24h Le Mans
With 23 hours to go into the 24 Hours of Le Mans, both TS050 Hybrid Toyotas lead overall and Porsche tops the time-sheets in LMGTE Pro.
Tennis champion Rafael Nadal dropped the French flag at 15:00 to start the race, and the drivers began to push right away, leading to the first incident involving three-time Le Mans winner André Lotterer. The front bonnet of the #1 Rebellion R13 flew off at the Dunlop chicane and hit the #10 DragonSpeed car. Both cars were able to continue but had to go in for a quick pit stop.
Meanwhile, despite a few raindrops, both Toyotas remained strong out front. Mike Conway (#7) was able to pass Sébastien Buemi (#8), who started from pole, in the first lap, but both cars swapped positions again after the first refueling, and the #8 car was leading with the #7 sister car just behind at 16:00.
Things started smoothly in the LMP2 class, with Spa-winner G-Drive Racing leading a 20-car pack. Jean-Eric Vergne (Oreca #26), who started third, was able to find his way to the front, but the Frenchman is only a few seconds ahead of two other Oreca cars and two fellow Frenchmen: the #28 TDS Racing and the #36 Signatech Alpine Matmut (the Alpine A470 is built from an Oreca chassis).
The LMGTE Pro class kept all its promises during the first hour with epic nose-to-nose battles between Porsche, Ferrari, Chevrolet Corvette, BMW and Ford. At the first hour mark, the #92 "Pink pig" and the #91 Porsche were respectively first and third, with the #68 Ford placed in between. There are only 20 sceonds between the first 10 cars in the class.
Despite losing time with a puncture, Ben Barker in the #86 Gulf Racing Porsche was able to take the lead from the poleman Matteo Cairoli who remained third in the #88 Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche at 16:00, right behind the #54 Spirit of Race Ferrari.
Photo: Both TS050 Hybrid Toyotas are out front at the end of the first hour.
