#7 Toyota reclaims lead as night falls at Le Mans

Mike Conway moved back into the lead of the 24 Hours of Le Mans during the ninth hour of the race as night fell at the Circuit de la Sarthe, heading up a one-two for Toyota.

Conway pulled out a 40-second lead through the opening stint of the race in the #7 Toyota TS050 Hybrid, but saw the advantage get wiped away through the evening after a Safety Car period and two mistakes from Jose Maria Lopez helped the sister #8 Toyota move out front.

Despite consistently running two laps longer, Lopez was unable to get the jump on Kazuki Nakajima in the #8 car, only for the positions to change upon the car handovers.

Lopez jumped out of the car to be replaced by Conway, who drove out of the pits and emerged just ahead of Buemi, putting the #7 car back in the lead of the race.

Conway was able to retain his lead through the next stint, opening up a seven-second lead heading into the 10th hour of the race.

Both Toyotas continue to run one lap ahead of the #17 SMP Racing entry, which sits third, with the sister #11 SMP car running fourth ahead of the pair of Rebellion Racing LMP1s.

G-Drive Racing reclaimed the lead in LMP2 as its tussle with Signatech Alpine Matmut raged on. Jean-Eric Vergne made a pass on Andre Negrao to take the position near the end of the seventh hour, and retained his advantage before handing the #26 Aurus Gibson over to Job van Uitert, who sits 10 seconds clear of Nicolas Lapierre in the Signatech entry.

Porsche managed to move ahead in the frantic GTE-Pro battle as #92 driver Kevin Estre got the jump on AF Corse's Daniel Serra before handing over to Michael Christensen for the first night stint. Christensen's lead stands at five seconds - the biggest it has been for some time in GTE-Pro.

Keating Motorsports continued to lead the way in GTE-Am with its #85 Ford GT, with team owner Ben Keating completing his first stint of the race out front.