The #7 Toyota TS050 Hybrid has taken a firm step towards overall victory in the 88th 24 Hours of Le Mans with sixteen hours remaining after the sister car spent time in the garage with a brake issue under safety car.
Toyota wheeled the #8 TS050 Hybrid into the garage with Kazuki Nakajima behind the wheel to address a brake duct issue that had plagued the team since the early stages of the race.
The #8 car is now back in second, but two laps down on the #7 car in the hands of Jose Maria Lopez. Rebellion still holds third with their #1 R13-Gibson.
Toyota was able to save time fixing the issue when a lengthy safety car was called for a double incident in the seventh hour. Bruno Spengler had an off in the #4 ENSO CLM P1/01-Gibson and at virtually the same time, Tristan Gommendy had a heavy crash into the barriers in the #30 Duqueine Engineering ORECA 07-Gibson at the first Mulsanne chicane.
During that safety car, LMP2 saw a major development when the #37 Jackie Chan DC Racing ORECA 07-Gibson suffered an electrical failure in the hands of Gabriel Aubry. Aubry had just pitted the car was running in victory contention behind the #26 Aurus 01-Gibson of Jean-Eric Vergne.
Vergne then also dropped out of the lead after serving a drivethrough penalty. Alex Brundle now leads in the #32 United Autosports ORECA 07-Gibson ahead of Vergne and the #38 JOTA ORECA of Anthony Davidson.
In GTE Pro, Alex Lynn has made his way back into the lead of GTE Pro in the #97 Aston Martin Vantage AMR ahead of the two AF Corse Ferraris of Alessandro Pier Guidi and Miguel Molina.
AF Corse hold the lead in GTE Am with the #83 Ferrari 488 GTE Evo in the hands of Nicklas Nielsen ahead of both Aston Martins. Charlie Eastwood holds second in the #90 TF Sport Vantage AMR, with Ross Gunn in third in the #98 factory-entered Vantage.
