24 Hours of Le Mans – H+14: Kobayashi resists Nakajima

Le scénario de la bagarre interne chez Toyota for victory in 24 Hours of Le Mans has taken a new turn since the nightly relays of Fernando Alonso. The Spaniard had greatly reduced the gap on José Maria Lopez before handing over the wheel of the No. 050 TS8 Hybrid to Kazuki Nakajima.

The Japanese has tried in recent minutes to imitate the double Spanish world champion, but must face to the resistance of Kamui Kobayashi, who officiates on the leading TS050 Hybrid n°7.

Around 5″ separated the two Japanese cars after the stops, before Kobayashi regained some air (+8″8) for a suspense that remained intact for the victory.

The leading trio in LM P2 did not move during this hour with the Oreca 07 n°26 – G-Drive Racing by Jean-Eric Vergne who dominates ahead of Will Stevens (Ligier JS P217 n°23 – Panis-Barthez Compétition) and theAlpine A470 n°36 – Signatech Alpine by André Negaro. The latter is 20″ behind Stevens, himself one lap ahead of the leading Oreca.

Laurens Vanthoor et Frédéric Makowiecki (Porsche 911 RSR n°92 et n°91) remain in the lead in GTE Pro ahead of Sébastien's #68 Ford GT Bourdais, which after a while seemed able to reduce the gap, topped out at 24″ behind the #91, itself preceded by 2’19” by the leading #92.

With more than 3′ in advance, the Porsche 911 RSR n°77 – Dempsey – Proton Racing confirms its advantage in GTE Am. A Slow Zone was briefly deployed during this hour, following the error of Weiron Tan (Oreca 07 n°40 – G-Drive), who got stuck in the gravel trap at the exiting the bend Karting, after a spin.

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