Toyota Gazoo Racing continues its stranglehold at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, now with the #7 GR010 leading from the sister car. The #7 of Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, and José Maria López took the lead just after the 13 hour mark, after Kobayashi reeled in a 20 second gap to Ryo Hirakawa in the #7. The #7 took its pit stop first, which proved to be decisive, as a short Slow Zone for the recovery of the expired #59 Inception Racing Ferrari on the Mulsanne straight saw the #8 car get held up, enabling the #7 to take a 20 second lead after the pit stop.
The #8 sits comfortably in second, with Hirakawa, Hartley, and Buemi enjoying a 3 lap gap to the third placed #709 Glickenhaus Racing SCG007, with Frank Mailleux behind the wheel. The 708 Glickenhaus is currently in sixth place overall, and is now on the same lap as the leading LMP2 cars, continuing it’s climb through the field.
LMP2 is still being lead by the #38 JOTA Oreca 07, now with Roberto González behind the wheel. González got into the car just before the turn of the 14th hour, and has been reeled in by the #9 Prema Orlen car to return the Prema team to the lead lap. They have separated themselves from the rest of the field, with the #31 WRT car sitting in third place. There are six cars on the same lap from second to eighth, which are continuing to chop and change as pit stops play out and silver drivers hop into and out of the car. The top five is completed by the #28 JOTA, with Jonathan Aberdein spending a lot of time at the wheel, and TDS Racing x Vaillante, Tijmen van der Helm currently in the #13 car.
Cool Racing #37, #5 Team Penske, the #23 United Autosport USA, the #32 Team WRT and the #43 InterEuropol teams round out the top ten, with significant running by Emmanuel Collard in the Team Penske #5 important to note.
Unfortunately, a moment for the #65 Panis Racing Oreca has seen them drop from contention. Nico Jamin was in third place when he had a big lock up into Mulsanne Corner, skipping through the gravel all the way to the barrier, and required extraction under Slow Zone. That car is now running in 15th place in class.
Earlier, the #35 Ultimate Oreca brought out a Slow Zone in the Porsche Curves, after Jean-Baptiste Lahaye lost the rear end in the middle of the Porsche Curves, firing the car into the wall on driver’s left. Lahaye was able to return the car to the pits, but debris clean up and barrier repairs resulted in a 51 minute Slow Zone in the Porsche Curves.
In LMP2 Pro-Am, the leaders at half way, the #44 ARC Bratislava Oreca, has suffered an oil cooler problem which saw them take a 14 minute pit stop to repair. This has dropped them into the depths of the LMP2 Pro-Am field, which is being lead by the #45 Algarve Pro Racing team, with Steven Thomas behind the wheel. They have a gap of almost a lap over the #83 AF Corse Ferrari, with Perrodo trying to hold of Laurents Horr in the #3 DKR Engineering car for second.
There has been a bit of a shake up in GTE Pro, with the #92 Porsche of Michael Christensen, Kevin Estre, and Laurens Vanthoor now engaged in battle with the #64 Chevrolet Corvette and the #51 AF Corse Ferrari after a brake change. Impressively, the Porsche GT Team changed all four brake pads and disks within 90 seconds, putting the #92 back out on track immediately behind the battle between Alessandro Pier Guidi in the #51 and Tommy Milner in the #64.
All three cars were within two seconds on track, with Milner eventually making a pass around the outside of the Daytona Chicane to take the lead. Both the #64 Corvette and the #51 Ferrari then took pit stops, leaving the #92 with a minute gap at the head of the field.
Fourth place is the #91 Porsche, who were unlucky to get caught out by a pair of Slow Zones around the circuit for barrier repairs and a stopped car. They went from taking their pit stop ahead of the battling Corvette and Ferrari in second place, to now taking their pit stop behind the battle for second. There’s still time and pace in that car to chase down the gap, however they are now losing out each pit stop instead of gaining.
GTE Am sees the #79 WeatherTech Racing Porsche back at the head of the field, ahead of Hardpoint Racing in the #99 Porsche. Julian Andlauer in the #79 returned the car to the lead, before handing over to Merrill, who has a 40 second gap over Pro-driver Alessio Picariello in the #99. Paul Dalla Lana sits third in the #98 Northwest AMR Aston Martin, with Ben Keating in the #33 TF Sport Aston Martin right on his tail. The top four have all had their bronze drivers in the car, except for the #99, which has run exclusively Picariello and Rump overnight.
The top four have stretched away, with two minutes separating them from the next group on track, a trio of Porsches; The #77 Dempsey Proton Porsche, The #86 GR Racing Porsche, and the #56 Team Project 1 Porsche.
The GTE-Am class has seen a further retirement, with the #59 Inception Racing Ferrari losing drive down the Mulsanne straight, and parking up beyond the second chicane. That brings the retirements in the race to four, all in the GTE-Am class.
