With 6 hours left into the race, the #8 Toyota Gazoo Racing GR010 Hybrid driven by Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa is now leading overall, a little less than one lap ahead of the #7 sister car shared by Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez. The #709 driven by Ryan Briscoe, Richard Westbrook and Franck Mailleux is a solid third, four laps behind the leading car.
At the top of the sixteenth hour of racing, the gap between the two Toyotas stabilized to 15-20 seconds. The #8 suffered from a puncture and pitted a few laps earlier than scheduled. After that episode, the gap between the #7 and the #8 grew back to 20-25s until drama hit the #7. As Jose Maria Lopez exited Arnage, the Argentinian stopped on track for one or more system resets of the Toyota. A few minutes later, the car stopped again in the pits for an extended period of time as more resets proved necessary before mechanics could fuel the car safely. The #7 lost four minutes to the #8 as a result.
At the top of the seventeenth hour of racing, the #7 resumed its normal pace. That said, more time was lost later on as the car cautiously pitted earlier than planned.
Further down in the Hypercar ranks, Mathieu Vaxivière in the #36 Alpine Elf Team A480 Gibson ran off line in the Porsche Curves while trying to overtake the GR Racing Porsche. The Frenchman ended up in a tyre wall and damaged the car’s front body work after Mike Wainwright change his line and forced him off the road. “We were taking no risks.” said Vaxivière. “I went outside a Porsche but the driver did not see me. I had to avoid him. It’s disappointing but ultimately part of the game”. Vaxivière managed to return the Alpine to the pits for lengthy repairs. The #36 went back into the field in 29th position.
LMP2
Meanwhile in LMP2, the #38 Jota Oreca 07 Gibson driven by Roberto Gonzalez, Antonio Felix Da Costa and Will Stevens remains in the lead, a full lap ahead of the #9 Prema Orlen Team Oreca 07 Gibson shared by Robert Kubica, Louis Deletraz and Lorenzo Colombo. The #28 Jota Oreca 07 Gibson driven by Oliver Rasmussen, Edward Jones and Jonathan Aberdein is now third, in the same lap as the #9 after the #31 WRT Oreca 07 Gibson took a penalty following a race incident with Sebastien Bourdais in the #10 Vector Sport Oreca 07 Gibson.
Further down in the ranks:
– The #3 DKR Engineering driven by Laurents Horr went off at Mulsanne’s corner and had a minor contact with the guardrails. Horr was able to resume his race a few minutes later.
– The #83 AF Corse Oreca 07 Gibson driven by Francois Perrodo tried to to overtake John Falb in the #47 Algarve Pro Oreca but hit the #64 Corvette in that process. Perrodo limped back to the pits for repairs on the Oreca’s transmission.
– The #45 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca 07 Gibson driven by Steven Thomas, James Allen and Rene Binder keeps leading the Pro-Am category. They are one lap ahead of the #3 DKR Engineering Oreca 07 Gibson.
GTE-Pro
Disaster and disappointment describes the third quarter of the last GTE-Pro race at Le Mans.
At the start of the 16th hour Michael Christensen’s leading #92 Porsche understeered into the Mulsanne Corner gravel trap, re-joining and blowing a tyre on the run towards Indianapolis. A flailing right front tyre was eating the car’s bodywork, its front clamshell ejected and the front splitter looking detached on its slow return to pit, the lead and huge chunks of time lost.
“I knew I had a slow puncture on the rear and was going to have to pit anyway. I had struggled a little bit in that corner in traffic before, but this time I was on my own, so I have to take responsibility for the error. I am so sorry for the team,” explained Christensen.
This put Alex Sims’ Corvette back into the GTE-Pro lead, with a sixteen seconds advantage as the #64 C8.R pressed on to consolidate its inherent lead. Lap times improved into the 3:49s and then 3:48s, stretching the gap to the second placed #51 AF Corse Ferrari. Daniel Serra responded to stay in touch, but Sims was extending at a second a lap.
But the advantage was dashed as the #64 car took a glancing blow from the passing AF Corse LMP2 prototype. Three wide on the Mulsanne, Francois Perrodo was passing between Sims and a slower Algarve Pro Racing LMP2 car, jinking left in anticipation of a move from the prototype. Light right side contact was enough to send the leading Corvette hard into the barrier to driver’s left, the #64 car spinning to rest against the guard-rail, Alex Sims quickly out of the car, race over. The Corvette Racing pit was visibly devastated, as was Perrodo following the highly uncharacterstic incident. A cruel blow to the popular Corvette team, who had also just confirmed the retirement of its #63 entry due to significant rear end mechanical damage.
This leaves the #51 Ferrari in the lead of GTE-Pro for the first time in the race, twenty seconds ahead of the now charging #91 Porsche. The #52 Ferrari was a long way back in third, all three having pitted for tyres and a driver change.
The whole complexion of the race in GTE-Pro was changed as it entered its final ever Le Mans quarter.
GTE-Am
Attrition in GTE-Am was also starting to bite. The green liveried #75 Iron Lynx Ferrari was the latest casualty of the front-right puncture epidemic that has affected both GTE classes. Having taken to the gravel under braking, the Ferrari’s tyre flat-spotted and then let go, taking out front left bodywork and limping back to its pit, Christian Hook at the wheel.
Team Project 1’s remaining #56 entry had a bigger moment on approach to the first ‘Daytona’ chicane, Brendan Iribe braking hard and upsetting the balance, the Porsche jinking hard left into the armco. Iribe extracted himself from the car, but the frontal damage to the car would be extensive, likely terminal, as a Slow Zone was triggered. It is a credit to Race Control that this event has yet to see a Full Course Caution.
Ricardo Pera unsettled the #86 GR Racing Porsche under braking at Indianapolis. The distinctive black and orange Porsche had been running in the top three in class having hauled back up the order overnight, but the car found the gravel from seventh position and awaited extraction before returning to its pit and the GTE-Am order, losing just a single place.
Ben Keating’s #33 TF Sport car was leading the Aston Martin 1-2 at the front, a hard triple stint piling on the pressure to the chasing Northwest AMR car:
“I did three stints but felt really good – I offered to do a fourth but I think with all the slow zones and repairs going on they were worried I’d go over my four hours. I’ll be back for another triple before the end.”
The #99 Hardpoint Motorsport 911 RSR-19 was third, leading a trio of Porsches, the #77 Dempsey Proton and #79 Weathertech Racing still in the hunt.
WeatherTech’s robust lead overnight had waned as its competitors rotated their quicker Pro drivers, which improved them on raw pace, but with a quarter of the 24 Hours left to run the GTE-Am race was still wide open.
