[Auto Moto] Le Mans 24 Hours: Two Toyota cars in the lead, and the chaos of accidents hits the "LMP2" after 8 hours

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The #7 Toyota, driven by Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez, had a one minute 29sec advantage over the #8 sister car, which had Sebastian Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Kawazuki Nakajima behind the wheel.

Alpine was behind them with Nicolas Lapier, Andre Negaro and Mathieu Vaxvier in third until the latter slid into the gravel and had to be pulled out of that area, allowing the #708 Glickenhaus to move up to third overall heading into the 9 o'clock position in which Bebo Dirani is driving.

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Le Mans 24 Hours: Toyota #7 leads the race after the dramatic first hour
In contrast, Glickenhouse's No. 709 slipped out of the top ten in the overall standings, affected by the safety car's overtaking penalty.

The race witnessed the entry of the safety car for the second time at six o'clock of the event, when it rained heavily and caused a series of accidents in the LMP2 category, perhaps the most prominent of which was Manuel Maldonado's exit from the track and his return through the gravel area to colliding with his colleague, the leader of the class in the ranks "United Autosports" Paul di Resta.

With the entry in the seventh hour of the race, the safety car entered for the third time after the Egidio Perfiti slipped on the Porsche Project One and hit the tire barriers.

Immediately before entering the race at eight o'clock, the fourth safety car entered, following an accident involving Roy Andraidi in a G-Drive.

Robin Frijns, Charles Melzi and Ferdinand Habsburg lead the class in the #31 WRT Eureka ahead of sister car #41 and the #65 Banice Racing.

Ferrari takes lead in GTE Pro against Corvette
Turning to the GTE Pro class, Ferrari continued to maintain its lead, with the #51 car well ahead of sister car #52 and the #63 Corvette.

In the GTE Amateur category, the #83 AF Corset Ferrari inherited the lead over the #80 Iron Link Ferrari.