The #8 GR010 HYBRID of Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa led the #7 car of Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez by 20 seconds after 12 hours.
At the start of the ninth hour, Buemi retook the lead from Conway and suggested to his team that the Japanese cars back off the pace with their nearest challenger two laps adrift.
