The eighteenth hour of racing began with the news of two retirements: Thiriet by TDS Racing’s #46 Oreca after Pierre Thiriet hit the barrier at Mulsanne Corner, and the #64 Corvette as a result of Tommy Milner’s collision with the tyre barrier at the Dunlop chicane. They bring the number of retirements to nine – just 15% of the initial grid.

Barring a major surprise, the final victory will boil down to a three-way tussle between the two Toyotas and the #2 Porsche. The three cars continue to swap places at each pit stop. It is not unusual for the fastest lap time to be bettered during the morning period that the drivers call “happy hour” but not this year. The benchmark (3:21.446) set yesterday on the 81st lap by Kamui Kobayashi (#6 Toyota) still stands.

In LM P2, four different makes hold the top four places: Alpine, Oreca, BR and Gibson. On the 257th lap, René Rast (#26 Oreca) improved the fastest lap time to 3:36.563, moving to within 3'20" of the leading Alpine.

In LM GTE Pro, the #68 Ford lost a little time as Sébastien Bourdais explained: “We had a problem with our radio followed by an electronics issue. I returned to the pits without my speed limiter – it was all a bit crazy. We’re in the final straight now. We’ll see how it’ll all pan out.” Only six hours to go, but the race is not over yet in this class as the Ford is just 30 seconds behind Italian rival, the #82 Ferrari fielded by Risi Competition.

Finally the LM GTE Am class is dominated by the #62 Ferrari which has built up a one-lap lead over the #88 Porsche.

LM P1
1. Toyota Gazoo Racing (#6 Toyota TS050 Hybrid) Mike Conway - Stéphane Sarrazin - Kamui Kobayashi
2. Toyota Gazoo Racing (#5 Toyota TS050 Hybrid) Sébastien Buemi - Anthony Davidson - Kazuki Nakajima
3. Porsche Team (#2 Porsche 919 Hybrid) Romain Dumas - Marc Lieb - Neel Jani

LM P2
1. Signatech Alpine (#36 Alpine A460-Nissan) Gustavo Menezes - Nicolas Lapierre - Stéphane Richelmi
2. G-Drive Racing (#26 Oreca 05-Nissan) Roman Rusinov - Will Stevens - René Rast
3. SMP Racing (#37 BR Engineering BR01-Nissan) Vitaly Petrov - Viktor Shaitar - Kirill Ladygin

LM GTE Pro
1. Risi Competizione (#82 Ferrari 488 GTE) Giancarlo Fisichella - Toni Vilander - Matteo Malucelli
2. Ford Chip Ganassi Team USA (#68 Ford GT) Joey Hand - Dirk Müller - Sébastien Bourdais
3. Ford Chip Ganassi Team USA (#69 Ford GT) Ryan Briscoe - Richard Westbrook - Scott Dixon

LM GTE Am
1. Scuderia Corsa (#62 Ferrari 458 Italia GT2) Bill Sweedler - Townsend Bell - Jeff Segal
2. Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing (#88 Porsche 911 RSR) Khaled Al Qubaisi - Patrick Long - David Heinemeier Hansson
3. AF Corse (#83 Ferrari 458 Italia GT2) François Perrodo - Emmanuel Collard - Rui Águas

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