Ferrari lead Le Mans with an hour gone, with Nicklas Nielsen taking the lead at the start after he started the race third in the #50 Ferrari 499P.
The #6 Porsche 963 of Laurens Vanthoor started the race on pole but lost the lead at the first and retained the lead at the start. Sebastien Bourdais, who started second in the #2 Cadillac V-Series.R, who dropped to third as Nielsen overtook him at the Dunlop chicane.
Nielsen then took the lead from Vanthoor at the entrance to the Porsche Curves, meaning Ferrari led the first lap of the 2024 24 Hours of Le Mans.
It wasn’t long before Nielsen’s teammate in the sister #51 Ferrari, Antonio Giovinazzi, took second from Vanthoor to make it a Ferrari 1-2.
However, at the pitstop cycle, Vanthoor jumped Nielsen thanks to Porsche Penske’s faster pitstop work. Giovinazzi took a 10 second penalty for qualifying infringements, dropping him to fifth behind Toyota’s Buemi.
Vanthoor led for a few laps but Nielsen soon overtook him to retake the lead. However, Nielsen may get a penalty as the team released him into the path of Bourdais’s yellow Cadillac after both had left their pit stalls. He’ll take a 10s penalty at his next pitstop as a result.
Giovinazzi then took Buemi’s fourth place off him and is now chasing Bourdais for third.
Charles Milesi is sixth in the #35 Alpine A424. He started the race fifth and slipped back to ninth at the start, but has moved back up to fifth.
Robert Kubica is seventh in the 83 AF Corse Ferrari. The Pole also took a 10s penalty for qualifying infringements, dropping him a few places.
Milesi’s teammate Nico Lapierre is eighth in the sister #36 Alpine.
In LMP2, Bent Viscaal leads in the #9 Proton Competition Oreca 07-Gibson. He started way down the field but through overtakes and pitstop strategy is now leading. Mathias Beche is second, just over five seconds behind in the #65 Panis Racing Oreca 07-Gibson, with the Swiss driver starting third and moving up overall. Third is the #22 United Autosports Oreca 07-Gibson of Oliver Jarvis.
Speaking of United Autosports, Ben Keating spun the sister #23 United Autosports car at Dunlop chicane, beaching the car and requiring a tow to get moving again. He is now last in LMP2, well over two minutes off 15th in class.
Frederik Schandorff leads in LMGT3, onboard the #70 Inception Racing McLaren 720S GT3. Schandorff started from pole and has retained the lead throughout the race so far. Second is Ben Barker in the #77 Proton Ford Mustang GT3, while third is Larry Ten Voorde in the #66 JMW Motorsport Ferrari 296 GT3.
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