Three hours into the Motul Petit Le Mans, Action Express Racing holds a one-two lead as Pipo Derani leads in the #31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac DPi-VR, ahead of Mike Conway in the #5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac sister car.
Derani took over the leading Cadillac from Felipe Nasr, who built up a strong lead in his opening stint. Conway has moved into second place, with the two Cadillacs now leading the #77 Mazda RT24-P of Tristan Nunez. Nunez had managed to get past the #6 Team Penske Acura of Dane Cameron, while the #7, currently in the hands of Graham Rahal, is down the order as Helio Castroneves was handed a drivethrough penalty.
This was after Castroneves hit Cameron Cassels's Performance Tech Motorsports ORECA from behind, ending his race early by sending him into the barrier. As a result, the #52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA 07-Gibson of Gabriel Aubry is the only LMP2 runner remaining, which suffered a delay of its own with a puncture.
Ford has firmly taken the lead in GTLM, as both Joey Hand and Ryan Briscoe managed to slip by Daniel Serra's #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE when the field pitted under yellow after the Cassels-Castroneves shunt. The Risi Ferrari, now in the hands of James Calado, sits in third behind the two Fords as the #66 leads the #67.
GTD is a battle of varying strategies, currently being led by Bill Auberlen in the #96 Turner Motorsport BMW M6 GT3. Auberlen is running ahead of the #33 Riley Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Felipe Fraga and the #48 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo of Marco Seefried.
Toni Vilander was running up front, but has suffered delays in the #63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488 GT3 as he ran into the back of the #29 Montaplast by Land Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo of Chris Mies. Mies was determined to have moved under braking, and was handed a drivethrough for his actions.
Discussion about this post