At the top of the fifth hour, the two Toyota Gazoo Racing GR010 Hybrids, led by the #7 Toyota, kept a comfortable lead in excess of a minute over the #36 Alpine Elf Matmut A480. In the LMP2 category, the #38 JOTA Oreca 07-Gibson dropped to eighteenth place overall after the earlier Dunlop chicane incident. The #26 G-Drive Racing Aurus 01-Gibson took over the lead ahead of the #29 Racing Team Nederland Oreca 07-Gibson and the #28 JOTA Oreca 07-Gibson.
Positions changed just moments later as the race returned to green after a long safety car intervention, with the #28 Jota Oreca leading the #23 United Autosport Oreca, the #65 Panis Racing Oreca, the #26 G-Drive Racing Aurus and the #29 Racing Team Nederland Oreca. Further down in the ranks, the #44 ARC Bratislava Oreca spun out in the Porsche curves, just as the #36 Alpine Elf Matmut A480 came close to hitting the fluorescent yellow Slovakian-flagged car.
At the top of the sixth hour, on lap 60, Brendon Hartley in the #8 Toyota clocked the fastest lap time of the race with a lap of 3’27.807. The Kiwi reduced the gap with the sister car to less than ten seconds, while the #36 Alpine lost another minute to the two Japanese cars during the earlier safety car intervention.
Further down in the ranks the two Glickenhaus 007 LMH were eighth and 13th for the #708 and #709, respectively – one and three laps’ distances from the leading Toyota.
In LMP2, Wayne Boyd in the #23 United Autosport Oreca overtook the #28 JOTA Oreca with Stoffel Vandoorne at the wheel. The Belgian stayed in the slipstream of the Brit during several laps while young Argentine Franco Colapinto in the #26 G-Drive Aurus joined the duo into the fight for the lead.
At the top of the seventh hour, rain returned to the track. The #24 PR1 Motorsports Mathiasen Oreca driven by Patrick Kelly went off in the tyre wall at Arnage. The car was able to return on track on its own.
Moments later, the #26 G-Drive Aurus of Colapinto hit the #1 Richard Mille Racing Team Oreca of Sophia Flörsch at the entrance of the Porsche Curves. Colapinto reported “I was behind Sophia Flörsch in the Richard Mille car. As I was overtaking her, she dropped two gears. With the deceleration, I had no time to react and I hit the rail. We were lucky no one was hurt”. The #74 Racing Team India Eurasia Ligier JSP217 reached the scene of the accident and couldn’t react in time to avoid hitting Flörsch’s car in the side. Both drivers were uninjured. Flörsch was unable to restart the #1 Oreca and retired from the race, while the #74 retreated to the pits with significant bodywork damage.
At the same time, Manuel Maldonado in the #32 United Autosport Oreca and Paul Di Resta in the sister #23 United car collided at the Dunlop chicane. The #32 was retired behind the guardrails, while Di Resta returned to the pits at a very slow pace.
On a more positive note, the chaos on track allowed Julien Canal in the #65 Panis Racing Oreca to take the LMP2 lead. “It’s very wet out there” said team director Olivier Panis. “We are on intermediates as full wets could potentially make us lose a lot of precious time. We have to take some risks if we want to win.”
Further down in the ranks, the #38 JOTA Oreca – which led for most of the first three hours, suffered engine problems as Antonio Felix Da Costa reported losing oil on track.
AF Corse duo leads GTE Pro ahead of #63 Corvette; #33 TF Sport Aston Martin leads GTE Am
AF Corse leads GTE Pro, with Côme Ledogar stretching the #51 Ferrari’s lead from the #52 of Sam Bird, coming under pressure now from Neel Jani’s #92 Porsche. Nicky Catsburg was poised in the #63 Corvette just six seconds back in third, as Corvette’s part in this year’s GTE Pro shoot-out looked more assured.
Jordan Taylor had taken the lead in the #64 C8.R with impressive pace in the fourth hour, extending a gap of seven seconds to the #92 Porsche of Michael Christensen, who was pushing on in the 3:50’s and pulling away from the out-of-sequence AF Corse pair. The Corvettes had a threatening presence about them as these early stages of the race unfolded. Having kept a fairly low profile throughout the week, Nick Tandy’s laps in the 3:49’s looked impressive, despite these times set on light fuel towards the end of his stints.
As the light started to fade and rain threatened, the 2015 overall winner on night duty at Le Mans was quite a prospect and an ace in the hole for Corvette. Alex Sims was now installed in the #64 car, currently fifth, ahead of the #91 Porsche pedalled by Fred Makowiecki. The WeatherTech Porsche trailed by a minute in sixth, the HubAuto Porsche’s misfortunes leaving the car way down, 42nd overall and adding a penalty to the erstwhile pole-sitter’s woes.
At the start of the sixth hour Sam Bird collided with Brendan Iribe’s #71 Inception Racing GTE Am Ferrari in an intra-brand clash that could easily have ended worse. Bird’s second placed car had the line to lap the Inception Racing car coming into the Ford Chicane, but this did not register with Iribe, the touch sending both cars spinning but without major consequence, Bird able to resume second in line of AF Corse’s 1-2.
In GTE Am, TF Sport’s #33 Aston Martin extended the lead established by Felipe Fraga; Ben Keating and Dylan Pereira have both done stints in the car now, which was settling into a solid team rhythm. Alessio Rovera sits second in AF Corse’s second placed Ferrari, some 47 seconds back.
Scott Andrews’ third placed #57 Kessel Racing Ferrari had started to chip away at the advantage before the LMP2 safety car conditions neutralised their challenge and the #83 Ferrari was able to close up and take advantage.
Iron Lynx are starting to enter the picture, Callum Ilott making hay in his first Le Mans drive, currently fourth. The black and silver liveried #80 car took third briefly as Mikkel Jensen spun the #57 Kessel Ferrari, but retook the place.
At 3 hours and 20 minutes, the first Safety Car period of this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans was triggered as Marcos Gomes lost the rear of the #98 Aston Martin Racing having touched the astroturf on entry to the fast Indianapolis left hander, the car skating hard into the tyre wall. The Brazilian driver was out of the car, but clearly winded by a significant frontal impact, the course neutralised while the Aston Martin was recovered; theirs was the first retirement of the overall race.
The #99 Proton Competition Porsche has now spent an hour and twenty minutes in the garage, a broken suspension bolt was having to be drilled out, the work clearly dragging on. The #86 GR Racing Porsche spent 36 minutes in its garage leaving the car running dead last. Cetilar Racing’s #47 Ferrari didn’t make the line for the first chicane, dropping it to ninth having featured well earlier on.
