The #7 Toyota Gazoo Racing TS050 leads the 2019 24 Hours of Le Mans overall with six hours of the race completed. The #7 machine led off the 61-car field from pole, with Mike Conway quickly establishing a gap from the sister #8 car that extended to as much as a minute.
A solid stint by Fernando Alonso brought the #8 back into contention within 45 seconds of the leader, however unlucky timing on a Safety Car phase put gap between the two lead cars back up to around a minute.
The privateers LMP1s, and particularly SMP Racing and Rebellion Racing, showed solid pace during the first six hours of the race, and trail the lead works car by around one lap.
Top 10 in GTE Pro separated by 30 seconds
The GTE Pro class battle is once again delivering at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The #92 Porsche leads after six hours, but the top 10 have rarely been separated by more than 30 seconds during the first six hours of the race.
The race had been run at a breakneck speed, with no retirements so far and only a handful of off-track incidents or contact of note. However, a major shunt for the #64 Corvette after contact in the Porsche Curves put the Fässler/Gavin/ machine out of the race.
Le Mans dogfight in LMP2
The LMP2 class battle is currently being led by the championship-leading #36 Signatech Alpine Matmut car. It has been battling with the #26 G-Drive Racing Aurus, currently in second position in class, for much of the first six hours, with the cars appearing to be extremely well matched on race pace.
The #31 DragonSpeed machine is third, over one minute behind the leading pair, after being separated by one of the three safety cars in use at the Le Mans. The safety car period was caused by an incident involving the #43 RLR Motorsport / Tower Events car, however driver John Farano managed to bring the stricken Oreca 07 back to the pits and green flag running resumed.
Keating Ford surprise package in GTE Am
The #85 Keating Motorsport Ford GT is the surprise leader at the six-hour stage in GTE Am. The team’s advantage ahead of the remainder of the GTE Am field is over a minute due to safety-car separation. Second is the #90 TF Sport Aston Martin, with the #84 JMW Motorsport Ferrari in third.