Porsche’s Laurens Vanthoor leads the 24 Hours of Le Mans with six hours remaining with the #6 Penske Porsche 963 driver stealing an advantage over Ryo Hirakawa in the #8 Toyota GR010 – Hrybid.
Vanthoor and Hirakawa engaged in a two hour battle after a prolonged safety car period came to an end, but their duel was neutralised when another safety car intervened shortly before 18 hours of running elapsed.
Hirakawa led the field back to green after more than four hours under the safety car and immediately started to pull out a gap, rising to three seconds in just six minutes.
There was no such luck for his Toyota team-mate Nyck de Vries in the #7 Toyota, who was forced to pit from fourth due to visibility issues through his windscreen.
With the Safety Car lasting for such a considerable length of time, it wasn’t until daybreak that cars with drive-through penalties looming over them could take their punishment.
Antonio Giovinazzi in the #51 Ferrari 499P was one such driver, instructed to take his penalty whilst running in seventh place after breaching Full Course Yellow speeds in the night.
Giovinazzi dropped to ninth as a result, but things were close at the front with #6 Porsche 963 driver Laurens Vanthoor just two and a half seconds behind Hirakawa.
Nicklas Nielsen was a not-too-distant third, approximately 13 seconds behind the leading duo in his #50 Ferrari 499P.
Robert Kubica was six seconds back from Nielsen in fourth and #2 Cadillac V-Series.R driver Alex Lynn gave him close company with seven and a half hours of the race remaining.
An approximate 20 seconds back from the top five there was an enthralling tussle ongoing between Jenson Button in the #38 JOTA Porsche and Matt Campbell in the #5 Penske Porsche.
After a few laps of trying, Campbell eventually made his move on the second chicane down the Mulsanne straight.
Race leader Hirakawa pitted with seven and a quarter hours of the race to run and the question was what tyres should be put on the car with the track drying.
Toyota elected to leave the wets on, with conditions still not dry enough for slicks.
There was similar thinking for Kubica and the #83 Ferrari, along with Frederic Makowiecki, taking over from Matt Campbell in the #5 Porsche and Jenson Button in the #38 machine.
In the following laps, Vanthoor, Nielsen and Lynn pitted from the top three positions in the race and again, nobody switched onto dry tyres.
Hirakawa maintained his lead at the end of 17 hours of running following the pit-stop cycle with Vanthoor closing in to within two seconds.
At this point Stephane Richelmi was leading the way in LMP2 in the #10 Vector Sport Oreca 07 – Gibson with Ben Barnicoat three and a half seconds back in the #183 AF Corse entry.
Richard Lietz enjoyed a nine-second margin over the rest of the LMGT3 field after 17 hours of running aboard the #91 Manthey Porsche 911 GT 3 R LMGT3.
However, there was a rotten stroke of luck for the #92 Manthey Porsche which had been in leading contention before retreating to the pit garage shortly after the race restart with technical issues, falling 5 laps from the class lead.
Moving into the 18th hour, de Vries, out of sequence with the other leading Hypercar runners due to his earlier widescreen issues, came into pit and the Dutch driver was the first to switch back to slick tyres.
Meanwhile, Hirawaka pit from the lead with six and three-quarter hours to go, swapping from wets to scrubbed slick tyres.
Felipe Nasr in the #4 Porsche lost control of his 963 prototype and had a heavy hit into the barriers.
The Hypercars still running all started to follow Toyota’s example to put slick tyres on.
Once the Hypercar field had all committed to slicks, Vanthoor assumed a 20s lead ahead of Hirakawa and de Vries, who benefitted hugely from his early gamble.
De Vries found himself embroiled in a tight three-car battle at the 17-and-a-half-hour mark, with Antonio Fuoco and Robert Shwartzman on his tail in the #50 and #83 Ferraris.
But their battle and the rest of the race were neutralised by the third Safety Car period of the enduro.
This was triggered by Daniel Mancinelli in the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGT3.
Mancinelli went wide on the wet line heading into Indianapolis aiming to avoid Hypercar traffic, going side-on into the barriers and ending up on his roof.
The #27 car, which was in podium contention was out of the race but luckily Mancinelli got out of his car safely.
This prompted Fuoco and Shwartzman to pit, seeking to take advantage under the Safety Car conditions and the #83 car was able to jump its Ferrari #50 counterpart down pit-lane.
There were stops in LMP2 as well, including for Malthe Jakobsen and Richelmi from second and third respectively.
A selection of LMGT3 runners also elected to pit and all three classes saw the order revised as the field continued to tour the circuit under caution.
Vanthoor leads in the #6 Porsche from Hirakawa and Earl Bamber, who has recently inherited driving duties of the #2 Cadillac.
Mackowiecki is fourth in the #5 Porsche with Shwartzman and Fuoco fifth and sixth respectively in the #83 and #50 Ferraris.
Kamui Kobayashi has taken over the driving duties of the #7 Toyota in seventh and Norman Nato is running in eighth in the #12 JOTA Porsche.
Barnicoat continues to lead the way in LMP2 ahead of Oliver Jarvis in the #22 United Autosports entry and third-placed Patrick Pilet in the #10 Vector Sport machine.
Gregoire Saucy has risen to the lead in LMGT3 at the wheel of the #59 United Autosports McLaren 720S LMGT3 Evo, ahead of Jack Hawksworth in the #87 Akkodis ASP Team Lexus RC F LMGT3 and Richard Lietz in the #91 Manthey Porsche.
