LeMans Hour 7: Toyota pulling away from Audi and Porsche

Unless the No. 7 Toyota crashes or breaks, the Germans don't have a chance

Toyota extended its lead in the Le Mans 24 Hours over the chasing #2 Audi to two minutes after the Japanese outsmarted the Germans on pitstop strategy.

With the gap back over one minute, Audi suffered a further loss in time when the safety cars were sent out after Alexandre Imperatori crashed the KCMG ORECA between the Porsche Curves and the Ford Chicane.

Both Nakajima and Benoit Treluyer came in for stops – with the Audi driver handing over to Marcel Fassler – but once the Swiss had rejoined one of the safety car groups he was nearly two minutes behind when the race restarted.

Darren Turner hauled Aston Martin to the top of the GTE ranks after the safety car period allowed the Vantage racer to overhaul Richard Westbrook's Corvette.

7 Hour Standings

Pos Class Car Drivers Laps Behind
1 LMP1 #7 Toyota Wurz/Sarrazin/Nakajima 103 +0.000s
2 LMP1 #2 Audi Fassler/Lotterer/Treluyer 102 +1 Lap
3 LMP1 #1 Audi Di Grassi/Gene/Kristensen 102 +1m17.422s
4 LMP1 #20 Porsche Bernhard/Webber/Hartley 101 +2 Laps
5 LMP1 #12 Rebellion Prost/Heidfeld/Beche 98 +5 Laps
6 LMP1 #14 Porsche Dumas/Jani/Lieb 97 +6 Laps
7 LMP2 #36 Alpine Chatin/Panciatici/Webb 95 +8 Laps
8 LMP2 #35 Ligier Brundle/Mardenborough/Shulzhitskiy 95 +33.352s
9 LMP2 #34 Oreca Frey/Mailleux/Lancaster 95 +51.696s
10 LMP2 #46 Ligier Thiriet/Badey/Gommendy 94 +9 Laps
11 LMP1 #8 Toyota Davidson/Lapierre/Buemi 94 +24.195s
12 LMP2 #26 Morgan Rusinov/Pla/Canal 94 +1m53.772s
13 LMP2 #24 Oreca Rast/Charouz/Capillaire 93 +10 Laps
14 LMP2 #38 Zytek Dolan/Tincknell/Turvey 93 +1.818s
15 LMP2 #43 Morgan Klien/Hirsch/Brandela 93 +2m03.024s
16 LMP2 #33 Ligier Cheng/Tung/Fong 93 +2m59.438s
17 LMP2 #50 Morgan Ragues/Taylor/Ihara 92 +11 Laps
18 GTEP #97 Aston Turner/Mucke/Senna 91 +12 Laps
19 GTEP #74 Chevrolet Gavin/Milner/Westbrook 91 +1.107s
20 GTEP #51 Ferrari Bruni/Vilander/Fisichella 91 +1.626s
21 GTEP #92 Porsche Holzer/Makowiecki/Lietz 90 +13 Laps
22 GTEP #91 Porsche Pilet/Bergmeister/Tandy 90 +0.545s
23 GTEP #73 Chevrolet Magnussen/Garcia/Taylor 90 +1.721s
24 GTEA #98 Aston Dalla Lana/Lamy/Nygaard 90 +14.007s
25 GTEA #95 Aston Poulsen/Heinemeier-Hansson/Thiim 89 +14 Laps
26 GTEA #72 Ferrari Bertolini/Shaitar/Basov 89 +1m24.806s
27 LMP2 #29 Morgan Schell/Leutwiller/Roussel 88 +15 Laps
28 GTEA #88 Porsche Ried/Bachler/Al Qubaisi 88 +35.513s
29 GTEA #77 Porsche Dempsey/Foster/Long 88 +1m21.162s
30 GTEA #61 Ferrari Perez-Companc/Cioci/Venturi 88 +1m50.422s
31 GTEA #90 Ferrari Montecalvo/Roda/Ruberti 88 +2m17.890s
32 LMP2 #47 Oreca Howson/Bradley/Imperatori 87 +16 Laps
33 GTEA #57 Ferrari Krohn/Jonsson/Collins 87 +29m27.690s
34 GTEA #70 Ferrari Nakano/Ehret/Rich 87 +29m34.863s
35 LMP2 #42 Zytek Kimber-Smith/McMurry/Dyson 87 +30m10.468s
36 GTEA #67 Porsche Maris/Merlin/Helary 87 +32m40.907s
37 GTEA #58 Ferrari Barthez/Pons/Ayari 87 +32m42.860s
38 GTEA #60 Ferrari Mann/Case/Giammaria 87 +33m19.397s
39 GTEA #75 Porsche Perrodo/Collard/Palttala 86 +17 Laps
40 GTEA #66 Ferrari Al Faisal/Neiman/Pumpelly 85 +18 Laps
41 GTEA #76 Porsche Narac/Armindo/Hallyday 85 +53.217s
42 LMP2 #27 Oreca Zlobin/Salo/Ladygin 84 +19 Laps
43 GTEA #62 Ferrari Mallegol/Bachelier/Blank 83 +20 Laps
44 GTEP #79 Porsche MacNeil/Curtis/Bleekemolen 82 +21 Laps
45 GTEA #53 Ferrari Mowlem/Patterson/Hamilton 78 +25 Laps
46 LMP1 #13 Rebellion Kraihamer/Belicchi/Leimer 73 +30 Laps
47 GTEP #52 Ferrari Griffin/Parente/Leo 70 +33 Laps
48 LMP2 #48 Oreca Berthon/Gonzalez/Chandhok 64 +39 Laps
49 LMP2 #41 Zytek Munemman/Latif/Winslow 31 Retired
50 GTEP #71 Ferrari Rigon/Kaffer/Beretta 28 Retired
51 LMP1 #3 Audi Albuquerque/Bonanomi/Jarvis 25 Retired
52 GTEA #81 Ferrari Wyatt/Rugolo/Bird 22 Retired
53 LMP2 #37 Oreca Ladygin/Minassian/Mediani 9 Retired
54 CDNT #0Nissan Ordonez/Reip/Motoyama 5 Retired