As darkness begins to fall at Le Mans and the temperatures cool, Ferrari’s Miguel Molina leads and looks fully in control of the race with 6 hours gone and 18 hours remaining.
The Ferraris lead 1-2-3 currently, and have done for a while. Molina, in the #50 Ferrari, leads from Pier Guidi, onboard the sister #51 factory car. by roughly six seconds, with Yifei Ye, driving the satellite #83 AF Corse Ferrari, a further three seconds back.
Porsche’s Matt Campbell lies fourth, roughly 30 seconds off Molina in the lead. While Ferrari have the top speed advantage over Porsche and the other competition, Porsche are setting similar lap times — it’s just that lap time is generated in a different way.
The gaps are small enough that others inherit the lead when the leading Ferraris pit. Porsche are doing 13 lap stints with the #6 car, while Ferrari are doing 12, which could change things later as the Porsche stops less.
But, top speed is so important at Le Mans and so far, Ferrari are on top.
Fifth is the #8 Toyota of Ryo Hirakawa, a further 15 seconds off Campbell in fourth.
Pascal Wehrlein, Le Mans debutant in the #4 Porsche, is sixth, with Fred Vesti in the #311 Action Express Cadillac V-Series.R seventh. Eighth is the third Porsche, the #5 with Michael Christensen at the wheel.
Gray and van der Linde lead LMP2 and LMGT3
Young Ollie Gray, in his first Le Mans, leads in LMP2, behind the wheel of the #48 VDS Panis Oreca 07-Gibson. He has an five second gap over Louis Deletraz in the #199 AO by TF Oreca, a pro/am-entered car and thus leading the sub-category.
Third is Reshad de Gerus in the #9 Iron Lynx – Proton Oreca, a further 3 seconds behind.
In LMGT3, #46 WRT BMW M4 GT3’s Kelvin van der Linde is leading with an 8.5 second gap over Ryan Hardwick in the #92 Manthey 1st Phorm Porsche 911 GT3 R. Third is Finn Gehrsitz in the #78 Akkodis ASP Lexus RC F GT3, just a few tenths off Hardwick.
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