With just over five hours gone at Le Mans, Nick Tandy leads at Le Mans in the #75 Porsche 963, with Brendon Hartley in the #8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid just a few tenths behind, engaged in a great battle for the lead.
Until just a few minutes ago, Yiefi Ye was leading in the #38 JOTA Porsche 963. However, the Chinese driver dropped the car at the Porsche Curves, doing a large amount of damage to the rear of the car. He pitted the car immediately, shedding bodywork all over the track and causing a full course yellow.
In third is Jose Maria Lopez in the #7 Toyota. Fourth is #50 Ferrari 499P with Miguel Molina behind the wheel, with his teammate Antonio Giovinazzi in the sister #51 Ferrari 499P behind him. The #94 Peugeot 9X8 of Loic Duval is sixth.
The race spent over an hour under the safety car after heavy rain on part of the circuit, from the Arnage corner to the end of the Porsche Curves complex. With multiple cars go off into the barriers, spinning, and hitting barriers, race control had no choice but the neutralise the race using the safety car for the second time.
It’s been a messy race in general, with cars crashing and slow zones being used to neutralise certain bits of track. In particular, Ulysse De Pauw, Gustav Birch, and Sebastien Bourdais in the #3 Cadillac V-Series.R came together at the Dunlop Chicane when entering a slow zone for an earlier incident.
This caused damage to the rear bodywork of the Cadillac, requiring driver Renger van der Zande to pit for repairs. It currently sits a lap down in 10th, behind the #709 Glickenhaus 007 of Esteban Gutierrez. The other Chip Ganassi-run car, #2 Cadillac, is currently seventh with Alex Lynn at the wheel, having recently pitted from fourth.
The two Toyotas are sixth and seventh, Brendon Hartley in the #8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid ahead of his teammate Jose Maria Lopez in the sister #7 car. In front of them is Nick Tandy in the #75 Porsche 963, in fourth, and the #94 Peugeot 9X8 of Loic Duval in fifth.
In LMP2, another JOTA car leads, with Oliver Rasmussen behind the wheel of the €28 JOTA Oreca 07-Gibson. Albert Costa is second in the #34 Inter Europol Oreca 07-Gibson, while Tijmen van der Helm is third in the #65 Panis Racing Oreca 07-Gibson.
In GTE-Am, Francesco Castellaci leads in the #54 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo. Martin Rump is second, driving the #911 Proton Porsche 911 RSR-19, while Sarah Bovy is third for the #85 Iron Dames Porsche 9211 RSR-19.
The ‘Innovative Car’, the Garage 56 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, sits 43rd overall, in the middle of the GTE field, with Jenson Button behind the wheel.
