Just at the 90-minute mark, Lopez began to lose time to Brendon Hartley in the number 2 Porsche, giving the New Zealander an opportunity to position himself alongside the Toyota and seize the leader. Another man on the move was Nicki Thiim, vaulting the number 95 Aston past both Fords to take third in GTE Pro.
Up front, Neel Jani was beginning to close on Hartley and despite a brief surge in pace from Lopez, the Argentine soon began to struggle with oversteer problems in the Toyota. Buemi meanwhile was edging closer to the top ten in the number 8 Toyota. Porsche’s strategy of allowing the quicker car to lead during respective stints looked to be paying dividends at the half-way mark, however would still have to use the harder compound tyre during their final stints.
Best laid plans and all considered, Porsche always finds a way of making things interesting, with Nick Tandy touching Harry Tincknell’s Ford around the long left-hander after the GT moved off line.
In LMP2 a slow moving number 25 Manor Oreca briefly held up the leading number 38 Jackie Chan DC Racing entry of Thomas Laurent but still held a one minute nine second advantage over the number 31 Rebellion of Felipe Albuquerque. Signatech Alpine however were conducting a full engine change in the number 35 car.
A spin for Tor Graves in #24 Manor in front of Bamber, forced the New Zealander off line and relinquish the lead to team mate Tandy while a few corners down the road, Paul Dalla Lana hounded Christian Ried into an error to take over the top spot in GTE am.
The number 7 Toyota was now 63 seconds down the road with just under two hours remaining and despite the gap beginning
to close incrementally, it was more down the Porsche’s easing off than any new-found speed from the number 7 TS050. The battle between the leading two Porsche though was now less than two seconds between Bernhard and Lotterer - roughly the the same difference at the fall of the flag.
Jackie Chan DC racing consolidated their one-minute advantage in the number 38 Oreca, with Ho-Ping Tung leading home the Rebellions of Bruno Senna and Mathias Beche while in GTE Pro, Alessandro Pier Guidi held a similar advantage over the works Porsche’s of Richard Lietz and Kevin Estre.
Matteo Cairoli gave the number 77 Dempsey-Proton entry its first win of the season and tighten up the GTE Am championship battle. Cairoli lead home the Clearwater Ferrari of Miguel Molina and Aston of Pedro Lamy.