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Le Mans 24 Hours: Porsche takes control after four hours

The Porsche of Mark Webber leads the Le Mans 24 Hours after the four-hour mark as improving conditions allowed the #1 919 Hybrid to stretch its legs at the head of the field.

#1 Porsche Team Porsche 919 Hybrid: Timo Bernhard, Mark Webber, Brendon Hartley

#1 Porsche Team Porsche 919 Hybrid: Timo Bernhard, Mark Webber, Brendon Hartley

Eric Gilbert

Webber, who took over the #1 machine from Brendon Hartley at the car's fourth stop, holds a 20-second lead ahead of the #6 Toyota of Kamui Kobayashi, who took over from Mike Conway.

The sister #5 TS050 Hybrid had held third until Anthony Davidson, taking over from Sebastien Buemi, had to make an unscheduled fifth stop shortly after its fourth.

Contrary to pre-race expectations, both Toyotas have been running 14-lap stints so far, versus 13-lap stints for both Porsche and Audi - whose best-placed car is the #8 of Oliver Jarvis in third, albeit 30 seconds down on the #6 Toyota.

The #2 Porsche, now being driven by Marc Lieb (taking over from Romain Dumas at the last round of stops), is fourth, less than 10 seconds behind Jarvis' Audi and comfortably ahead of the #5 Toyota of Davidson.

Audi's other entry, the #7, is six laps off the lead after losing 20 minutes to a turbo failure.

Rebellion's #13 car occupies sixth place, three laps down on the leaders and a lap ahead of the leading LMP2 car, the #44 Manor Oreca.

Roberto Merhi had built up an enormous lead in the car when he handed over to squadmate Matt Rao, who is currently 30 seconds clear of Ryo Hirakawa's #46 Thriet by TDS-run machine.

Third in the class is the #36 Signatech Alpine car of Gustavo Menezes, ahead of an out-of-sequence #26 G-Drive car, which lost time with a puncture before Rene Rast handed over to Will Stevens.

Risi Ferrari leads GTE Pro

In GTE Pro, the #82 Risi Competizione Ferrari of Toni Vilander holds an advantage of eight seconds over the #69 Ford of Ryan Briscoe and the sister #68 machine of Joey Hand.

The factory #92 Porsche that led the early stages in the wet has dropped back to fifth place behind the #66 Ford that is now being driven by Stefan Mucke.

Problems have struck for Ferrari, as the #51 car was forced to spend 50 minutes in the garage with an electrical issue, dropping it well out of contention. The #71 car is also believed to have encountered a boost problem that has left it off the pace.

Meanwhile, Porsche continues to control the GTE Am class, the #78 KCMG clear leading the #88 Abu-Dhabi Proton machine.

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