Drivers raced into the heart of darkness at midnight in Le Mans. As temperatures cooled at the end of the day, the racing heated up at the Circuit de la Sarthe. Audi and Porsche traded the overall lead as the cars cycled through their pit stops.

The eighth hour began with Romain Dumas overshooting the Mulsanne corner in the No. 18 Porsche 919 Hybrid and damaging the car’s nose. Then an excursion by the No. 36 Alpine Nissan LMP2 into the gravel at Mulsanne triggered the third safety car period of the race.

When the race resumed 25 minutes later, the frontrunners were bunched in a tight pack with the leading No. 19 Porsche, the second-ranked No. 17 Porsche, and the No. 7 Audi in third separated by 1.3 seconds. The No. 17 gradually opened a gap, but suffered a reversal of fortune when the stewards imposed a one-minute stop-and-go penalty on the race-leading Porsche for overtaking under a yellow flag. Mark Webber duly served the penalty in the pit lane and dropped to fourth in the running order.

At midnight in Le Mans, Nico Hulkenberg led in the No. 19 Porsche by five seconds over the No. 9 Audi of Rene Rast, with the No. 7 Audi driven by Marcel Fassler another 20 seconds back.

In the LMP2 class, the No. 47 Oreca Nissan continued to set the pace as it has since the start.

Aston Martin held the lead in both GT classes, with the No. 97 Vantage V8 of Stefan Mucke leading the Pro category and the No. 98 of Pedro Lamy on the point in the Am division. Three American teams were fourth (No. 77 Dempsey-Proton Porsche), fifth (No. 62 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari), and sixth (No. 53 Riley Motorsport-TI Automotive SRT Viper) in the GTE Am class. The No. 50 Larbre Competition Corvette C7.R retired, leaving the No. 64 as the lone Corvette survivor in the 24 Hours of Le Mans.