With just 4 hours of the 24 Hours of Le Mans remaining, it’s still all to play for. A long safety car period overnight with further safety cars as dawn broke has seen the top runners all bunched up together with Toyota looking strong.
24 HOURS OF LE MANS : HYPERPOLE | PRACTISE & QUALIFYING GALLERY | 4 HOUR REPORT | 10 HOUR REPORT | 20 HOUR REPORT
HYPERCAR
As the clock struck midnight, the roar of engines resumed under the starlit sky of Le Mans. The Mulsanne Straight, once marred by debris, now lay ready for the symphony of speed after a 90-minute pause. Raindrops danced upon the tarmac, a prelude to the treacherous ballet of hypercars vying for supremacy. It was Toyota’s No.8 GR010 Hybrid Hypercar that sliced through the veil of rain, seizing the lead with a relentless charge.
The drama intensified when Robert Kubica, caught in the tempest’s wrath, faced a 30-second stop/go penalty for his earlier clash with Dries Vanthoor’s No.15 BMW M Team WRT Hypercar. This twist of fate handed Ryo Hirakawa, a two-time victor, an edge sharpened by astute tyre strategy. As dawn’s early hours approached, Hirakawa’s lead was unyielding against the No.6 Porsche Penske 963 Hybrid.
Sebastien Buemi took the wheel from Hirakawa, his eyes set on a fifth Le Mans crown. He plunged into battle against Vanthoor and then Andre Lotterer, who lurked mere seconds behind. The track, a slowly drying canvas, allowed Buemi to extend his dominion before passing the baton to Brendon Hartley amidst a fresh downpour.
Kevin Estre, now at the helm of the No.6 Porsche, embarked on a relentless pursuit to close in on Hartley. The gap narrowed as another safety car calmed the stormy battleground at 4am, with half-distance marked by heavy rain’s return.
The No.7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid held third, with Kamui Kobayashi carving laps through the night before yielding to Jose Maria Lopez. Meanwhile, Antonio Fuoco ignited a fiery chase in his No.50 Ferrari AF Corse entry, dueling with Earl Bamber’s No.2 Cadillac V-Series.R for fourth place. Fuoco emerged victorious, setting his sights on third.
Ferraris claimed fourth and fifth as Fuoco led the No.51 499P sibling car, while Alex Palou in sixth kept close company in his Cadillac V-Series.R Hypercar. The top 10 was a mosaic of marques: AF Corse at seventh, Hertz Team Jota Porsche eighth, followed by Cadillac and Porsche Penske.
As dawn neared, Jack Aitken’s Action Express Cadillac spun into gravel just before 4am; heavy rain threatened another lengthy safety car period. Mikkel Jensen’s No.93 Peugeot 9X8 kissed the armco at Tertre Rouge but continued unscathed, trailing its sister car in 16th.
In this dance of giants under Le Mans’ tempestuous skies, every driver became both hunter and hunted in their quest for glory.
As the 24 Hours of Le Mans surged into its 18th hour, Toyota Gazoo Racing held dominion over the storied circuit. Ryo Hirakawa, with a steely gaze and unwavering focus, commanded the No. 8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid Hypercar, having taken over from Brendon Hartley who succumbed to leg cramps after the enduring safety car period.
The race’s rhythm had been disrupted during its 13th hour when Jack Aitken’s No. 311 Whelen Cadillac Racing entry spun into the gravel. The skies wept relentlessly, unleashing a deluge that kept the safety cars pacing the track for four long hours. Yet, as dawn crept closer, the anticipation built for racing to resume in earnest.
In second place, Laurens Vanthoor piloted the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport’s Porsche 963 with precision, while Ferrari AF Corse, ever tenacious, held third position. The Prancing Horse had recovered time lost to earlier tyre strategy missteps and now galloped towards the front.
The fourth-placed No. 7 Toyota narrowly escaped a penalty for a pit stop blunder when Nyck De Vries mistakenly followed the wrong safety car train after relieving Jose Maria Lopez.
Robert Kubica, once leading the race in his No. 83 Ferrari, now found himself in fifth place, his earlier aggression resulting in a 30-second stop-and-go penalty after an incident with Dries Vanthoor’s No. 15 BMW M Hybrid.
Jenson Button steered the No. 38 Hertz Team JOTA run Porsche 963 into sixth place, just ahead of Alex Lynn in the No. 3 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R, representing Britain’s racing prowess.
Rounding out the top ten were Ferrari AF Corse (No. 51), Cadillac Racing (No. 2), and Porsche Penske Motorsport (No. 5), each vying for glory as Le Mans’ legendary race unfolded amidst nature’s fury and racing’s unyielding spirit.
As the clock ticked passed midday disaster struck the No.83 AF Corse Ferrari which had climbed back up to second place behind with Robert Schwarzman behind the wheel. At a scheduled stop a fire broke out in the brakes which saw the car pushed back into the garage for emergency repairs.
LMGT3
Under the Le Mans lights, history was being written in the first ever LMGT3 race. The No.92 Manthey PureRxcing, with Alex Malykhin at the helm, led a Porsche parade, followed closely by their comrades in the No.91 Manthey EMA, Yasser Shahin keeping pace. As half distance marked the night, their 1-2 lead was a testament to precision and power.
The heavy rain that had neutralized much of the race’s fervor could not dampen United Autosports’ resolve as they surged into third. The No.59 McLaren, driven by Nicolas Costa, Gregoire Saucy, and James Cottingham, closed in on the Porsches under the cover of a second safety car deployment.
However, drama unfolded when Saucy’s McLaren clashed with Jordan Taylor’s No.155 Spirit of Race Ferrari 296 LMGT3, delaying both and sparking an investigation that hung over them like a sword of Damocles.
The No.78 Akkodis ASP Lexus’, piloted by Arnold Robin, Timur Boguslavskiy, and Kelvin van der Linde, held fourth after a remarkable ascent from a pitlane start and a penalty incurred from a warm-up tussle with the No.7 Toyota.
Marino Sato, Nico Pino, and Hiroshi Hamaguchi kept their United Autosport McLaren clean and in contention at sixth as dawn approached.
The top ten was a mosaic of marques: Iron Dames Lamborghini in seventh; Akkodis ASP Lexus eighth; Team WRT BMW ninth; Proton Ford Mustang tenth.
Tragedy struck for Team WRT BMW’s No.46 as Ahmed Al Harthy’s crash at Dunlop Chicane dashed their Le Mans dreams, ending Valentino Rossi and Maxime Martin’s promising run.
JMW Motorsport’s early lead evaporated as Salih Yoluc’s Ferrari came to a halt at Maison Blanche. Still, Porsche maintained its 1-2 stronghold with Manthey PureRXcing ahead of Manthey EMA.
United Autosports’ No.95 McLaren clung to third despite their sister No.59 car’s drive-through penalty for speeding under Full Course Yellow.
Akkodis ASP Team’s Lexus RC F LMGT3 held fourth while Team WRT’s BMW M4 LMGT3 with Sean Gelael completed the top five, all vying for glory in Le Mans’ relentless dance.
LMP2
As the Le Mans night deepened, the LMP2 class was alight with competition. The AF Corse Oreca-Gibson, with Nicola Varonne, Francois Perrodo, and Ben Barnicoat at the helm, emerged as leaders, commanding both LMP2 and LMP2 Pro/Am categories with a blend of speed and strategy.
The No.37 Cool Racing car, piloted by Malthe Jakobsen, Ritomo Miyata, and Lorenzo Fluxa, held a strong second place. Meanwhile, the reigning champions from Inter Europol Competition—Vlad Lomko, Kuba Smeichowski, and Clement Novalak—clung to third despite an early setback that saw them lose a wheel and pit under duress.
The top six was rounded out by United Autosports’ No.22 car driven by Nolan Siegel at half distance, Vector Sport’s Oreca-Gibson with Patrick Pilet at the wheel, and the crowd’s darling—the AO by TF ‘Spike’—guided by Alex Quinn’s deft hands.
However, not all were spared Le Mans’ capricious nature. David Heinemeier Hansson in the Nielsen LMP2 entry collided with Zacharie Robichon’s No.77 Proton Ford Mustang at the Forest Esses just before 3am, triggering a Slow Zone. Heinemeier Hansson’s subsequent spin further marred their race, plummeting them to 10th in class.
Misfortune also befell Crowdstrike Racing by APR’s No.45 LMP2 as Colin Braun’s lost wheel forced their retirement at 03.15am, prompting the third Full Course Yellow of the race.
Duqueine’s Oreca-Gibson bowed out just after midnight due to a technical failure on the Mulsanne Straight. In LMP2 Pro-Am, AF Corse’s No. 183 led as Francois Perrodo completed his driving stint during the lengthy safety car period. With Ben Barnicoat now behind the wheel, anticipation built for the race’s resumption post-safety car.
United Autosports’ No.22 and early race leader Vector Sport’s No.10 entry completed the top three in a class where endurance is tested and legends are forged.
With 4 hours to go a mistake at Indianapolis from the 10 Vector Sport car which allowed last year’s winner, the No.34 InterEuro Pol car to slip through into the lead.
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