leaping from seventh to first in the No. 91 Porsche 911 RSR. All his good work was undone however, with a tardy pit stop relegating him back to his original starting position.
Another driver in the wars was Andy Priaulx, whose number 67 Ford GT was forced to pit out of sequence after its door came loose during the opening laps.
In GTE-Am, Aston Martin Racing was at least getting some return on their pre-race form with Paul Dalla Lana controlling the amateur class in the number 98 Aston ahead of stablemate Pedro Lamy.
Close to the half-way mark, Toyota chose to replace the rear bodywork of the number 7 TS050 in the hope that the rearward aero might ease the sway bar issues Kobayashi was having to contend with.
As rain began to fall, Nick Tandy began to close on Davidson and seize the lead with an opportunistic dive inside the Toyota. At the very same moment, Kobayashi overshot his mark and into the gravel trap, triggering a spate of stops for intermediate tyres. After the dust settled, the number 2 Porsche of Timo Bernhard emerged in the lead with a 25 second advantage.
The other factor in favour of Porsche was their ability to run a lap longer on fuel strategy, possibly due to running a slipperier aero configuration. As Hartley later revealed mid-race: "We put no emphasis on qualifying... Our race runs [in practice] were really strong".
At just under half distance, a fire for Kevin Estre in the number 92 Porsche 911 brought out the first full course yellow of the race, triggering a raft of pit stops. The action was about to ramp up however with rain catching out Jose Lopez at Copse and sending the number 7 Toyota into the barriers.
A retrieval crew managed to get the stricken Toyota back to the pits at which point its crew sprang into action to salvage its race - a feat the team miraculously achieved just over an hour later. At the return of the green, Kazuki Nakajima bolted in the sister car with Earl Bamber’s Porsche in hot pursuit.
The safety car also allowed the Tincknell/Priaulx Ford back into the GTE Pro battle after being all but out after its errant door threw the team out of sequence. Tincknell was now on a charge and soon disposed of Fred Makowiecki for third in class. It would only take another hour for the Ford to
make that statistic a 1-2 for the American manufacturer.
In LMP2, the number 28 TDS entry of Matt Vaxiviere had been hunting the leading Signatech Alpine entry of Matt Rao, finally seizing the lead with less than two hours remaining. Meanwhile – after the stops – Brenden Hartley was setting personal bests in pursuit of Nakajima, but team mate Tandy had his own designs on victory. Najajima held a 17 second lead over Hartley but with the Porsche on considerably fresher tyres it would be a
Images: Richard Washbrooke Photography