WEC: 24 Hours of Le Mans after 12 Hours

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16.06.19

The first three hours of Sunday were anything but uneventful with three safety car interventions for as many incidents.

LMP1
The two Toyota TS050 Hybrids took turns in the lead in function of refuellings and neutralisations. By mid-race, Kamui Kobayashi (#7) had carved out a four-second gap ahead of Sébastien Buemi (#8) as the safety car - on the track after the second incident in the same lap, for ARC Bratislava's #49 Ligier driven by Henning Enqvist - returned to its post.

Third place, long held by SMP Racing's #17 BR Engineering BR1, was taken by Rebellion Racing's #3 Rebellion R13, trailing the Japanese cars by two laps, as Egor Orudzhev caused the deployment of another safety car when the Russian spun off and hit the tyre wall in the Porsche curves.

LMP2
The various neutralisations shook things up in this class. Signatech Alpine Matmut's #36 Alpine had to wait at the end of pit lane after its refuelling and lost two minutes on G-Drive Racing's #26 Aurus. The team enjoyed a comfortable lead with Roman Rusinov at the wheel. On the other hand, there was no change for Jackie Chan DC Racing's #38 ORECA, still in third position.

LMGTE Pro
Aston Martin lost everything shortly after midnight. First, Alex Lynn left the track at Karting while at the wheel of the #97 Vantage, and less than 20 minutes later, Marco Sørensen did the same thing driving the #95 Vantage. The #97 was able to return to the garage, but the #95 was too damaged to restart and therefore the safety car was deployed.

Ferrari – which had earlier lost AF Corse's #71 Ferrari with a broken engine - led the class with the #51 488 GTE EVO, but Daniel Serra had to refuel, unlike Kévin Estre in the #92 Porsche. The #91 Porsche, driven by Frédéric Makowiecki, rounded out the podium positions at mid-race.

LMGTE Am
The three safety car interventions between midnight and 03:00 modified certain positions, except for Keating Motorsports' #85 Ford GT holding onto the lead. Aston Martin could find solace in the second place held by TF Sport's #90 Vantage, with 2018 winner Dempsey-Proton Racing's #77 Porsche 911 in third.