Le Mans Hour Five:
It seemed as though Brendon Hartley had found some pace, and hardly lost anytime during the opening fifteen minutes of the race. One car that was definitely losing time was the RAM Racing Ferrari of Alvaro Parente, who had to stop the car and call for a fire extinguisher from a marshal.
Following a pit-stop for Brendon Hartley, Sarrazin took the lead in the #7 Toyota. The Frenchman pitted at the end of the following lap. Amazingly, the Toyota team managed to retain their inherited lead following their pitstop, leading the race by just under four seconds.
The battle for second in GTE PRO was looking extremely close, with Toni Vilander holding the position in the #51 Ferrari, and the two factory GTE Porsches shadowing him.
OAK Racing Asia driver Ho-Pin Tung had a brief off on the Indianapolis gravel, while Alex Brundle took the lead back for G-Drive in the Ligier LMP2, but was soon passed again by Michel Frey. The battle between Alex and Michel Frey had been one of the highlights of the early going. Alex soon made a stop, allowing the Alpine of Paul-Loup Chatin into second in class.
It was kicking off once again in GTE PRO, with four hours 45 minutes completed as the two GTE PRO Porsches had fell back from Toni Vilander, and had now been separated by the #97 Aston Martin of Bruno Senna. Senna then managed to get past the Porsche of Marco Holzer, moving up to third in class.
With 13 minutes of the hour left, the #8 Toyota was up to 27th overall, but was still a long way behind the LMP1 frontrunners.
Marco Holzer got passed again, this time by his teammate Jörg Bergmeister for fourth. The SMP Racing Ferrari of Aleksey Basov went off at Mulsanne Corner, seemingly startled by the two Porsche GTE cars.
Brendon Hartley, which was down in third behind the Audi of Benoit Treluyer, had a huge moment at the Porsche Curves, locking the brakes and missing the first Mulsanne Chicane.
So after five hours, Stephane Sarrazin was maintaining a good lead out front, with Benoit Treluyer around 35 seconds clear of Brendon Hartley, who has been losing time, partly due to a puncture. Alex Brundle leads in LMP2, 15 seconds ahead of Michel Frey. Tommy Milner still leads the GTE PRO class, ahead of Bruno Senna in the Aston Martin, and Giancarlo Fisichella, who has just taken over the #51 Ferrari from Toni Vilander. GTE AM is currently led by the #98 Aston Martin of Christopher Nygaard.
