota take turns in the lead

Since 11:00 p.m., plenty has happened. At 11:15 p.m., the #1 Porsche 919 Hybrid, at the time in the lead trio, returned to the its pit (and was still there at midnight). At 11:20 p.m., it was the #7 Audi R18's turn, delayed since the start with turbo problems, to head back to its box. This edition has remained difficult for three-time winners Marcel Fassler, Andre Lotterer, and Benoit Treluyer – a masking of brake ducts continues. The temperature appears to be too cool for the Audi crew, who must modify the car so the braking system doesn't get too cold.

The race continued on but at 11:20 p.m. Paul Dalla Lana had an incident coming out of the Porsche curves. The #98 Aston Martin V8 Vantage, second in LM GTE Am, settled in the gravel trap. Eventually the driver restarted, and passed pitlane. Francois Perrodo also made a mistake. He went straight at Mulsanne in the #83 Ferrari 458 Italia, also entered in LM GTE Am. These two circumstances compelled race direction to deploy the safety car and the race continued under its rule for a little longer than 20 minutes.

Currently, Neel Jani is driving the #2 Porsche 919 Hybrid and Mike Conway is at the wheel of the #6 Toyota TS 050 ahead of Sebastien Buemi in the #5 sister car. The three leaders are in the same lap.

LM P1
Porsche Team (#2 Porsche 919 Hybrid) Romain Dumas – Marc Lieb – Neel Jani
Toyota Gazoo Racing (#6 Toyota TS050 Hybrid) Mike Conway – Stephane Sarrazin – Kamui Kobayashi
Toyota Gazoo Racing (#5 Toyota TS050 Hybrid) Sebastien Buemi – Anthony Davidson – Kazuki Nakajima

LM P2
Thiriet by TDS Racing (#46 Oreca 05-Nissan) Pierre Thiriet – Mathias Beche – Ryo Hirakawa
Signatech Alpine (#36 Alpine A460-Nissan) Gustavo Menezes – Nicolas Lapierre – Stephane Richelmi
G-Drive Racing (#26 Oreca 05-Nissan) Roman Rusinov – Will Stevens – Rene Rast

LM GTE Pro
Ford Chip Ganassi Team USA (#68 Ford GT) Joey Hand – Dirk Müller – Sebastien Bourdais
Risi Competizione (#82 Ferrari 488 GTE) Giancarlo Fisichella – Toni Vilander – Matteo Malucelli
Ford Chip Ganassi Team USA (# 69 Ford GT) Ryan Briscoe – Richard Westbrook – Scott Dixon

LM GTE Am
Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing (#88 Porsche 911 RSR) Khaled Al Qubaisi – Patrick Long – David Heinemeier Hansson
Scuderia Corsa (#62 Ferrari 458 Italia GT2) Bill Sweedler – Townsend Bell – Jeff Segal
AF Corse (#55 Ferrari 458 Italia GT2) Duncan Cameron – Aaron Scott – Matt Griffin

Hour 9 Standings