LeMans Hour 5: Toyota and Porsche swapping lead

The No. 6 Toyota now leads

Porsche and Toyota are battling for the lead of the Le Mans 24 Hours with Toyota's ability to go a lap longer between pitstops meaning Toyota will be able to go the distance with 2 or 3 less pitstops than Porsche.

In the 5th hour the leading Porsche of Webber gave up a lead of around 30 seconds when he pitted for the sixth time just before the end of the hour to hand the lead to Kobayashi’s Toyota.

While the Toyota is able to stretch its fuel for 14 laps, Porsche is short-fueling its car slightly to save time at its pitstops every 13 laps, gaining back some of the time that could be lost as the race goes on if Toyota ends up being able to make fewer stops.

In LMP2 Toyota protege Hirakawa enters the sixth hour with an 11s lead over Gustavo Menezes in the Signatech Alpine, with Matt Howson third for KCMG.

In GTE PRO – Ford reclaimed the GTE lead with a one-two-three after overhauling the Risi Competizione Ferrari. Joey Hand moved to the front of the pack over teammate Ryan Briscoe.

Hour 5 Standings