The sixth hour of the 2014 24 Hours of Le Mans was an hour of spins, offs and stops as the #7 Toyota continued to lead the 82nd Edition of the legendary race.
The first spin of the hour came from Francois Perrodo, who lost it going into Dunlop in the #75 ProSpeed Porsche, with the Frenchman temporarily unable to get going again for a small while. The next drama on track came from the Prototype ranks when Brendon Hartley out braked himself, locked up the front wheels on the #20 Porsche and had to go through the tyres at the first chicane on the Mulsanne. Next to join the group of going off was Jan Charouz in the #24 Sebastien Loeb Racing Oreca 03R-Nissan, with the Czech Republican running off at Mulsanne Corner.
After the offs came the stops, with Hartley first pitting the #20 for fuel, re-joining 19 seconds behind the #1 Audi of Lucas Di Grassi, only for the Brazilian to bring his car in a few laps later. Meanwhile up front things kept going well for Toyota, with Stephane Sarrazin extending his lead to over a minute from the #2 Audi of Benoit Treluyer.
Further on down in the GTE field the battle for the lead continued, with the #97 Aston Martin Vantage temporarily taking the lead during the stops, although Richard Westbrook in the #74 Corvette soon restored the C7.Rs lead.
In LMP2 the spins continued, with Romain Brandela spinning the #43 Newblood by Morand Racing Morgan – Judd at Arnage, narrowly missing several cars as he spun from the inside under braking into the outside Armco entering the corner, only making light damage to the car.
Back in the pits 10 minutes later and heartbreak started to sink in for the crew of the #13 Rebellion Racing R-One, with the LMP1-L suffering engine issues, making them drop down the order to 40th at the top of the hour. Also in the pits at the top of the hour was the #66 JMW Motorsports Ferrari of Spencer Pumpely, with the American spinning it into the gravel at Arnage.
LMP1
1 – #7 Toyota Racing – Nakajima/Sarrazin/Wurz
3 – #2 Audi Sport Team Joest – Fassler/Lotterer/Treluyer
3 – #20 Porsche Team – Bernhard/Webber/Hartley
LMP2
1 – #36 Signatech Alpine – Chatin/Webb/Panciatici
2- #35 OAK Racing – Brundle/Mardenborough/Shulzhitskiy
3 – #46 Thiriet By TDS Racing – Thiriet/Badey/Gommendy
LMGTE Pro
1– #74 Corvette Racing – Gavin/Milner/Westbrook
2 – #92 Team Manthey – Holzer/Lietz/Makowiecki
3 – #91 Team Manthey – Pilet/Tandy/Bergmeister
LMGTE Am
1 – #98 Aston Martin Racing – Lamy/Dalla Lana/Nygaard
2- #95 Aston Martin Racing – Poulsen/Heinemeier-Hanson/Thiim
3 – #72 SMP Racing – Bertolini/Shaitar/Basov
