It was another slow hour as the sun crept over the track. The Porsche #1 still leads competitively over the rest of the field. Porsche Curves has been a hot spot for off and during the sixteenth hour it claimed another victim in the deep gravel trap.
LMP1
1st – #1 Porsche Team – 919 Hybrid – Jani/Lotterer/Tandy
2nd (p10) – #2 Porsche Team – 919 Hybrid – Bernhard/Hartley/Bamber
3rd (p16) – #8 Toyota Gazoo Racing – TS050 – Davidson/Buemi/Nakajima
The two LMP1s have been pushing for damage limitation. Timo Bernhard and Sebastien Buemi have made some excellent progress in the field to get their LMP1s as high up the classification as possible. Bernhard is now in the top ten, meaning that it will be classified with full points. Any positions Bernhard can recover from this point on will just bring the #2 Porsche more World Endurance Championship points. The #1 Porsche is still leading the class and still has an 11 lap buffer advantage on the lead.
LMP2
1st – #38 Jackie Chan DC Racing – ORECA 07-Gibson – Jarvis/Tung/Laurent
2nd – #13 Vaillante Rebellion – ORECA 07-Gibson – Beche/Heinemeier Hansson/Piquet
3rd – #31 Vaillante Rebellion – ORECA 07-Gibson – Canal/Prost/Senna
The #40 Graff had a very similar issue to the #28 TDS Racing last hour that brought out the third safety car of the session. Luckily the incident was not as bad at the one an hour earlier, so the cars could be cleared with just slow zones and yellow flags. #38 Jackie Chan DC Racing is running smoothly and now looks to be a competitive leader of the LMP2 field.
LMGTE PRO
1st – #95 Aston Martin Racing – Aston Martin Vantage – Stanaway/Thiim/Sorensen
2nd – #97 Aston Martin Racing – Aston Martin Vantage – Adam/Turner/Serra
3rd – #71 AF Corse – Ferrari 488 GTE – Bird/Rigon/Molina
Going into the hour the #71 Ferrari was leading, but a scheduled stop for a change of brake discs and pads saw it slip down to third. Aston Martin remains to be the team to beat as the #95 continues to lead the field.
There was a close call in the pits as the #69 Ford Chip Ganassi returned to pit lane from the garage. The #86 Gulf Racing Porsche was pulling into their pit box when the #69 moved to swing out, nearly hitting the #86 as it moved onto pit road. Luckily there was no contact but it was a very close moment.
LMGTE AM
1st – #84 JMW Motorsport – Ferrari 488 GTE – Stevens/Smith/Vanthoor
2nd – #55 Spirit of Race – Ferrari 488 GTE – Cameron/Cioci/Scott
3rd – #62 Scuderia Corsa – Ferrari 488 GTE – Bell/Sweedler/MaCNeil
In this class, the Ferraris have really pulled out an advantage in the early morning hours. After the unfortunate brief stoppage of the TF Sport #90 that saw it drop down the order the Ferrari 488s have been uncatchable. There is still eight hours of racing left, so the tables could turn again and Aston Martin could catch back up.
