The #19 Porsche led the Le Mans 24 Hours at half distance, with Nick Tandy continuing to keep the pursuing Audis at bay in the middle of the night.

Tandy maintained his car’s commanding position out front as the leaders cycled through more pitstops, with only a light-on-fuel Andre Lotterer briefly appearing to be a match for the #19 Porsche just before the Audi pitted for another tank of diesel.

Lotterer emerged just behind the #9 Audi of Marco Bonanomi, and the pair were running very close together – more than a minute behind Tandy – as the race reached the 12-hour mark.

Behind the lead battle, Brendon Hartley returned to the cockpit of the #17 Porsche for the first time since it served a penalty he picked up for a yellow flag infringement.

Porsche faced more scrutiny from the race officials in the 12th hour, with the team manager of the #18 car being summoned to race control – so far without a reason given.

LMP2:

A slow stop for Nicholas Lapierre has slashed his advantage at the head of LMP2 as the race reaches half-distance.

The #47 KCMG ORECA had more than four minutes in hand over the second-placed #46 Thiriet by TDS Racing ORECA before the stop but after a lengthy delay this was cut to just 49 seconds at the end of the hour – the smallest margin it has been for a long time.

Behind Pierre Thiriet, Sam Bird has consolidated third place in the #26 G-Drive Racing Ligier, while several of the lower order cars hit problems.

Both the #29 Pegasus Morgan and the #43 Team SARD Morand Morgan brought out the yellow flags when they stopped on track. While the SARD Morand machine has been recovered, the #29 version appears to be out of the race.

GTE:

Fernando Rees kept Aston Martin at the top of the GTE Pro pecking order, despite a mistake that briefly cost it the lead to Corvette.

The Brazilian was under heavy pressure from Oliver Gavin in the fight for the lead, and Rees cracked under braking for the first Mulsanne chicane, locked up and ran across the gravel.

That allowed Gavin to slip through and extend a narrow advantage, before pitting at the end of the lap and handing over to Tommy Milner.

However, Milner stalled and that, combined with Chevrolet fitting a new set of tyres to the C7.R, put the Corvette Racing squad 1m22s down on the #99 Aston with both cars having stopped 11 times.

Toni Vilander ran third for Ferrari by the end of the 12^th hour, one stop fewer than the #91 Porsche it leapfrogged by the race’s halfway mark.

The #72 SMP Ferrari topped GTE Am at the hour’s culmination, but in reality the #98 Aston is in control.

Paul dalla Lana handed the Vantage over to Mathias Lauda, who only ceded the lead to the AF Corse-run SMP car when he pit right before the clock struck 3am local time.

POSITIONS AFTER 12 HOURS

LM24: Bamber’s Porsche lead Audi duo at halfway point