The first half of the 86th edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans has been completed and the no7 Toyota TS050 of Jose Maria Lopez is leading the race by 77 seconds ahead of the no8 Toyota of Fernando Alonso.
The no8 Toyota was penalised when Sebastien Buemi was found to have driving too fast in a slow zone and the Swiss driver was forced to serve a 60 second stop and go penalty.
The no3 Rebellion Racing R13 of Matthias Beche is running in third place, four laps behind the Toyotas and ahead of the no1 Rebellion of Bruno Senna. The no17 SMP Racing BR01 was running at the front of the field but Matevos Isaakyan spun at the Porsche Curves damaging the car. The Russian tried to clear the damaged parts of the car to get back to the pits but then the engine failed in spectacular style in a cloud of smoke and the race for the no17 was over.
In the LMGTE Pro category the two of the Porsche 911s continue to lead the class, with the no92 911 of Michael Christensen holding a one minute fifty three second advantage over the no91 Porsche of pole sitter Gimmi Bruni. The no68 Ford GT is third ad the no52 AF Corse Ferrari of Toni Vilander is fourth.
The no81 BMW M8 was handed a drive through penalty when the team refuelled the car while it was still on the skates and the earth lead wasn’t attached to the car during the refuelling process.
The no26 G-Drive Racing Oreca is still in charge in the LMP2 category with Roman Rusinov circulating 1 lap ahead of the rest of the field. Nicolas Lapierre is currently second in the no36 Signatech Alpine A470, 3 seconds ahead of the no23 Panis Barthez Competition Ligier of Timothe Buret.
Porsche continue to dominate the LMGTE AM class as well as the PRO category and at the end of the twelfth hour the no77 Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche of Julien Andlauer over 90 seconds ahead of the no85 Keating Motorsports Ferrari, with last years’ class winner JMW Motorsport in third.
The no98 Aston Martin Racing Vantage was another retirement in second quarter when Paul Dalla Lana went off into the barriers at the Porsche Curves. The Canadian was OK but the car had to recovered to a safe area, its race run.