LeMans 24 hour 22: Corvette loses GTE-Pro lead

Jan Magnussen blows it for the Corvette team
Jan Magnussen blows it for the Corvette team

The gap between Toyota's pair of TS050 HYBRIDs remained stable with two hours of the Le Mans 24 Hours to go.

Kamui Kobayashi started hour 22 with an advantage that was the best part of two minutes over Fernando Alonso, after Sebastien Buemi lost time to the #7 car while he was driving.

LMP2 – Signatech-Alpine still leads

Nicolas Lapierre handed over the LMP2-leading Signatech-Alpine to Andre Negrao shortly before the hour mark, without losing its one-lap advantage over Stephane Richelmi's #38 Jackie Chan DC Racing ORECA.

Unable to make much of an impression on the leader, Richelmi instead turned his attention to building a buffer over Francois Perrodo's #28 TDS Racing ORECA in third.

GTE-Pro: Magnussen blows it

AF Corse is headed to a Le Mans GTE Pro class victory for Ferrari after Corvette's Jan Magnussen ran out of talent at the Porsche Curves and crashed that forced the #63 into the garage for repairs.

Antonio Garcia began the hour behind the wheel of the #63 Corvette and held a six-second advantage over Calado's #51 Ferrari.

But Garcia made a pitstop under the safety car to hand over to Magnussen, who was then held at the end of the pitlane for a significant period of time because the officials did not want the American team to win.

While the gap became an artificial three-minute one under safety car conditions, following the restart Magnussen choked and suffered his spin and made contact with the wall.

He instantly pitted the Corvette and was wheeled into the garage as the team repaired the left-front corner of the car.

Magnussen returned to the track after a six-minute delay was eighth in class and out of contention for the American team to win. It was one of the biggest chokes in LeMans history..

Hour 22 Standings

Pos Class CLP No. Team Driver Behind Laps Pit Status
1 LMP1 1 #7 Toyota Gazoo Racing Kamui Kobayashi 0.000s 351 32 RUN
2 LMP1 2 #8 Toyota Gazoo Racing Fernando Alonso 2:09.156 350 31 RUN
3 LMP1 3 #11 SMP Racing Vitaly Petrov 6 LAPS 345 36 RUN
4 LMP1 4 #1 Rebellion Racing Neel Jani 10 LAPS 341 35 RUN
5 LMP1 5 #3 Rebellion Racing Thomas Laurent 15 LAPS 336 39 RUN
6 LMP2 1 #36 Signatech Alpine Matmut André Negrão 16 LAPS 335 33 RUN
7 LMP2 2 #38 Jackie Chan Dc Racing Gabriel Aubry 18 LAPS 333 33 RUN
8 LMP2 3 #28 Tds Racing Matthieu Vaxiviere 1:47.292 333 33 RUN
9 LMP2 4 #22 United Autosports Paul Di Resta 19 LAPS 332 34 RUN
10 LMP2 5 #30 Duqueine Engineering Pierre Ragues 3.860 332 33 RUN
11 LMP2 6 #48 Idec Sport Memo Rojas 20 LAPS 331 34 OUT
12 LMP2 7 #26 G-Drive Racing Job Van Uitert 21 LAPS 330 33 RUN
13 LMP2 8 #23 Panis Barthez Competition René Binder 22 LAPS 329 33 RUN
14 LMP2 9 #39 Graff Vincent Capillaire 1:01.338 329 34 RUN
15 LMP2 10 #25 Algarve Pro Racing John Falb 27 LAPS 324 34 RUN
16 LMP2 11 #20 High Class Racing Dennis Andersen 28 LAPS 323 35 RUN
17 LMP2 12 #50 Larbre Competition Erwin Creed 2:10.674 323 35 RUN
18 LMP2 13 #47 Cetilar Villorba Corse Roberto Lacorte 31 LAPS 320 36 RUN
19 LMP2 14 #32 United Autosports Will Owen 35 LAPS 316 34 RUN
20 GTE-Pro 1 #51 Af Corse Daniel Serra 40 LAPS 311 23 RUN
21 GTE-Pro 2 #91 Porsche GT Team Frédéricmakowiecki 1:04.226 311 21 RUN
22 GTE-Pro 3 #93 Porsche GT Team Patrick Pilet 1:41.144 311 21 RUN
23 GTE-Pro 4 #68 Ford Chip Ganassi Team USA Dirk Müller 2:23.603 311 21 RUN
24 GTE-Pro 5 #67 Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK Harry Tincknell 41 LAPS 310 22 RUN
25 GTE-Pro 6 #69 Ford Chip Ganassi Team USA Richard Westbrook 1:10.089 310 23 RUN
26 LMP2 15 #34 Inter Europol Competition Jakub Smiechowski 42 LAPS 309 34 IN
27 GTE-Pro 7 #66 Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK Olivier Pla 11:13.592 309 22 RUN
28 GTE-Pro 8 #63 Corvette Racing Mike Rockenfeller 11:37.531 309 23 RUN
29 LMP2 16 #29 Racing Team Nederland Giedo Van Der Garde 43 LAPS 308 32 RUN
30 GTE-Pro 9 #94 Porsche GT Team Mathieu Jaminet 12.299 308 22 RUN
31 GTE-Pro 10 #82 Bmw Team Mtek Antonio Felix Da Costa 1:11.059 308 22 RUN
32 GTE-Pro 11 #89 Risi Competizione Oliver Jarvis 44 LAPS 307 24 IN
33 GTE-Pro 12 #92 Porsche GT Team Michaelchristensen 45 LAPS 306 22 RUN
34 GTE-Pro 13 #81 Bmw Team Mtek Philipp Eng 46 LAPS 305 23 RUN
35 GT-AM 1 #85 Keating Motorsports Ben Keating 47 LAPS 304 21 RUN
36 GT-AM 2 #56 Team Project 1 Patrick Lindsey 48 LAPS 303 20 RUN
37 GT-AM 3 #84 Jmw Motorsport Jeffrey Segal 1:49.927 303 21 RUN
38 GT-AM 4 #61 Clearwater Racing Matthew Griffin 2:56.240 303 22 RUN
39 GT-AM 5 #77 Dempsey – Proton Racing Julien Andlauer 3:23.247 303 22 RUN
40 GT-AM 6 #62 Weathertech Racing Toni Vilander 49 LAPS 302 23 RUN
41 GT-AM 7 #57 Car Guy Racing Kei Cozzolino 2.350 302 22 RUN
42 GT-AM 8 #78 Proton Competition Vincent Abril 50 LAPS 301 22 RUN
43 GT-AM 9 #54 Spirit Of Race Francescocastellacci 1:39.816 301 22 RUN
44 GT-AM 10 #86 Gulf Racing Benjamin Barker 51 LAPS 300 25 RUN
45 GT-AM 11 #83 Kessel Racing Michelle Gatting 3:29.610 300 22 RUN
46 GT-AM 12 #70 Mr Racing Edward Cheever 53 LAPS 298 26 RUN
47 GT-AM 13 #90 Tf Sport Salih Yoluc 54 LAPS 297 23 IN
48 LMP2 17 #43 Rlr M Sport/Tower Events Arjun Maini 56 LAPS 295 32 IN
49 GT-AM 14 #60 Kessel Racing Sergio Pianezzola 1:49:55.238 295 23 RUN
50 GTE-Pro 14 #97 Aston Martin Racing Jonathan Adam 1:50:22.966 295 23 RUN
51 LMP2 18 #31 Dragonspeed Pastor Maldonado 106 LAPS 245 24 STOP
52 LMP2 19 #37 Jackie Chan Dc Racing Ricky Taylor 152 LAPS 199 21 IN
53 LMP1 6 #17 Smp Racing Egor Orudzhev 188 LAPS 163 16 STOP
54 LMP1 7 #4 Bykolles Racing Team Tom Dillmann 2:35:00.370 163 22 STOP
55 LMP2 20 #49 Arc Bratislava – Kaneko Racing Miro Konopka 191 LAPS 160 19 IN
56 GTE-Pro 15 #71 Af Corse Miguel Molina 211 LAPS 140 11 IN
57 GTE-Pro 16 #95 Aston Martin Racing Marco Sørensen 219 LAPS 132 9 STOP
58 GT-AM 15 #98 Aston Martin Racing Pedro Lamy 264 LAPS 87 7 STOP
59 GTE-Pro 17 #64 Corvette Racing Marcel Fässler 269 LAPS 82 5 STOP
60 GT-AM 16 #88 Dempsey – Proton Racing Matteo Cairoli 272 LAPS 79 9 IN
61 LMP1 8 #10 Dragonspeed Renger Van Der Zande 275 LAPS 76 14 STOP