With three hours to go, the 24 Hours of Le Mans was Porsche’s race to lose. The powerful 919 Hybrids were running first and second, with the No. 19 driven by Earl Bamber holding a one-lap lead over the No. 17 of Timo Bernhard.

Behind the Porsches a trio of Audis was flying in formation, two laps down to the leader. The running order of R18 e-tron Quattros was No. 7 (Andre Lotterer), No. 9 (Marco Bonanomi), and No. 8 (Lucas di Grassi). The stewards imposed a stop-and-go penalty on the No. 7 Audi for disrespecting a slow zone, dashing the hopes of last year’s race winners. The No. 9 twice went into the garage where mechanics removed the nose, ceding positions to its stablemates.

With a little more than three hours remaining, Andre Lotterer ran a lap in 3:17.476, setting the record for the fastest race lap on the No. 7 Audi’s 337th tour of the immense 8.47-mile Le Mans circuit.

Both the Porsches and Audis were quadruple stinting their Michelin tires. The stewards declared the track wet, opening the possibility of rain tires in the closing hours.

The closest race on the circuit was in the GTE Pro category where Jordan Taylor in the No. 64 Corvette C7.R dueled with Toni Vilander in the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari, separated by just 20 seconds after 21 hours of racing. The race was not just between the drivers but between the crews in the pit lane as well. The ace Corvette Racing crew had put Tommy Milner in the lead on a pit stop exchange that saw new rear brakes installed for the sprint to the finish. The Corvette and Ferrari enjoyed a three-lap margin over the No. 91 Porsche 911 RSR in third place.

The No. 98 Aston Martin Vantage V8 extended its advantage in the GTE Am class to two laps when the No. 72 SMP Racing Ferrari encountered the tire wall in the Indianapolis curve while running second. Quick work by the marshals got the Ferrari back into the fray without losing its position. Three American teams were jousting for the third spot on the GTE Am podium, with the No. 62 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari, the No. 77 Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche 911 RSR, and the No. 53 Riley Motorsports-TI Automotive SRT Viper GTS-R vying for positions.

With the possibility of rain, the final three hours of the 24 hours of Le Mans holds the promise of another unpredictable finish.