Yifei Ye of the #83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P led the FIA World Endurance Championship’s 24 Hours of Le Mans after 20 hours of racing.
Ye led the charge in the privateer-entered #83 Ferrari ahead of the two factory-entered Ferrari 499Ps.
Nicklas Nielsen was 30 seconds behind Ye, in the #50 Ferrari, with James Calado’s #51 Ferrari 15 seconds behind.
Laurens Vanthoor was at the helm of not just the #6 Porsche Penske 963, but Weissach’s remaining hopes of their 20th Le Mans win.
Pole-sitter Alex Lynn ran in fifth position in the #12 JOTA Cadillac V-Series.R followed by Nyck de Vries’ #7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid.
Dries Vanthoor, despite a moment locking up into the Mulsanne Corner, ran in seventh place in the #15 WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 ahead of the other #20 BMW of Sheldon van der Linde.
Julien Andlauer was ninth for the #5 Porsche Penske as Jenson Button rounded out the top 10 in the #38 JOTA Cadillac, the sole running Cadillacs after the two IMSA cars suffered reliability failures.
Inter Europol Competition, which won their maiden WEC race at the 2023 Centenary Le Mans, has primarily controlled the category, although behind their #43 Oreca 07, the second-placed #48 VDS Panis Racing’s Oreca was under 25 seconds behind with Le Mans rookie Oliver Gray at the wheel.
Iron Lynx-Proton were third in the hands of Matteo Capietto ahead of the #199 AO by TF Sport ‘Spike the Dragon’ Oreca of Dane Cameron.
Renger van der Zande rounded out the top five in the #22 United Autosports Oreca.
Manthey in control, #78 Lexus suffers heartbreak retirement
Manthey were keen to secure a back-to-back LMGT3 victory and held the lead with Ricardo Pera at the wheel.
In second position, Simon Mann kept AF Corse’s chances at bay in second position for the #21 Ferrari 296 LMGT3 with TF Sport’s #81 driver Rui Andrade in third for the Corvette manufacturer.
Zach Robichon was fourth in the pole-sitting #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 Evo as Jose Maria Lopez was fifth in the #87 Akkodis ASP Lexus RC F LMGT3.
Unfortunately for Finn Gehrsitz in the #78 Lexus, after their strong climb to the race lead at the start, they suffered a late retirement after the young WEC season rookie lost it on entry to the Porsche Curves, making contact with the tyre barrier and nursing the car back to the garage.
READ MORE – Ferrari’s Alessandro Pier Guidi leads Le Mans with five and half hours to go
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