Mike Conway leads the way after one hour of the 24 Hours of Le Mans from the two Rebellions after Sebastien Buemi suffered an apparent puncture.
Conway was briefly challenged by Bruno Senna’s #1 Rebellion at the start but has since led comfortably. Senna was in turn surpassed by the #8 Toyota TS050 Hybrid for second but has dropped back to fourth after an apparent puncture.
Conway’s #7 Toyota now leads Senna and the #3 Rebellion R13-Gibson in the hands of Nathanael Berthon with ByKolles in fifth place.
United Autosports leads LMP2 after a strong opening hour from Filipe Albuquerque in the #22 ORECA 07-Gibson ahead of the #33 High Class Racing ORECA 07-Gibson of Kenta Yamashita and James Allen’s #39 Graff ORECA.
Several runners in LMP2 have experienced issues early on. Andre Negrao, defending race winner, brought the #36 Alpine A470-Gibson into the pits after just a single lap with a water leak. Giedo van der Garde experienced a similar issue in the #29 Racing Team Nederland ORECA 07-Gibson.
Nobuya Yamanaka meanwhile beached the Eurasia Motorsports Ligier in the gravel after the car snapped away at the Dunlop Curve, which triggered a slow zone.
In GTE Pro, Aston Martin has seized the lead with the #97 Aston Martin Vantage AMR leading in the hands of Alex Lynn. Lynn took the race lead from the #51 Ferrari 488 GTE Evo of James Calado, who himself led after overtaking polesitter Gianmaria Bruni’s #91 Porsche 911 RSR-19. The two Porsche have struggled to stay on the pace in the early stages of the race.
Lynn leads from the #71 Ferrari of Miguel Molina, with Nicki Thiim third in the #95 Aston Martin.
Aston Martin also seized the lead in GTE Am, with Ross Gunn leading in the #98 Aston Martin Vantage AMR ahead of Charlie Eastwood’s #90 Aston Martin from TF Sport in second. Matteo Cairoli sits in third in the #56 Team Project 1 Porsche 911 RSR.
Oswaldo Negri had started the #61 Ferrari 488 GTE Evo from pole for Luzich Racing, but the bronze-rated driver was no match for the quicker drivers in class. Negri then got involved in the first incident of the race, when the Brazilian spun out at Dunlop Curves which subsequently sent the #88 Dempsey-Proton Porsche 911 RSR crashing into the wall, which subsequently became the first retirement.
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