Toyota paced the opening hour of the 24 Hours of Le Mans with Sebastien Buemi passing stable-mate Mike Conway for the overall lead.
A gutsy overtake from Buemi – piloting the #8 TS050 – round the outside of pole-sitter Conway at Indianapolis developed into a 1.624 second advantage after 60 minutes of action.
All LMP1 runners made their first pit stops on laps 12 and 13, with each opting to take fuel only, in hot conditions at the Circuit de la Sarthe.
Porsche held third and fourth after Neel Jani lost second position in the pits, having passed Buemi in the first string of corners.
The Swiss driver sat 4.5 seconds down on the leader, and three seconds off Conway, at the close of the hour.
Timo Bernhard sits behind in second, with the #9 Toyota of Nicolas Lapierre fifth following a nose cone change after picking up a debris graze on lap one.
The fastest lap so far is a 3m 18.694 set by Conway on lap three.
24 Hours of Le Mans: Hour 1 positions
In LMP2, Vitaly Petrov took the lead from pole-man Roman Rusinov at the first set of corners, and led until the first round of stops halfway through the hour.
Rusinov spun at the Ford Chicane and recovered by scuttling into the pits, but the #26 ORECA dropped out of the top 10.
Manor driver Petrov was replaced up front by Oliver Jarvis (Jackie Chan DC Racing) who led until the pit window.
A slow stop from the DC Racing team elevated Bruno Senna (Vaillante Rebellion) into the lead, ahead of Petrov and Manor team-mate Jean-Eric Vergne.
GTE-Pro was led at the top of the second hour by Nicki Thiim, who passed Alessandro Pier Guidi and Darren Turner before the pit stops began.
Thiim overtook both cars before making a faultless pit stop, and managed to build a lead of around four seconds to Turner, who had Pier Guidi and the Porsche of Kevin Estre for close company.
Having set a class lap record in qualifying, Fernando Rees dropped to third position in GTE-Am after a long opening pit stop, behind leader Townsend Bell (Scuderia Corsa Ferrari) and Rob Bell (TF Sport Aston Martin).
The first casualties were the ByKolles Racing Nissan LMP1 which clipped the wall at Tertre Rouge before pitting, and the #22 G-Drive Racing ORECA LMP2 which is currently in the pits undergoing gearbox repairs.
