Toyota leads frantic first hour at Le Mans

The No. 8 Toyota TS050 HYBRID of Sebastien Buemi leads the Le Mans 24 Hours after an hour of racing. Buemi was second for much of the hour, but made a bold move around the outside of Indianapolis following the first pit stops on his teammate Mike Conway in the pole-sitting No. 7 to take the top spot.

The first of the Porsche 919s is third, with Neel Jani making his way to second early on, before losing it in the pits, making it a Toyota 1-2.

Fourth is the No. 2 Porsche of Timo Bernhard, chasing the No. 1, and managing the gap to the No. 9 Toyota which is over 30 seconds back in fifth.

The third Toyota lost a lot of time after contact with the ByKolles CLM at the start left it with damage to its right-front corner. Lapierre was forced to bring the Toyota in slightly early for repairs. Oliver Webb in the ByKolles CLM meanwhile, is still in the pits for repairs after the damage sustained.

In LMP2, the first hour was frantic, with Rebellion and Manor's ORECAs coming to the fore toward the end of the hour. The No. 31 Rebellion machine of Bruno Senna leads Vitaly Petrov in the No. 25 Manor, the No. 24 sister Manor 07 Gibson, is third, with Piquet Jnr in the second Rebellion just off the podium spots.

Rounding out the top six were the two Jackie Chan DC Racing ORECAs. Notably, the No. 38 of Oliver Jarvis led the first half of Hour 1 until the pit stops during which the team struggled to restart the car, losing it 20 seconds and multiple positions.

Of the other frontrunners to hit trouble, the Pole-sitting No. 26 G-Drive ORECA of Roman Rusniov had a poor start and slipped down the order, before spinning on his way into the pits for an unscheduled stop. The 2015 Le Mans-winning No. 36 Alpine also hit trouble, when Gustavo Menezes went straight on at Mulsanne into the gravel, dropping it down the order.

The No. 22 G-Drive Racing Oreca of Ryo Hirakawa came in early for a gearbox issue, and remains there losing valuable time in the pits.

GTE Pro was a seven-car train for most of the first hour. It's an Aston Martin Racing 1-2, the No. 95 of Nicki Thiim charging from third on the grid to the lead. Second is the No. 97, ahead of the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari 488 of Alessandro Pier Guidi which led briefly at the start.

Kevin Estre was also on the move, promoting the No. 92 Porsche to fourth, ahead of the No. 66 Ford and second AF Corse Ferrari. The first Corvette – the No. 63 of Antonio Garcia which ran as high as fourth – is down to seventh after a slower first stop.

Larbre's Corvette led early in GTE AM, but the No. 61 Scuderia Corsa 488 would lead at the end of the hour with Townsend Bell moving up the order throughout the hour. Rees in the aforementioned 'Vette is second, with Rob Bell in the TF Sport Aston Martin, up to third, after Pedro Lamy in the #98 Aston Martin lost out in a flurry through traffic after its first stops.

23 hours to go!