2015 24 Hours of Le Mans - hour 5

Shortly after the start of the second hour of the race, there was a first major incident involving Porsche 911 RSR and one of Rebellion LMP2 cars. The Porsche suffered engine explosion causing lot of oil to be spilled on the track at the end of the Mullsane straight. The Rebellion which was behind the Porsche has spinned and Porsche soon caught on fire. The safety car was immediately placed on the track and for next half of hour the drivers were driving behind the safety car while the track was cleaned by race officials.

The LMP1 class has change in leader when Andre Lotterer in Audi has passed two Porsches of Timo Bernhard and Neil Jani in interesting and brave maneuver. However, the two Porsche 919 Hybrids was very close behind him and he couldn’t make significant difference. There were some doubt about legality of Lotterer’s move since he left the track at one moment in order to get best line for attack. Soon, the cars was called to pits and Lotterer was first and two Porsches came second. In the moment of pit stops Lotterer was 8 seconds in front of the 919 Hybrid but come out on third. However, all three Porsches has changed drivers, refueled and change tires so they were ready for full performance. Soon Andre Lotterer had flat tire and rushed into pits loosing valuable time. In short while, another Audi had contact with the GTE Ferrari and damaged its bodywork. Safety car went out and behind it there were three Porsches on first, second and third.

The safety car was on track for a long time because the debris from the crash were hard to clean. The LMP 1 class standings were unchanged but in GT class, Corvette C7.R took the lead in front of two Aston Martins.