Porsche Still Leads Overall After Four Hours at Le Mans

Porsche continues to lead overall at the four-hour mark of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, albeit on strategy rather than pure race pace.

After Timo Bernhard had made his third pit stop eary in the fourth hour the No. 7 Toyota TS040 Hybrid, driven by Stephane Sarrazin, moved into the lead, ahead of the No. 2 Audi R18 e-tron quattro of Andre Lotterer.

At the three-hour and 30-minute mark Sarrazin returned to the pits for the fourth pit stop of the No. 7 Audi, handing the lead back to the Porsche, now driven by Brendon Hartley.

In LMP2 Michel Frey took over from Franck Mailleux in the No. 34 Race Performance Oreca 3 Judd and soon he had a charging Alex Brundle behind him. Brundle passed Frey just before 6.30 p.m. but two laps later the No. 35 G-Drive Racing by OAK Racing driver was back behind Frey.

Patrick Long in the No. 77 Dempsey Racing-Proton Porsche 911 RSR continued to race on slicks, and subsequently dropped behind the GTE-Pro leaders again. He stayed out knowing that the others still had to stop for slicks, but eventually dropped to second in GTE-Am, behind the No. 98 Aston Martin Racing Vantage of Christoffer Nygaard.

Out in front in the GTE-Pro category the two Porsche Team Manthey cars were unable to hold onto the lead. Tommy Milner was on a mission and caught Bergmeister halfway the fourth hour. After a short battle Milner put the No. 74 Corvette next to the No. 91 Porsche and moved up into the lead in GTE-Pro.

The No. 33 OAK Racing –Team Asia Ligier JS P2-HPD and the No. 60 AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia both went into the gravel trap at Indianapolis, but both cars were towed out of the gravel and rejoined.

Six cars have retired at the end of the fourth hour. They are the No. 0 Nissan ZEOD RC, No. 3 Audi R18 e-tron quattro, No. 37 SMP Racing Oreca, No. 41 Greaves Motorsport Zytek and the No. 71 and No. 81 AF Corse Ferraris.