Le Mans 24 Hours - Race Report - Hour 4

18:00 LMP2: Pla and Ragues, the last of the two front-runners to pit, make their stops for fuel. The true class order should be clear soon.

18:01 GTE Pro At the three hour mark, Milner has an eight second advantage over Turner in the fight for second. Will it become the fight for the lead when Bruni pits, or will the Ferrari get out ahead?

18:02 GTE Am Raymond Narac is politely requested to switch his headlights on.

18:05 GTE Am The problem that delayed the #75 Porsche earlier was a broken left front hub.

18:06 GTE Pro The #71 Ferrari's trip to the garage was caused by a vibration that led to the team replacing all four brake discs.

18:07 LMP2: The P2 field is into its 48th lap, and the order stands as: #24 Oak Morgan leading (thanks to Olivier Pla) by over a minute from #35 Oak Racing Morgan, with the #44 Starworks HPD third.

Jody Firth is keeping the #48 Murphy Oreca a strong fourth, well in contention, more than a minute clear of Alex Brundle in the #42. Pierre Kaffer's extra pitstop cost him dear, but he's still running 6th in P2 (16th overall.)

Pierre Ragues has returned to the track in 7th, from Jan Charouz (#25 ADR-Delta), Olivier Lombard (#23 Signatech Nissan) and Simon Dolan (#38 Jota Zytek.

Eleventh in class is Alex Sims (#30 Status GP Lola) and Bastien Briere is running 12th for Boutsen in the #45. 

18:08 GTE Pro Bruni finally pits in the #51

18:09 GTE Am Alfaisal decides to skip the second chicane and drives through it instead, but with no damage.

18:11 LMP1: Successful stop for #8 Toyota - Lapierre pits now after a couple of laps on fabulous pace.He's 50 seconds behind the leading #1 Audi.

18:11 GTE Pro Giancarlo Fisichella climbs aboard the #51 AF Corse Ferrari, but both the Corvette and Vantage go by before he resumes. However, the gap between the top two is down to 3.5s.

18:14 LMP1: Pescarolo 03 Judd in, power steering issue. "We're unreliable and we're slow. It's just not working," says a frustrated Stuart Hall.

18:15 LMP2: Christian Zugel moves ahead of Thomas Holzer to ease the #41 Greaves Zytek into 24th overall.

18:16 LMP2: Jody Firth (#48 Murphy Oreca) has closed down on Ryan Dalziel in the #44 Starworks HPD, and the gap is now just 5 seconds.

18:17 GTE Pro Turner has the gap to first down under two seconds.

18:18 LMP1: Alex Wurz: "The start was okay. I was behind Stéphane and then was able to overtake him. After the first stop we were getting into the rhythm of the leading cars, who made a gap at the beginning and were able to maintain this. The car was a little difficult to drive at first, but then it improved with a better balance in the second and third stints. I was flat out and pushing like crazy."

18:18 GTE Am The #99 Vantage is back out and circulating, but is too far down to be in contention.

18:19 GTE Am Matt Griffin drops the #81 AF Corse Ferrari into the gravel at Indianapolis and has to be recovered.

18:20 LMP1: 20 hours and 40 minutes left and it's currently Audi-Toyota-Audi-Toyota-Audi. The Rebellion Racing Lola's are currently best-of-the-rest.

18:21 LMP2: The #28 Lola is back into the pits once again - the team is struggling with something along the right-hand side of the car, and there's much shaking of heads. The car is hauled backwards into the garage.

18:23 LMP2: The #29 Gulf Racing Middle East Lola Nissan (Keiko Ihara, Jean-Denis Deletraz, Marc Rostan) is the first official retirement.

18:25 LMP1: Buemi laps the track in 3:28.041 - fastest lap of that car. Currently second overall.

18:25 LMP2: Feedback suggests that the stop for the #28 was to clear some tape that was obscuring the fresh-air ducting to the cockpit.

18:27 LMP2: Pierre Kaffer has moved onto the tail of Alex Brundle in the #42 Greaves Motorsport Zytek, and they look close enough to be towing as they head down the Mulsanne.

18:27 GTE Pro The lead gap is now under a second. A perfect illustration of the pace of the race is that Bruni's best laptime so far is already more than a second quicker than last year's best Pro time.

18:28 GTE Am despite his trip to the gravel, griffin has held on to sixth in class and didn't need to make an extra stop.

18:29 LMP2: Ryan Dalziel pits the #44 Starworks HPD. Jody Firth follows him in. Firth hands over the #48 Murphy Oreca to Brendon Hartley.

18:30 GTE Pro Turner makes his scheduled stop and resumes having seemingly taken on only fuel.

18:30 LMP2: Alex Brundle also makes a pitstop, allowing Kaffer to sweep through to third in class unopposed.

18:31 GTE Am On top of everything else, the #75 Porsche must serve a 30s stop/go for speeding in the pitlane.

18:32 GTE Am It definitely isn't the #99's day either, as Poulsen hits the tyre wall having crossed the Porsche Curve gravel trap and loses its rear wing.

18:34 GTE Pro Tommy Milner leads Fisichella by 18 seconds. Turner is third, a further 50 seconds adrift, after his stop.

18:36 GTE Pro Taylor pits the #73 Corvette from sixth. Jan Magnussen is now back behind the wheel.

18:37 LMP2: Pla and Leinders have yet to make their fifth stops, but they each have more than a minute in hand, so should both retain position when they do make their stops.

18:38 GTE Am The #99 has been extracted from the kitty litter and is back in the pit garage.

18:39 LMP2: Leinders is the first to blink, and has pitted the #35 Oak now.

18:41 LMP2: Jody Firth has moved through into third, taking Dalziel for the position.

18:41 LMP1: Marco Bonanomi has found the pace in the #4 Audi - 3:27 on his previous lap.

18:42 GTE Pro Jordan Taylor sets his car's fastest lap of the race - 3:58.290 - as he tries to pull out as much space as possible between his Corvette and the #51 Ferrari before his next pit.

18:44 LMP2: Leinders rejoins, leaving Pla and Ragues as the only two in the P2 top-ten yet to make this pitstop for fuel. Pla is coming towards the end of his fifth stint.

18:45 GTE Am Spencer Pumpelly pits from the lead of the Am class. Narac stays out for now and assumes the lead in the #67 Porsche.

18:46 LMP1: Buemi and Lapierre both quick - Lapierre 3 seconds quicker than the leader, Buemi 2 seconds quicker.

18:46 LMP2: Olivier Pla and Pierre Ragues enter the pitlane, bringing the #24 Oak and the #26 Signatech Oreca through for their fifth stop of the race so far.

18:46 GTE Pro Taylor pits the #74. Fisichella now leads - still probably 35-40 minutes away from his next stop - by 51 seconds from Turner.

18:47 LMP1: Lapierre has just put in a 79.9 in sector 2. Quickest sector time of all.

18:48 GTE Pro Richard Westbrook takes over the #74 Corvette.

18:48 LMP2: Matthieu Lahaye has taken over from Olivier Pla, who should, by rights, be feeling pretty exhausted, having been in the car sincve three o'clock. Roman Rusinov has taken over in the cockpit of the #26 Signatech car.

18:48 LMP1: Damage right rear wing end plate on the #7 Toyota - doesn't seem to bother Lapierre, his last lap another 3:27.705. 5.5 seconds quicker than McNish!

18:49 GTE Am Seth Neiman is now installed in the #79 Flying Lizard Porsche.

18:50 LMP1: That damage part just flew off - let's see what that does to the aerodynamics of the Toyota TS030 Hybrid.

18:51 LMP2: Jody Firth sets a new fastest lap for the Murphy Oreca of 3:43.068. The #48 now enjoys a 20 second advantage over the #44 Starworks HPD, but a full 43 seconds stands between Jody and second place.

18:53 GTE Pro As the momentum begins to swing the way of the #51 Ferrari, owing to its greater fuel-efficiency, Westbrook has about a dozen seconds to make up on Turner.

18:53 LMP1: Lapierre pits - Buemi moves into second. Both Toyota drivers on their fourth stint.

18:54 GTE Am Gianluca Roda spins the second-placed #88 Felbermayr-Proton Porsche at the Esses but continues.

18:56 GTE Pro Westbrook improves his car's best laptime (3:58.050) very early into his stint. It buys him a couple of seconds on the Aston.

18:58 GTE Am Brian Vickers may not have enjoyed his nighttime running on Wednesday, but the NASCAR racer has so far driven flawlessly in his double stint and has improved his pace to 4:04 from 4:07.

18:59 GTE Pro Turner responds to the threat and his last lap is just eight-thousandths slower than the #74 Corvette's.

18:59 LMP1: Gap between Buemi and Lapierre is just 6 seconds - the #1 Audi still far, far away though.