The #7 Toyota solid leader after two hours of racing

In the wake of the neutralization under safety car regime during the first hour, following the incident between the ENSO CLM P1/01 n°4 – ByKolles and the Oreca 07 n°37 – Jackie Chan DC Racing, the race had resumed with a completely disrupted order, the various pit stops under Safety-Car having largely redistributed the cards.

Stoffel Vandoorne (BR1 n°17 ​​– SMP Racing) easily gets back on theAlpine A470 n°36 – Signatech Alpine by André Negaro and takes control of the race a little over 4h30' from the finish. Between the new leader and Mike conway (Toyota n°7), 4e au général mais 2e en LM P1, un peu plus de 7″ d’écart.

The situation is more delicate for the No. 8 Toyota of Sébastien Buemi, forced to return to his stand during the last Safety-Car procedure, fuel tank almost empty and while the pitlane was closed.

The Swiss, however, stopped long enough to add a small amount of fuel (as authorized by the regulations), then make another stop under a green flag to fill up completely. As a result, a gap between the two hybrid prototypes of more than 40″ once the positions are stabilized under the green flag.

Signatech Alpine, with the A470 n°36 entrusted to André negrao se hisse aux avant-postes en LM P2 devant la Oreca 07 n°38 – Jackie Chan DC Racing de Stéphane Richelmi. En GTE Pro, Porsche reste en tête, mais c’est désormais Gianmaria Bruni et la n°91 qui ont pris le relais de Kévin Estre et de la n°92, rejetée en 6e position de la catégorie.

The race continued without major incidents apart from a collision between the No. 217 Dallara P29 – Racing Team Nederland of Frits Van Eerd and theAston Martin n°95, but the exit of the Porsche 911 RSR n°88 – Dempsey-Proton Racing of Gianluca Roda, who made a mistake in the gravel trap at turn n°7 a little over 4 hours from the finish , causes the first Full Course Yellow.

The procedure sees the leading #7 and #8 Toyotas plunge into the pit lane (with a tire change on the two LM P1 hybrids), as well as most of the cars. When restarted at 15:33 p.m., Kamui Kobayashi (Toyota n°7) is more than 43″ ahead of the n°8 now entrusted to Fernando Alonso. Stoffel Vandoorne is more than 2'05" behind with the #1 BR17 – SMP Racing.

Signatech Alpine retains control of the race in LM P2, while Ferrari took the lead in the GTE Pro race with the #51 of Alessandro Pier Guidi, 4″5 ahead of the #911 Porsche 91 RSR of Richard Lietz.

Matteo Cressoni emerges in the lead in GTE Am with the No. 488 Ferrari 61 – Clearwater Racing.