Porsche Leads After 10 Hours, Nissans Hit Trouble

After 10 hours Porsche and Audi keep fighting for the overall lead in the 83rd running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The three Nissan entries all hit trouble in the last two hours.

The No. 19 Porsche 919 Hybrid pitted right at the end of the tenth hour, when it had a 39-second lead over the No. 7 Audi R18 e-tron quattro. Marco Bonanomi in the No. 9 Audi was in third place at 1:00 am.

Right at the start of the ninth hour race director Eduardo Freitas decided to call in the safety cars and replace them with a slow zone at Mulsanne Corner, allowing repairs of the damaged barriers to take place.

The battle for the lead between the No. 17 Porsche 919 Hybrid of Mark Webber and the No. 7 Audi R18 e-tron quattro was cut short when Webber was given a one-minute stop and go penalty for overtaking under yellow. Teammate Timo Bernhard rejoined in fourth place after serving the penalty.

Problems hit the Nissan GT-R LM NISMOs in the tenth hour, resulting in the retirement of the No. 21 entry, driven by Tsugio Matsuda. The car, which had its clutch changed earlier, stopped at Arnage and despite desperate efforts Matsuda was unable to return to the pits.

By then the No. 22 Nissan GT-R LM NISMO had already been in the pits for a while, having hit something out on the track. The incident caused substantial damage to the front-end of the car. The No. 23 car had also been in for quick repairs.

KCMG still led LMP2, despite a drive through for a pit lane infringement, with the Thiriet by TDS Racing Oreca in second place and the No. 26 G-Drive Racing Ligier in third.

Aston Martin Racing’s Richie Stanaway holds the lead in GTE-Pro, ahead of the No. 64 Corvette C7.R. The No. 97 Aston Martin Vantage has retired from the race, promoting the No. 91 Porsche 911 RSR to third in class.

RESULTS: Hour 10