Le Mans 24 Hours - Race Report - Hour 15

05:04 LMP2 - the #23 Signatech Oreca Nissan is back on track after repairs following Lombard's Mulsanne Corner off

05:08 LMP2 - Brendon Hartley has arrived in the Murphy Prototypes garage sans Oreca - All over for #48 after a fine run

05:12 GTE Pro - #59 Luxury Ferrari comes in from second in class - Brake change underway, Fred Makowiecki replaces Jaime Melo aboard this one

LMP2 - #31 Lotus LMP2 is a confirmed retirement

05:13 LMP1: Team manager of the #1 Audi has to report to race control immediately. Doubt that is to congratulate them already.

05:16 GTE Pro - Also back out and running are the long delayed #74 Corvette and the #40 LMP2 Race Performance Oreca Judd

05:19 LMP2: Brendon Hartley confirms that "something broke" at the rear of the car as he came through the final elements of the Porsche Curves. He felt an initial vibration before the #48 Murphy Prototypes Oreca suddenly snapped into a spin. He attempted to drive the car back, but only one wheel would grip properly and he was unable to move the car. "The luck of the Irish, eh?" said Greg Murphy.

05:22 Safety Car due in at the end of this lap.

05:28 Green flag - with just over 9.5 hours left in this race.

05:35 LMP2: The safety cars compressed some sections of the field, and stretched others. Now that we're back under green flag conditions, the various on-track have duels have resumed. The closest is between Ricardo Gonzalez in the #41, 5th in P2, and Christophe Bouchut, 6th, in the #33, now separated by just five or six seconds.

05:36 LMP1: Harold Primat spun the #13 Rebellion Racing Lola at Karting - crossed the track in front of other cars - but managed to get it back on track and returned to pit.

GTE Pro: #77 Felbermayr-Proton Porsche retired.

05:37 GTE Pro #77 retired due to no gearbox hydraulics

05:38 LMP2: Dalziel in the #44 Starworks HPD has a class lead of around two minutes over Soheil Ayari in the #49 Pecom Oreca.The gap to Panciatici in the #26 Signatech Oreca Nissan, third, is 100 seconds.

05:44 LMP2: Gonzalez has extended the #42's margin over Bouchut in the #33 Level 5 HPD to nearer 11 seconds, and is fairly consistently two seconds a lap quicker, so appears to be consolidating the Greaves Zytek's grip on 5th.

05:48 GTE Pro The Corvettes are going well, Gavin on a 3:56.835 as happy hour can't be far away, though it is still pretty cold out there.  Garcia is also sub 4 minutes but the Corvettes still have a mountain to climb.  In fact Gavin is the last runner in 41st overall.

05:48 LMP2: The timing screen entry for Murphy Prototypes fades to grey - the 14th official retirement on 196 laps and the 5th P2 listing, the others being: the #31 Lotus Lola (155 laps), #24 Oak Morgan (139 laps), #28 Gulf Lola (92 laps) and #29 Gulf Lola (17 laps).

05:53 GTE Pro The intrigue is Mako in #59 chasing #97, it has been around 14 seconds since the end of the last safety car period.

GTE Am The intrigue is Armindo has just reeled in and taken the lead from Bornhauser

05:55 LMP1: Dindo sets the fastest sector 1 time of the #2 Audi of this race.

05:55 Welcome to happy hour at Le Mans!

05:56 LMP1: André Lotterer fastest of all in sector 1....32.2s

05:57 LMP2: Simultaneous pitstops for the #25, #26, #45 and #38.