A third of the way in to the Le Mans 24 Hours Toyota has taken a firmer control at the front of the field as the #7 TS040 HYBRID in the hands of Kazuki Nakajima, Stephane Sarrazin and Alexander Wurz. They enjoy a two-minute advantage over the #2 Audi R18 e-tron Quattro.

A further safety car period punctuated the early evening stage of the race when an LMP2 car crashed at the exit of the Porsche Curves and with the field split in to two groups this extended the Toyota’s lead.

“It was a tough start for me,” said Sarrazin talking of the opening exchanges. “I did four stints and my first in the wet was really on the edge. When I came out of the pits after the safety car I was behind 20 or so cars and I couldn’t see the track; there was so much water on the straight.

“I had to take a lot of time to overtake all those cars and avoid any problems,” continued the Frenchman. “After that the track dried up and it was very good. The car has a good balance so I kept pushing to increase the gap between me and the rest of the field.”

Porsche fell back slightly with Brendon Hartley having a trip up the escape road and losing valuable time. This gave Audi a chance to claim a clear second and third position with the #2 R18 e-tron Quattro leading the sister #1 car which was lapping rapidly in the hands of ‘super-sub’ Marc Gene.

In the hugely exciting LMGTE PRO class there was a battle royal. Aston Martin, Corvette and Ferrari jousted furiously throughout with the three nose to tail for some of the running. The #97 Aston Martin of Darren Turner snatched the lead in the sixth hour with a fine move on Richard Westbrook’s Corvette C7.R. The two British racers fought firmly but fairly throughout the dice.

The other #73 Corvette Racing C7.R which led early on lost a lap due to a broken valve stem that prevented the car going up on the air jacks.

In LMGTE Am the lead was held by the #98 Aston Martin. Dempsey Racing was racing in 4^th place with Joe Foster at the wheel after a successful and trouble free stint at the wheel by Patrick Dempsey.