ALMS, Petit Le Mans - Hour 6

16:34
A penalty for Guy Cosmo for the avoidable contact that lead to Matt Griffin’s accident. He’s held for a full two minutes in the pitlane.

Consistency pays, and Brendon Hartley has now pulled away from Christophe Bouchut by more than 5 seconds, and is establishing a grip on 6th overall, and third in LMP2. The leader in the class, Dario Franchitti, has about the same advantage over Martin Plowman, and is tending to be quicker, by a tenth or so, each lap. Sandwiched in the middle of this P2 battle is the DeltaWing, wedged between Plowman and Tommy Burgess for fourth overall. 

16:40
The #02 is back into the pitlane again, this time to have damage made good, including a new wing mirror for the Ferrari.

The #91 Viper has gone behind the wall - no indication yet what the problem may be, but Kuno Wittmer had been running 22nd overall, 8th in GT.

Lest we forget, Nicolas Prost continues to lead this race in splendid isolation. The Rebellion Lola has covered 223 laps now, and has 3 laps in hand over the Level 5 HPD in second place, and nearly five laps on Tony Burgess, second in P1 for Dyson Racing.

A couple of slow laps for Brendon Hartley have cost Murphy dearly, and the #118 is down two slots, losing position to Bouchut and also Matthias Beche. Hartley's last lap was over two minutes, so we must assume he's been off somewhere. No, he insists, just baulked by heavy traffic.

16:49
The #45 is in for fresh tyres and fuel. The car had been off-line and picked up some debris, and maybe even something superficial to the front-left wheel, but all looks fine now.

Pitstop for the DeltaWing. Fresh wheels and tyres for Gunnar Jeanette and the #0 is back out and racing again.

16:52
A fastest lap for Olivier Pla, wringing a 1:13.891 from the Oak Morgan and closing on Hartley's best, but not quite bettering it. There's just 19 seconds now between the Frenchman and Mexico's Ricard Gonzalez in the #05 LMPC.

Meanwhile, Martin Plowman has narrowed the gap to Marino Franchitti, and just 3.6 seconds stands between them.

16:54
Pitstop for Christophe Bouchut in the #95 Level 5 HPD. Matthias Beche takes 6th overall (3rd in P2) and Brendon Hartley also looks set to benefit. It wasn't the quickest of pitstops for the Level 5 crew.

16:57
Marino Franchitti pits the #055 Level 5 HPD and hands over to Scott Tucker, who is driving stints in both Level 5 cars today - but gaining no points for his time in the #055.

16:58
Another incident at Turn 1, and it's one of the Flying Lizard Porsches into the gravel - the #44.

The #11 JDX Racing GTC Porsche is in for a lengthy pitstop - had been lying third in class but looks set to slip with this delay.

16:59
Nicolas Prost brings the leading Rebellion Lola in for a routine pitstop. This time the team does fit fresh tyres.

17:01
The circuit goes into another full course yellow period while the crews extract the Lizard from the Turn 1 gravel. Excellent timing - by chance - and the #4 Corvette is in from the GT class lead for fuel and tyres. That good fortune could be worth a few seconds later.

Just prior to the start of this safety period Matthias Beche pitted the #46 and handed back to Christophe Tinseau. That, combined with Bouchut's delayed stop has allowed Brendon Hartley back through to third in class. The #188 is now holding third in class once more, but Bouchut is now right on Hartley's rear wing - except it's Jody Firth now being shown as in the car. The assumed "off" may have been a pitstop that wasn't picked up by the transponder until just now.

17:13
The pitlane opens for the GT cars, and just about every single GT car heads in for fuel, tyres, driver change or all three.

17:18 RACING RESUMES
We're back and racing once again. Andrea Belicchi is enjoying his first stint as leader in the Rebellion Lola, and maintains the three-lap lead over Martin Plowman, the new P2 leader, who's significantly clear of Scott Tucker already, and pulling away in huge leaps and bounds.

Tony Burgess has got the #20 Dyson Racing Lola Mazda running sweetly in fourth, and Christophe Bouchut snatched 5th from Jody Firth on the restart. The Murphy man is now 6th overall, fourth in P2.

In GT it's a one-two for Corvette at the moment, with Tommy Milner holding the lead by almost two seconds from team-mate Jan Magnussen in the #3. Scott Sharp is certainly not out of contention though, and is just 3 seconds behind in the glittering #01 ESM Ferrari.

17:23
Issues for the #11 Porsche, with a rear-left puncture. The rubber finally flies free, leaving Sean Johnston to drive back on the rims.

17:27
A pirouette for Alex Buncome in the Greaves Zytek through the final corner, just clipping the kerbs on the run down the hill after the bridge. He recovers amid a cloud of smoke.

17:29
Jan Magnussen snatches the GT lead. Tommy Milner looks to have problems in the sister car, and is not maintaining the kind of pace he was setting previously. Could be a steering issue.

The #4 is in the pitlane and stationary for a very long time, and loses several positions before the team get the front left wheel back on. It may have been a large chunk of rubber trapped behind the wheel that was causing the problem.