Le Mans 2019 results: Positions and standings as No 8 wins 24 Hours after Toyota changed wrong tyre on No 7

Welcome to The Independent's live coverage of the 2019 Le Mans 24 Hours where the World Endurance Championship super season reaches a thrilling climax.

Warm-up has just concluded at Le Mans where once again the No 7 Toyota is top of the timesheets, leading the sister car of the No 8 by a slender margin.

However, the session has not gone withou drama, as the No 1 Rebellion did not set a lap time as they looked to work out some last-minute gremlins, and the No 4 ByKolles Racing LMP1 looked to have a rather serious problem as it struggled for pace and shot Tom Dillman off at the Dunlop Chicane with what looked to be a braking issue.

With the race underway at 2pm BST, we'll begin our full coverage at 12:30pm to what is one of the highlights of the motorsport calendar.

With about an hour and a half to go until the action gets underway, let's start with looking at this year's entry list - a world record one at that.

For the first time, 61 cars will start the Le Mans 24 Hours - one more than last year's field. The original plan saw two cars added to the grid to take the tally to 62 after new temporary garages were built at the start of the pit lane, but a heavy accident in free practice left Tracy Krohn unable to race in the No 99 Dempsey-Proton Porsche. With no time available to find an adequate replacement for the 64-year-old American, the team was forced to withdraw before the end of the second qualifying session, leaving us with 61 challengers for the Le Mans 24 Hours and one fewer 911s in the GTE Am class.

Here's a full run down of the 'Class of 2019'

From the entry list to qualifying, where three sessions - two two-hour night sessions and one two-hour evening session - decided the grid for the 87th Le Mans 24 Hours.

Somewhat unsurprisingly, it was a Toyota front-row lockout as Kamui Kobayashi led the No 7 to pole position ahead of Kazuki Nakajima in the championship-leading No 8. But perhaps the most interesting aspect of qualifying is the fact that both the No 11 SMP Racing LMP1 and No 3 Rebellion were within a second of their fastest time, and if they can keep in touch with the Toyotas through the first sector their significant speed advantage on the Mulsanne straight may just see one of them take the lead on the opening lap.

The grid is all lined up on the start/finish straight with more than an hour to go in what is undoubtedly the busiest grid walk in all of motorsport. All 61 cars are swarmed by VIPs and team members, either desperate to get a glimpse of the gleaming Le Mans chargers or making the finishing touches to the cars.

In 25 hours time, they hope to see the very same cars crossing the line covered in dirt, splattered bugs, rubbers marks and wearing the war wounds of a gruelling 24 Hours' hard racing.

The big news yesterday saw the ACO, organisers of Le Mans and the World Endurance Championship, finally clarify what the future of the race looks like. As previously announced, the new hypercar prototype will become the new lead class in place of LMP1 from 2020/21, an no sooner were the rules clarified than the first major manufacturer announced its entry in the form of Aston Martin and the beautiful Valkyrie project.

No sooner had Aston Martin confirmed their entry - along with one from ByKolles Racing - than a true LMP1 heavyweight committed their future to the WEC in the form of pole-sitters Toyota.

There had been plenty of uncertainty over whether Toyota would continue in the sport, but the indication of some genuine competition coming their way convinced the Japanese manufacturer's hierarchy to crack on with the GR Super Sport programme that will see them launch their hypercar prototype from 2020/21 - a year earlier than Aston Martin and ByKolles.

However, it's hoped that further teams will commit in the form of Ferrari, McLaren and various other marques.

Toyota have confirmed that Mike Conway will lead away the No 7 pole-sitting car with the opening stint, with Sebastien Buemi taking control of the No 8, meaning the likes of Fernando Alonso, Kazuki Nakajima, Jose Maria Lopez and qualifying pace-setter Kamui Kobayashi will be kept in reserve for later in the race.

Rebellion will start the No 3 car in the hands of Gus Menezes - no relation, sadly - who set that cars fastest time in qualifying, while the third-placed SMP Racing LMP1 will have Stephane Sarrazin behind the wheel.

Here's a quick run-down of who will be starting the race:

LMP1

1. No 7 Toyota - Mike Conway

2. No 8 Toyota - Sebastien Buemi

3. No 11 SMP Racing - Stephane Sarrazin

4. No 3 Rebellion - Gustavo Menezes

5. No 11 SMP Racing - Vitaly Petrov

6. No 1 Rebellion - Bruno Senna

7. No 10 DragonSpeed - Ben Hanley

8. No 4 ByKolles Racing - Tom Dillman

LMP2

9. No 28 TDS Racing - Matthieu Vaxiviere

10. No 31 Dragonspeed - Anthony Davidson

11. No 36 Signatech Alpine - Nicolas Lapierre

12. No 48 IDEC Sport - Paul Loup Chatin

13. No 26 G Drive Racing - Jean-Eric Vergne

14. No 22 United Autosports - Filipe Albuquerque

15. No 38 Jackie Chan DC Racing - Ho-Pin Tung

16. No 29 Racing Team Nederland - Giedo van der Garde

17. No 32 United Autosports - Alex Brundle

18. No 20 High Class Racing - Anders Fjordbach

19. No 23 Panis Barthez Competition - Will Stevens

20. No 37 Jackie Chan DC Racing - Ricky Taylor

21. No 30 Duqueine Engineering - Nicolas Jamin

22. No 39 Graff - Jonathan Hirschi

23. No 25 Algarve Pro Racing - Andre Pizzitola

24. No 43 RLR M SPort - Norman Nato

25. No 47 Cetilar Villorba Corse - Giorgio Sernagiotto

26. No 34 Inter Europol Competition - Jakub Smiechowski

27. No 49 ARC Bratislava-Keneko Racing - Miro Konopka

28. No 50 Labre Competition - Nicolas Boulle

GTE PRO

29. No 95 Aston Martin Racing - Nicki Thiim

30. No 67 Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK Harry Tincknell

31. No 63 Corvette Racing Antonio Garcia

32. No 93 Porsche GT Team Nick Tandy

33. No 82 BMW Team MTEK Antonio Felix da Costa

34. No 68 Ford Chip Ganassi Team USA - TBC

35. No 92 Porsche GT Team Kevin Estre

36. No 71 AF Corse - Davide Rigon

37. No 66 Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK Olivier Pla

38. No 69 Ford Chip Ganassi Team USA - Richard Westbrook

39. No 64 Corvette Racing - Oliver Gavin

40. No 51 AF Corse - Alessandro Pier Guidi

41. No 91 Porsche GT Team - Gianmaria Bruni

42. No 97 Aston Martin Racing - Maxime Martin

43. No 94 Porsche GT Team - Mathieu Jaminet

44. No 81 BMW Team MTEK - Martin Tomczyk

GTE AM

45. No 88 Dempsey-Proton Racing - Matteo Cairoli

46. No 89 Risi Competizione - Oliver Jarvis (GTE Pro)

47. No 77 Dempsey-Proton Racing - Matt Campbell

48. No 86 Gulf Racing - Benjamin Barker

49. No 84 JMW Motorsport - Jeffrey Segal

50. No 78 Proton Competition - Vincent Abril

51. No 56 Team Project 1 - Jorg Bergmeister

52. No 54 Spirit of Race - Giancarlo Fisichella

53. No 57 Car Guy Racing - Kei Cozzolino

54. No 85 Keating Motosports - Jeroen Bleekemolen

55. No 60 Kessel Racing - Andrea Piccini

56. No 98 Aston Martin Racing - Pedro Lamy

57. No 90 TF Sport - Charlie Eastwood

58. No 62 Weathertech Racing - Toni Vilander

59. No 70 MR Racing - Motoaki Ishikawa

60. No 83 Kessel Racing - Rahel Frey

61. No 61 Clearwater Racing - Luis Perez Companc

The enormous Le Mans 24 Hours trophy has been delivered to the finish line by Toyota's test driver Alexander Wurz, meaning it's time for the French national anthem, as is tradition.