Toyota #7 retains Le Mans lead, Ferrari pulls clear in GTE-Pro

Toyota remains in control of the 24 Hours of Le Mans heading into the final three hours of the race as Kamui Kobayashi holds a two-minute lead over Fernando Alonso.

After taking over from Mike Conway in the #7 Toyota TS050 Hybrid during the 19th hour, Kobayashi made the most of his stint to add to the lead over the sister Toyota car in second place, widening the gap to over two minutes through Hour 21.

A Safety Car period called following a heavy crash for Racing Team Nederland's Nyck de Vries caused Alonso to lose more time to Kobayashi, leaving the #8 Toyota crew with a mountain to climb if they are to defend their Le Mans title.

De Vries went straight on at Indianapolis after a suspected puncture, causing significant damage to his #29 Dallara P217 Gibson car that he crawled back to the pits on three wheels to keep it in the race. However, the team is likely to retire the car.

The caution period split up the battle for the lead in GTE-Pro as AF Corse's James Calado broke free in a separate Safety Car train, allowing the #51 Ferrari 488 GTE Evo to pull out a minute's advantage over the #63 Chevrolet Corvette C7.R which it had been fighting for the lead.

Corvette's hopes took a further blow when Jan Magnussen spun his car coming through the Porsche Curves, hitting the wall and causing damage that forced the team to put the #63 into the garage for 10 minutes and drop down the order as a result.

Calado sits comfortably clear of Porsche's duo of 911 RSR cars in second and third, with the #91 Porsche sitting five seconds clear of the #93 entry with three hours to go.

Signatech Alpine Matmut is on course for class victory in LMP2 with three hours to go after G-Drive Racing suffered a starter motor issue on its #26 Aurus 01 Gibson, forcing it to pit for 20 minutes and surrender the class lead, dropping down to seventh in class as a result. Signatech holds a one-lap lead over the #38 Jackie Chan DC Racing entry in LMP2.

Keating Motorsports continues to lead in GTE-Am with its #85 Ford GT, running almost three minutes clear of the #61 Team Project 1 Porsche.