Lopez Leads 6H Nürburgring after Mixed First Hour for Toyota

Photo: Vision Sport Agency

Jose Maria Lopez leads the Six Hours of Nürburgring after the first hour has been completed, with mixed fortunes for Toyota Gazoo Racing with the No. 8 car already five laps down. 

Sebastien Buemi’s No. 8 Toyota slowed on the formation lap with a fuel pump issue. The car made it back to the pit lane and went back on track after an eight-minute stop that sent it to the back of the field.

Lopez currently had a one-second lead over the pair of Porsche 919 Hybrids after the first round of pit stops, having just taken over the car from polesitter Kamui Kobayashi.

Neel Jani took second position after the first round of pit stops to put the No. 1 Porsche ahead of the No. 2 car driven by Brendon Hartley, with the top three LMP1 cars running within 1.5 seconds of each other with five hours on the clock.

Bruno Senna leads the LMP2 ranks for Vaillante Rebellion after taking the lead from Oliver Jarvis at the start.

The Brazilian driver remained out front for most of the first hour, with Jarvis’ Jackie Chan DC Racing Oreca 07 Gibson in second ahead of Mathias Beche in the sister Rebellion entry.

The stop-and-hold penalties previously given to G-Drive Racing, CEFC Manor TRS Racing and Signatech Alpine Matmut have all been served in the opening hour.

Frederic Makowiecki is out front in GTE-Pro having passed Marco Sorensen following a close battle between the class leaders for most of the opening stint.

The Porsche GT Team driver has an eight-second lead over the reigning champion in his No. 95 Aston Martin Vantage GTE.

Pedro Lamy has kept Aston Martin Racing out front in GTE-Am meanwhile, so far running a clean race while clashes and rough overtakes happened behind him with the Clearwater Racing and Spirit of Race Ferrari 488 GTEs.

Jake Kilshaw

Jake Kilshaw is a UK-based journalist. He is a graduate of Politics and International Relations.