Robert Kubica continues to lead at Le Mans for AF Corse Ferrari, 6 and a half hours into this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans, but it recently started raining causing teams to come in for wet tyres, although the rain has now stopped and the track is drying.
The Pole, in the #83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P, is over 50 seconds ahead of Porsche’s Fred Makowiecki, behind the wheel of the #5 Porsche 963.
Ryo Hirakawa is third in the #8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid, a further six seconds off Makowiecki.
Nicklas Nielsen is fourth in the #50 Ferrari 499P, a minute and half off the lead. He has just pitted but has not put slicks on, as Ferrari split their strategies.
All three cars have pitted for wet tyres as the rain started to come down bang on 10pm, as forecast.
Kubica and his teammates in the #83 Ferrari, Robert Shwartzman and Yifei Ye, have been leading the race for a few hours now. They’ve been in a tight battle with the two factory Ferraris, the #8 Toyota, and the #5 Porsche.
The #6 Porsche, which was delayed somewhat by switching to what turned out to ber unnecessary wet tyres early in the race. Laurens Vanthoor is now behind the wheel of that car and has worked its way back into contention over the past few hours.
While the battle rages unabated at the front, both Alpines have fallen to reliability problems. The #35 Alpine A424 stopped on track at Arnage, with Ferdinand Habsburg jumping out of the car very quickly as it smoked from its exhaust.
The other Alpine, #36 Alpine, pitted with further engine problems and is now at the back of the field, 33 laps down.
In LMP2, Stephane Richelmi leads in the #10 Vector Sport Oreca 07-Gibson, and has been in that position for the last few hours, largely unchallenged. He has a 50 second lead over Bijoy Garg in the #22 United Autosports Oreca 07-Gibson, while Malthe Jakobsen in the #37 COOL Racing Oreca 07-Gibson is third, a further 20 seconds off the lead.
Joel Sturm leads #92 Manthey PureRxcing Porsche 911 GT3R, 54 seconds ahead of Maxime Martin in the #46 WRT BMW M4 GT3, although Sturm has just pitted and relinquished the lead, although Martin owes a stop.
Daniel Serra in the #86 GR Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 is third, , a further 45 seconds or so off second place.
