Lopez leads from Alonso three hours into Le Mans
Jose Maria Lopez currently leads the 24 Hours of Le Mans for Toyota at the three-hour mark, but has Formula 1 driver Fernando Alonso in hot pursuit of him edging into the evening at the Circuit de la Sarthe.
After trailing early leader Sebastien Buemi through the early part of the race, Mike Conway was able to get the jump through the third round of pit stops at Le Mans to move to the head of the field, eking out an additional lap on his strategy than planned thanks to a slow zone period.
Jose Maria Lopez currently leads the 24 Hours of Le Mans for Toyota at the three-hour mark, but has Formula 1 driver Fernando Alonso in hot pursuit of him edging into the evening at the Circuit de la Sarthe.
After trailing early leader Sebastien Buemi through the early part of the race, Mike Conway was able to get the jump through the third round of pit stops at Le Mans to move to the head of the field, eking out an additional lap on his strategy than planned thanks to a slow zone period.
The #7 Toyota TS050 Hybrid was able to extend its advantage through the fourth pit cycle as Lopez took over from Conway, with the Argentine returning to the track with a 15-second buffer to Alonso, who had switched into the #7 Toyota at the end of Buemi's stint.
Alonso soon began to put the hammer down, with the gap between the two drivers at the three-hour mark standing at four seconds.
G-Drive Racing continues to lead the way in LMP2 following a sensational first stint by Jean-Eric Vergne in the #26 Oreca 07 Gibson, finding as much as two seconds per lap in order to open up an advantage of more than one minute over the #36 Signatech Alpine entry which sits second in class. Panis-Barthez Competition currently occupies P3 in class, a further 25 seconds down the road.
In GTE-Pro, Porsche restored its one-two running after being split by Ford for a period, with Frederic Makowiecki passing Sebastien Bourdais before then moving ahead of Laurens Vanthoor, with the pair running nose-to-tail in the cars' classic liveries, led by the #91 Porsche 911 RSR. Bourdais continues to hold on to third in class, falling eight seconds behind.
Gulf Racing UK's hopes of victory in GTE-Am were dealt an early blow when Michael Wainwright crashed out while leading his class before the two-hour mark, damaging the barrier at Indianapolis. Wainwright was able to get his car back to the pits where it was repaired before returning to the race, but the repairs to the barrier resulted in a lengthy slow zone period.
The error allowed Dempsey-Proton Racing to move into the lead of the class with its #77 Porsche, running 30 seconds clear of the #84 JMW Motorsport entry. The second Dempsey-entered Porsche sits P3 in class.
