Kobayashi steadies #7 Toyota’s lead from Alonso
Kamui Kobayashi has stemmed the loss of time to its sister #8 Toyota car to see the #7 car lead by 10 seconds with nine hours to go of the 2018 Le Mans 24 Hours.
Fernando Alonso completed his impressive overnight stint which saw him eat into Jose Maria Lopez’s lead after the #8 Toyota was forced to serve a 60-second stop-and-go penalty due to Sebastien Buemi’s earlier offence for speeding in a slow zone.
Kamui Kobayashi has stemmed the loss of time to its sister #8 Toyota car to see the #7 car lead by 10 seconds with nine hours to go of the 2018 Le Mans 24 Hours.
Fernando Alonso completed his impressive overnight stint which saw him eat into Jose Maria Lopez’s lead after the #8 Toyota was forced to serve a 60-second stop-and-go penalty due to Sebastien Buemi’s earlier offence for speeding in a slow zone.
The gap dropped down to under five seconds by the time Alonso handed over to Kazuki Nakajima, while shortly after Lopez was relieved of driving duties by Kobayashi, with the Japanese driver of the #7 Toyota edging out the lead to around 10 seconds at the end of the 15th hour.
The #3 Rebellion Racing has dropped to seven laps back on the Toyotas after requiring a floor change but stays third ahead of the #1 Rebellion.
The #26 G-Drive Oreca continues to sit in a strong position with a lap lead over the charging #23 Panis Barthez Competition Ligier with Will Stevens chipping away at the time deficit while also edging away from the #36 Signatech Alpine Metmut.
It is a similar story in the GTE-Pro class with the lead #92 Porsche GT Team maintaining its advantage of a lap on the sister #91 Porsche which is also getting close to pulling out a lap on the third place #68 Ford Chip Ganassai Team USA car.
In the GTE-Am the Dempsey-Proton Porsche looks equally comfortable with a one lap lead over the #54 Spirit of Race Ferrari.
