Nico Hulkenerg's #19 Porsche is leading the Le Mans 24 Hours at the halfway stage.
With Nick Tandy behind the wheel after 12 hours, the #19 car has a lead of just over a minute over the #7 Audi of Andre Lotterer, Marcel Fassler and Benoit Treluyer, which is often swapping positions with the #9 Audi (Marco Bonanomi, Rene Rast, Filipe Albuquerque) due to being out of sync following a puncture.
Lotterer had given the #7 car an early lead by overtaking two Porsches in two corners in the opening stint of the race, but a puncture soon after a pit stop relegated the trio to third place. Hulkenberg started the race in the #19 car, dropping from third to sixth in the opening laps but keeping touch with the leaders before climbing back up before handing over to Tandy.
Earl Bamber then took over the #19 Porsche and when Hulkenberg jumped in the car for a second time he was in the lead and comfortably maintained position as part of a Porsche 1-2 ahead of Mark Webber in the #18 car. Webber was soon hit with a one minute stop/go penalty for overtaking under yellow flags, however, dropping the car he shares with Brendon Hartley and Timo Bernhard to fourth place and the last of the runners on the lead lap.
There were a number of safety cars during the opening half of the race, with perhaps the most dramatic coming when Loic Duval failed to spot a group of cars slowing for a yellow flag zone and clipped a backmarker when trying to squeeze through a shrinking gap. Duval's Audi was pitched in to the barrier, wiping off the front of the #8 car he shares with Lucas di Grassi and Oliver Jarvis but managing to return to the pits for repairs and losing only four minutes to run fifth at halfway.
It has been a predictably tough race for Nissan so far, with its #21 LMP1 entry retiring due to a damaged front suspension, and the other two cars - including the #23 driven by Max Chilton, Jann Mardenborough and Olivier Pla, which started eight laps down - both spending substantial time in the garage. The two remaining LMP1 Nissans are sitting 45th and 47th out of 48 runners at the 12-hour mark.
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