The development allowed Sebastien Buemi to get back on the lead lap once more as the number 66 Ford GT also came in to serve their own drive-through penalty for an earlier pit-stop infringement two hours earlier.
The only question mark remaining was how tight on fuel the number one Porsche was running. Mark Webber threw out what was either an honest indication of a red herring for his rivals with thirty minutes remaining. As he did so, the number thirteen Rebellion began to slow and handing certain victory to the number twelve sister car.
In the end, it was Webber, Hartley and Bernhard who would triumph, but in turn would allow the championship momentum to swing to Audi with Loic Duval, Lucad di Grassi and Oliver Jarvis taking a crucial second ahead of Andre Lotterer and marcel Fassler in third.
LMP2 eventually fell to the number 36 Signatech Alpine of Nicolas Lapierre, Gustavo Menezes and and Stephane Richelmi ahead of Bruno Senna, Filipe Albuquerque and Ricardo Gonzales. Senna lost seven seconds in the dying moments with an off, however would have done little to hurt their chances of victory. The final position however was a nail-biter, with ESM's Ryan Dalziel finishing in the final podium spot a mere 0.07 of second ahead of Strakka's Johnny Kane.
In GTE Pro it was a return to form for Ferrari with AF Corse taking a 1-2 in the hands of Gianmaria Bruni and Sam Bird. A drive through for Olivier Pla placed the number 66 GT Ford in fourth, handing third to a fast-closing Nicki Thiim in the Aston Martin Vantage V8.
GTE Am saw Pedro Lamy, Paul Dalla Lana and Mattias Laudi lead home for Aston Martin – a position they controlled virtually all day ahead of the KCMG 911RSR of Wolf Henzler, Christian Ried and Joel Camathias.
Images: Adrenal Media
Images: Adrenal Media