H+4: Porsches duel for the lead at the Nürburgring

The Porsche 919 Hybrid continues to fight for first place in the general classification at the end of the 4th hour at the Nürburgring (Germany). Earl Bamber regained the advantage on the No. 2 by overtaking the No. 1 of Nick Tandy at the first corner, but the Briton stayed in contact with the New Zealander and took advantage of a spin by Tor Graves on the No. 24 CEFC Manor TRS Racing at the last chicane to overtake at the end of the 4th hour of the race.

#24 @ManorWEC span and fortunately two @Porsche_Team Hybrids managed to cut through and continue!#6hNurburgring pic.twitter.com/WBTv9X8Qu3

— FIA WEC (@FIAWEC) July 16, 2017

Toyota marks time by now being almost a minute behind with the TS050 Hybrid n°7 of Mike conway. Anthony Davidson's sister car #8 remains 4th, 5 laps behind the leaders.

Jackie Chan DC Racing retains control of the LMP2 with the #38 now entrusted to Thomas Laurent who has more than a minute ahead of the #31 Vaillante Rebellion of Filipe Albuquerque. The sister car No. 37, however, lost several places with David Cheng's stint. The n°13 of Vaillante Rebellion driven by Luis Felipe Derani took the advantage over theAlpine No. 36 by Matthew Rao and now completes the provisional podium in the category.

Ferrari and AF Corse took the lead in GTE Pro with the #488 F51 GTE of James Calado which has a lead of more than 20 seconds over the Porsche 911 RSR of Frédéric Makowiecki and Michael Christensen. THE Aston Martin of Marco Sorensen and Daniel Serra complete the top five in the category ahead of the Ford GTs of Olivier Pla and Andy Priaulx. The No. 67 is under investigation following slight contact with the No. 1 Porsche.

The No. 77 Dempsey Proton Racing Porsche remains at the head of GTE Am with Christian Ried at the wheel, threatened by the return of the No. 98 Aston Martin entrusted to Paul Dalla-Lana.