Toyota lead after an hour gone at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, with Sebastien Buemi leading in the #8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid from teammate Mike Conway by 5.5 seconds.
The Ferraris were both just slightly behind Conway, with Nicklas Nielsen in the #50 Ferrari 499P, which the Dane started on pole, ahead of teammate James Calado in the sister #51 Ferrari. However, Nielsen has just pitted, promoting Calado to third.
While the start itself was clean, a safety car was deployed on lap 1, as Jack Aitken crashed heavily at the first chicane after power oversteer and overcorrecting in the #311 Action Express Cadillac V-Series.R. With the front of the car entirely missing the front suspension on both sides damaged, Aitken pitted the car for repairs, where it remains.
The new safety car wave-around procedure was used at Le Mans for the first time, and after 40 minutes the race went green. Con way overtook Nielsen on the restart as the Toyota was on soft tyres, but once Nielsen had got his harder tyre compound up to racing temperature, he took the position back, but then pitted.
The Porsche 963s of Felipe Nasr, in the #75, Laurens Vanthoor in the #6, and Michael Christensen in the #7, are fourth, fifth, and sixth, with Earl Bamber in the lead #2 Cadillac V-Series.R seventh and the two Peugeots eighth abd ninth.
Paul Loup Chatin leads LMP2 from pole in the #48 IDEC Sport Oreca 07-Gibson. Second is #41 Team WRT Oreca 07-Gibson’s Robert Kubica, with Pietro Fittipaldi in the #28 JOTA Oreca 07-Gibson third.
Davide Rigon leads GTE-Am, behind the wheel of the #54 AF Corse Ferrari 4898 GTE Evo. Ben Keating started #33 Corvette C8.R from pole, but pitted during the safety car with other GTE-Ams. This promoted Rigon, and those directly behind him, to pole.
Second in class behind Rigon is Matteo Cairoli in the #56 “Rexy” Project 1 AO Porsche 911 RSR-19, with Alessio Picariello third in the #60 Iron Lynx Porsche 911 RSR-19. There is just a second separating the three, in what promises to be a close race.
