As the race enters its final three hours, the #8 Toyota GR10 Hybrid shared by Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa is still in the lead. The #8 holds a gap of approximately three minutes with the #7 sister car shared by Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez. That gap has essentially been static over the past three hours, the two GR010s taking no risks and cruising.
The #709 Glickenhaus 007 LMH driven by Ryan Briscoe, Richard Westbrook and Franck Mailleux is in third position, four laps behind the leading Hypercar. The #708 sister car shared by Olivier Pla, Romain Dumas and Pipo Derani is seventh overall and still picking up positions.
LMP2
Meanwhile in LMP2, the #38 Jota Oreca 07 Gibson shared by Roberto Gonzalez, Antonio Felix Da Costa and Will Stevens remains in the lead of the category with a one lap margin over the #9 Prema Orlen Team Oreca 07 Gibson driven by Robert Kubica, Louis Deletraz and Lorenzo Colombo. That car remains in contention for second place with the #28 Jota Oreca 07 Gibson driven by Oliver Rasmussen, Edward Jones and Jonathan Aberdein.
Further down in the ranks,
– The #83 AF Corse Oreca 07 Gibson received a stop and go penalty after causing the retirement of the #64 Corvette Racing C8R
– The #31 Team WRT Oreca 07 Gibson driven by Robin Frijns went off at the exit of Indianapolis and retired. This triggered the first safety car episode of the race while armco barrier repairs were undertaken.
– United Autosport;s #22 07 driven by Phil Hanson stopped on track after Indianapolis. The car reported an abrupt loss of power but was able to resume racing.
– The #32 Team WRT Oreca 07 Gibson and the #13 TDS Racing X Vaillante took a drive through penalty for abusing track limits.
– The Pro Am leading car, the #45 Algarve Pro Oreca 07 driven by James Allen went off in the Daytona chicane and hit a tyre wall. The Brit was able to resume his race and keep the lead of the category after pitting for front bodywork repairs.
GTE-Pro
Porsche now leads Le Mans in GTE-Pro by almost a minute from AF Corse’s pursuing Ferraris.
Nineteen hours in, the first Safety Car appearance in the race served as a virtual reset for the competition in GTE-Pro.
Alessandro Pier Guidi had been losing time to the hard charging Fred Makowiecki’s Porsche, a Safety Car bunching their group of cars, a ten second interval now reduced to nose-to-tail track position.
Battle commenced as the pair cleared back markers into the Ford Chicane. Pier Guidi held the lead onto the Mulsanne straight, Makowiecki right up the tailpipe of the #51 Ferrari. The Italian WEC champion and last year’s GTE-Pro Le Mans winner defended hard and worked the traffic to his advantage before the slow zone between Mulsanne Corner and Indianapolis, the Ferrari 488 GTE Evo stretching a slim one second gap. The Ferrari overshot the Dunlop Curve under pressure, but the Porsche closed in again, the leading pair evenly matched. AF Corse refuelled the Ferrari but kept its tyres and Pier Guidi, the Porsche taking tyres and replacing Makowiecki with Bruni.
Pier Guidi was reported to the stewards for cutting the Dunlop chicane again on his out lap, but this would be irrelevant as the #51 car encountered a right rear puncture and had to pit, flipping its 30 second advantage to Gianmaria Bruni’s Porsche. The #52 Ferrari meanwhile, is third, Davide Rigon now a lap down on the leader. Further back, Kevin Estre was using the whip on the recovering #92 Porsche, a further lap down, which had passed the untroubled but off-the-pace Riley Motorsports Ferrari.
GTE-Am
The Safety Car favoured the leading #33 TF Sport Aston Martin. Henrique Chaves’s safety car group was two-thirds of a lap ahead of that of the chasing WeatherTech Porsche, Julien Andlauer re-installed to make inroads to the #33’s lead, which was now becoming quite a task: Chaves’s 3:53.266 was a personal best of the race as the #33 Aston Martin edged further away.
Harry Tincknell was back aboard the #77 Dempsey Pton Porsche that had rarely been out of the running. Three seconds a lap quicker than Keating at the front there is work to do, but still three hours to go.
Paul Dalla Lana’s Northwest AMR Aston Martin took advantage of a pit stop during the Safety Car period, but ultimately lost track position, Paul Dalla Lana circulating in fourth behind the temporarily dropping the Aston Martin’s track position in fourth.
Hardpoint Motorsport’s Porsche had been running in the top three, but entered the pits very loosely, carrying a puncture that needed further inspection, dropping the car off the lead lap, Antonio Picariello pushing the #99 car hard to regain a shot at the podium.
The JMW Ferrari was beached in the gravel at Arnage having been punted from behind by Zac Robichon’s #93 Proton Porsche on turn in.
Previous winners, the British privateers had a challenging run despite their star driver Renger van der Zande’s pace, but would view a finish as reward for their effort. As if to prove nothing was over yet, Claudio Schiavoni had a heavy impact at the fast left hander at Karting, the car looking like a casualty from further down the order, 15th in class.
