Le Mans – H+16: Porsche in control

After sixteen hours of racing, 248 laps were completed by la Porsche 919 Hybrid n°1 entrusted to Neel Jani. As the sun appeared in Sarthe this Sunday morning, the Swiss is eleven laps ahead of second place in the general classification, and is starting to see a clear horizon for a potential Porsche hat-trick since 2015.

But it's well behind the leading 919 Hybrid that you have to look to find suspense. Ho-Pin Tung (Oreca 07 n°38 Jackie Chan DC Racing) took advantage of the remarkable work of Olly Jarvis during the last part of the night to emerge in second position overall. The Chinese driver is ahead of Nelson Piquet Jr's Oreca 07 n°13 Vaillante Rebellion, 21″ behind Tung's recent stop. The two men widened the gap on the No. 07 Vaillante Rebellion Oreca 31 of Bruno Senna, now 3rd in LM P2 and fourth overall.

Nelson Panciatici (Alpine A470 n°35) follows in the standings in fifth position, ahead of the first Ligier JS P217 n°32 United Autosports of Filipe Albuquerque, which notably benefited from the exit of the Oreca 07 n°40 Graff Racing of James Allen, to climb the hierarchy. Timo Bernhard in the #2 Porsche returned to 10th position overall, when the Toyota n°8 survivor of Sébastien Buemi rose to 15th place.

Patrick Pilet on the attack

Aston Martin took back control of a very undecided GTE Pro category with the No. 95 of Marco Sorensen. The Dane has a clear lead of more than a minute over the No. 7 Corvette C63.R of Jan Magnussen and the No. 911 Porsche 91 of Patrick Pilet, who livened up the peloton with his duel with the Ferrari n°51 by James Calado. 4th behind Sorensen, Magnussen and Serra (Aston Martin n°97), Pilet can still hope for a podium this afternoon.

Ferrari and JMW Motorsport are not letting go of the reins in GTE Am with the #488 84 of Robert Smith, who controls his pursuers led by the #488 Spirit of Race Ferrari 55 of Marco Cioci.

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