Kazuki Nakajima led a Toyota 1-2 at the six-hour mark of the Le Mans 24 Hours in its #8 machine after team-mates Sebastien Buemi and Fernando Alonso completed their first stints.

The Japanese driver had an advantage of 12.5 seconds over Kamui Kobayashi in the #7 car, with Kobayashi stepping in after Mike Conway and Jose Maria Lopez finished their first periods of driving.

Both cars have suffered punctures during the hours, with Lopez sustaining a rear left puncture and Alonso pitting with a rear right issue.

The #8 has also had two front wing assemblies and one rear wing changed on the car during the six hours.

SMP Racing’s #17 car placed third, two laps adrift of the top two, above the #3 Rebellion machine.

The #1 Rebellion machine recovered to fifth overall after early drama as Andre Lotterer had a front nose issue.

Lotterer’s front end appeared to have contact with the #8 Toyota at the start while trying to battle for second place before drama with the #10 Dragonspeed.

The whole front end came off the car as Ben Hanley spun in front of the German at the left-handed Dunlop chicane.

This #10 car placed 10th after six hours, above both Manor-Ginettas in the LMP1 class, as its #5 was ahead of #6 in 15th and 20th overall.

Having not raced at Spa, this is the first event in 2018 for the team, but it has had much drama in the opening hours.

Graeme Lowdon was reported by Autosport as saying that the #5 car had a “puncture due to damaged bodywork” early on.

Alex Brundle slowed in the #6 machine at the end of hour one and pitted before returning to the track following a power surge, while it was then given a stop-go penalty for leaving the pitstop with spinning wheels.

The #4 ByKolles’s race ended in the barriers at the Porsche curves as the rear assembly came off the car.

It was involved in a collision with a Porsche when trying to pass it, the right-hand side appearing to touch the left-hand side of the #80, spinning around and into the wall which later required repairs.

Jenson Button wrote off his first Le Mans as a “testing session” in a pitlane interview as the #11 SMP Racing was 60th overall and 49 laps down.

In LMP2, G-Drive Racing-Oreca led convincingly in sixth overall, above the #23 Panis Barthez Competition-Ligier and the #36 Signatech-Alpine.

United Autosport’s #22 and #32 entries both had issues during this time before placing 17th and 19th overall, as the #22 had a sensor issue that required fixing, while the #32 was in the gravel at Indianapolis.

The #31 Dragonspeed lost time early on after the front right tyre came off the car placing 23rd overall, while another debutant, Felipe Nasr in the #47 Villorba Corse, also found the gravel at the first Mulsanne chicane, placing 33rd.

The #38 Jackie Chan DC Racing-Oreca car suffered a left-front puncture before the Mulsanne straight before another similar issue with Gabriel Aubry behind the wheel that put a huge amount of tyre debris on track and left the left front fender destroyed, putting it 57th overall.

Porsche’s #92, #93, and #91 machines led the GTE Pro timings above Ford’s 68 and BMW’s #82, while #77 Dempsey-Proton Racing-Porsche led GTE Am above the #56 Team Project 1-Porsche.