By alley - Jun 17, 2017, 2:58 PM ET

Toyota leads Porsche at Le Mans quarter mark

After six hours of racing at Le Mans, the gaps at the top end of all four classes became comfortable. Almost the entire sixth hour of the race was affected by slow zones covering most of the circuit, which limited the amount of race action. The barrier repairs after the Risi Competizione Ferrari's hit down Mulsanne proved lengthy.

Heading into hour seven, Stephane Sarrazin held a 26-second lead in the No. 7 Toyota TS050 HYBRID over Andre Lotterer in the No. 2 Porsche. The gap continued to fluctuate between the two racers, but every time Lotterer closed in, Sarrazin pulled away.

Meanwhile, Vaillante Rebellion continued to strengthen its LMP2 lead with its two ORECA 07s, Bruno Senna holding a 46-second lead in the No. 31 over Nelson Piquet Jr. in the No. 13. The only other cars in striking distance were the No. 24 Manor ORECA (Jonathan Hirschi pushing hard to keep the British team in the fight), the No. 38 Jackie Chan DC ORECA and No. 35 Signatech Alpine.

As the hour ended, the No. 37 Jackie Chan DC Racing car with David Cheng at the wheel slipped out of contention from sixth, after a spin through traffic at the Porsche Curves. The car suffered light contact with the barriers to the front end, but it was enough to bring out a slow zone as Cheng was unable to restart the car.

Darren Turner was out front in Pro, another driver extending a comfortable lead. The No. 97 Aston Martin Vantage was 25 seconds up the road from the No. 67 Chip Ganassi Team UK GT of Andy Priaulx, the car the only one able to keep tabs with the leader.

The rest of the field was over a minute further adrift with many of them out of sync due to oddly timed stops due to incidents and tactics during slow zones.

When the hour ended the No. 66 Ford was third with Stefan Mucke driving, and the No. 51 Ferrari piloted by Michele Rugolo for the first time, fourth.

It was status quo in Am too during the hour as Paul Dalla Lana held an 18-second lead over Rob Smith in the JMW Ferrari that's climbed the order by putting pro drivers Dries Vanthoor and Will Stevens in the car during the opening hours, while many teams used their amateurs.

The TF Sport Aston Martin rounded out the top three.