The sun is beginning to set over the grandstands at the Circuit de la Sarthe; through five hours, the #83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P continues to lead overall.
The gap has come down to just under 15 seconds following a change of drivers from Robert Shwartzman to Ye Yifei, who’s stepped into the leading yellow Ferrari.
Miguel Molina continues to make up the second part of a Ferrari 1-2 in the factory #50 AF Corse car and gained time by taking fuel only on the last pit stop.
Matt Campbell is aboard the #5 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 and currently runs third, with the two Toyota Gazoo Racing GR010 Hybrids rounding out the top five – the #8 of Brendon Hartley, 50-plus seconds ahead of the #7 of super-sub Jose Maria Lopez.
Antonio Giovinazzi rounds out the top six in the #51 AF Corse works Ferrari. Meanwhile, the #4 Penske Porsche did receive a drive-through penalty for an infringement of FCY protocol, and Mathieu Jaminet now sits eighth behind the #38 Hertz Team JOTA Porsche of Oliver Rasmussen.
But just 15 minutes before the top of the hour, the first major mechanical drama unfolded in the Hypercar class – taking the #35 Alpine Endurance Team A424 out of contention.
Ferdinand Habsburg, just returning from injuries sustained in a testing accident, pulled over at Arnage, stopped in the run-off, and leapt out of his car in disgust.
Replays showed smoke billowing out of the rear of Habsburg’s car that was, at a point, running as high as fourth on merit early on in the race but sunk out of the top ten earlier on.
Smaller incidents included both Lamborghini Iron Lynx SC63s going off course on their out laps on cold tyres – first, the #63 of Daniil Kvyat spun at Dunlop Chicane, then the #19 of Matteo Cairoli slid off at Tertre Rouge. Both continued.
Renger van der Zande had a scary moment exiting the Forest Esses when he went off and sideswiped the barrier at La Chapelle in his #3 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R, which has yet to feature after running near the front in the first hour.
COOL Racing leads on the hour
COOL Racing has just taken the lead in LMP2, due to a pit stop just ahead of the hour for the effective race leaders Vector Sport. Ryan Cullen at the seat of the #10 Vector Sport has been approximately a second a lap faster than Lorenzo Fluxa, who is now on board for his first stint in the #37 COOL Racing car – and has inherited the lead with Cullen’s recent pit stop.
Stephane Richelmi is now at the wheel of the #10, with the COOL Racing #37 just about to take its next stop.
Nolan Siegel sits in third in the #22 United Autosport car, just under two minutes further back, with the AO by TF #14 now leading Pro-Am, in fourth in P2, with Alex Quinn at the wheel.
The #183 AF Corse car, which was leading Pro-Am at the end of Hour 4, has dropped down the order to seventh. François Perrodo completed a lengthy stint in the car. He has been jumped by the Nielsen Racing #24 and the #9 Proton Competition cars – but will cycle through to lead that group after they take their pit stops.
As we head towards darkness, there’s a clear top two and a flurry of cars only a bit further back. As teams burn through their silver- or bronze-rated driver time in the lead to darkness, expect those positions to change frequently.
Rossi continues to control LMGT3 at sunset
Valentino Rossi was clearly enjoying his first stint at the Grand Prix d’Endurance, extending the #46 Team WRT BMW M4 LMGT3’s advantage at an impressive rate as he set personal best sectors as its lead stretched to 84 seconds.
This was decent enough to absorb a pit-stop, resuming in the lead with a 16-second advantage in hand, and extend to 27 seconds by the end of the hour.
Trailing the BMW currently is the improving #91 Manthey EMA Porsche, but its pit cycle is out of step with the sister #92 Manthey PureRxcing car. Yasser Shahin was defending against the improving #85 Iron Dames Lamborghini until Sarah Bovy was side-swiped by the passing #4 Penske Porsche 963 at the Porsche Curves.
Bovy made it back to the pits as the car rapidly dropped down the order.
The JMW Motorsport was third, though with so many pit stops cycling around the top of the hour positions outside the top three are somewhat fluid.
18-year-old Conrad Laursen set the fastest GT3 lap of the race – a 3:57.429 on lap 67 – before pitting the sixth-place Spirit of Race Ferrari for replacement front bodywork.
