James Calado of the #51 AF Corse Ferrari 499P led the FIA World Endurance Championship’s 24 Hours of Le Mans after 16 hours of racing.
The #51 Ferrari led ahead of Phil Hanson’s #83 AF Corse Ferrari, followed by Will Stevens’ #12 JOTA Cadillac and the #6 Porsche Penske Laurens Vanthoor and the #50 Antonio Fuoco AF Corse Ferrari.
Throughout the night, the #8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid Hypercar slowly closed in on the seemingly comfortable trio of Ferraris.
Toyota achieved this by primarily triple-stinting the soft compound of Michelin tyres, while the ambient and track temperatures decreased, favouring the softs.
Outright fastest times showcased persistent pace from the #12 JOTA Cadillac to the #7 Toyota, both in a lesser likely chance for victory compared to Nicklas Nielsen’s #50 AF Corse Ferrari 499P – despite serving a 50-second pit stop and go penalty for pit lane speeding earlier on.
Matt Campbell fronted an exciting battle for third place in the #6 Porsche Penske 963 on a stint-older set of tyres against the #50 Ferrari, driven by Miguel Molina.
By this point, the #101 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac V-Series.R was the only retirement in the Hypercar category after having suffered an engine failure.
In the LMP2 class, Nick Yelloly led for the #43 Inter Europol Competition Oreca ahead of the #48 VDS Panis Racing Oreca driver Franck Perera.
Matteo Capietto ran in third for the #9 Iron Lynx-Proton Oreca ahead of the #28 IDEC Sport Oreca 07 of Paul Lafargue.
Andre Lotterer stopped IDEC’s other #18 Oreca after his right-rear wheel detached into the second Mulsanne chicane.
A slow zone allowed recovery for the stranded wheel in the gravel trap as the #18 retired after their prevalent strong form within the top five.
The #199 AO Racing by TF Oreca ran at the front too before PJ Hyett incurred a drive-through penalty for slow zone procedures.
Nielsen Racing’s #24 Oreca remains the other LMP2 class retirement.
Reigning winner fights for LMGT3 lead
Quintuple Le Mans class winner Richard Lietz fought for the LMGT3 lead for the #92 Manthey Porsche 911 LMGT3.R with Alessio Rovera, of the #21 AF Corse Ferrari 296 LMGT3.
Rovera’s swift stint showcased great reward for the #21 Ferrari’s form by this point. Francois Heriau, their FIA Bronze-graded driver, took over the wheel before Lietz took the lead.
Whilst running towards the sharp end of the field, Iron Dame Rahel Frey was tapped around by #87 Akkodis ASP Lexus RC LMGT3 driver Clemens Schmid into the second chicane, which stranded Frey in the gravel trap. Schmid served a drive-through penalty for incident responsibility.
Frey later stopped on the right-hand side shortly after the Mulsanne Corner as she was stuck in sixth gear, continuing the pre-existing gearbox problems. The car went into the garage for further repairs.
Several cars faced investigations for not slowing down for the yellow flag deployed for Frey’s stranded Porsche, including Lietz, who served a drive-through.
Nevertheless, the #92 Manthey 92 Porsche led ahead of the #21 AF Corse Ferrari, followed by Jose Maria Lopez’s #87 Akkodis Lexus and Zach Robichon’s #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage LMGT3 Evo.
READ MORE – Laurens Vanthoor leads at Le Mans halfway mark
