03.HOURS
THREE-WAY BATTLE
The 24 Hours of Le Mans was now living up to all its expectations
with an exciting three-way battle shaping up between Porsche,
Toyota and Audi.
After 180 minutes of the race, Porsche, Toyota and Audi were
all still in with a strong shout. The Audi camp was however
been weakened by a turbo problem affecting the #7 car
during the second hour. After setting off again at the back of
the field, Benoît Tréluyer improved the best lap time on three
occasions – the quickest in 3:23.524 – but the chances of a
fourth Le Mans win seemed rather thin for the Frenchman who
was six laps down on the leading trio. At the front of the pack,
Brendon Hartley managed to fend off Loïc Duval in the Audi
and Sébastien Buemi in the Toyota. Buemi was however able
to take advantage of the Toyota’s lower fuel consumption, with
the Japanese cars covering a lap more than their German
rivals between each refuelling stop.