Under cloudy skies on a cool Saturday afternoon, the 92nd annual 24 Hours of Le Mans got underway at 4:00 PM this afternoon in northern France.
Football legend Zinedine Zidane waved the Tricolore of his home nation to start the race, and Laurens Vanthoor in the pole-sitting #6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 led the 62-car field to the start of the Grand Prix d’Endurance.
But even with visions of a 20th Porsche victory already in the mind of their supporters, defending Le Mans winners Ferrari AF Corse spoiled the party as Nicklas Nielsen bolted to the lead in the opening lap of the race, from fourth on the grid in his #50 Ferrari 499P!
It wouldn’t take long for 2023 winner Antonio Giovinazzi to join the party in the #51 and in less than 15 minutes, it was a Ferrari AF Corse 1-2 at Le Mans – to the delight of the Ferrari faithful and perhaps, the frustration of the rest of the field.
Vanthoor was able to regain the lead after the first round of routine pit stops, but shortly after the first Slow Zone of the race was lifted for an LMP2 car that spun off in the gravel at the Dunlop Chicane, Nielsen was able to get back around Vanthoor to retake the lead.
Nielsen also has the fastest lap of the race, a 3:29.311 set on lap four – but he also has a ten-second penalty to serve on the #50’s next pit stop, for an unsafe release in the pits.
The #6 Penske Porsche of Vanthoor continues to run second, with the #51 AF Corse Ferrari of Giovinazzi back up to third after serving its ten-second penalty for an infringement in Qualifying Practice.
Sebastien Bourdais is fourth in the #3 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R, and Sebastien Buemi, from 11th on the grid, is now fifth – with the #35 Alpine A424 of Charles Milesi rounding out the top six in the premier class.
The first bit of drama after the start in Hypercar involved Marco Wittmann in the #15 Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8, who spun across the track at La Chapelle. Wittmann made gentle contact with the left-hand barriers, and was able to continue, change his flat-spotted tyres, and get back in the race – not ideal, but certainly not a catastrophe.
Wittmann is still at the tail end of the lead lap. But the #99 Proton Competition Porsche 963 also went to the garage to address a problem with a door catch – and 2016 winner Neel Jani is now two laps off the lead.
Proton ORECA bolts out to LMP2 lead
It was a quick start in LMP2 as the pack was led away by the #14 AO by TF ORECA 07 of Louis Deletraz. Behind him, Mathias Beche put the #65 Panis Racing car into second, ahead of Job Van Uitert in the #28 IDEC Sport car, but van Uitert managed to take the position back over the course of the stint.
The first pit stops at the midpoint of the hour brought half the field in, leaving Deletraz out in front. The undercut proved telling, with those who chose to pit a lap earlier cycling ahead of the teams who elected to stay out for another lap.
The exception to this was the #9 Proton Competition car, which now leads the race. The Proton team holds a six-second gap at the turn of the hour, due to electing to stay on the same set of tyres.
It is currently the #9 of Bent Viscaal leading ahead of the #65 Panis Racing car of Matthias Beche which also leads Pro-Am, then the #22 United Autosports car of Oliver Jarvis. Completing the top five are the #37 COOL Racing car, then the #28 IDEC Sport machine.
Notably, all of the LMP2 Pro-Am cars have installed their Bronze driver for stint two, except for the #65 Panis Racing car.
In LMP2, there were casualties from the second lap of the race, with two cars suffering issues and dropping off the lead lap already.
The #47 COOL Racing Oreca 07 slowed to a crawl down the Mulsanne Straight on lap two, with Matt Bell nursing the car to the end of the lap. The issue for the #47 was diagnosed as a punctured radiator. Repairs to the car took 5 laps to complete.
The #25 Algarve Pro Racing car also had trouble, with Oliver Caldwell bringing that car in at the conclusion of the fourth lap. Two laps later, the car was back on track; repairs were required to the left side of the car after apparent contact.
Another significant issue was a spin for the #23 United Autosport USA car, as Ben Keating looped the car in the middle of the Dunlop Chicane on cold tyres. The car came to a rest in the gravel on the exit of the Dunlop Chicane, requiring the assistance of the recovery tractor, and the first slow zone of the race. The #23 has dropped one lap down.
Inception McLaren in control in frantic LMGT3 class
The pole-sitting #70 Inception Racing McLaren 720S LMGT3 Evo of Frederik Schandorff holds the lead after a clean start at Le Mans for the LMGT3 class.
Ben Barker’s #77 Ford Mustang, charging in the 3:57s, passed the #66 JMW Ferrari for second, while the front-row-sitting #92 Manthey PureRxcing Porsche 911 GT3 R was overhauled by the Mustang and the Ferrari on the opening lap.
The only Bronze driver to start out of the higher qualifying cars, Aleks Malykhin’s pace bottled up the GT3 pack but was using seat time early in dry conditions. Schandorff’s gap is slim at 0.6 seconds, with Barker applying pressure.
The GT3s field’s aggressively fought order did well to deal with the slicing Hypercar leaders, in the middle of which Malykhin had to give way to the pressure of the tussling pro drivers and has dropped back to 13th. Having been the first to break through, Dennis Olsen’s yellow #88 Proton Competition Mustang retains fourth after the first set of pit stops at 45 minutes.
As lap times now settle into the 4:01s, the #59 and #95 United Autosports McLarens are chasing in fifth and sixth, Gregoire Saucy nine seconds clear of Marino Sato.
Of the big improvements, Daniel Serra had a great opening stint in the #86 GR Racing Ferrari, rocketing through from the back of the grid to 12th before losing ground in the handover to Michael Wainwright. Simon Mann’s #55 Vista AF Corse has also pushed through to 13th.
Similarly, the early pace shown by Alex Riberas has lost out in the switch to Ian James in the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin, now 14th.
The #78 Akkodis Lexus started from the pitlane after its warm-up incident and has taken a two-minute stop and hold (one for having to start the race from the pits after its warm-up accident with the #7 Toyota, and another for causing said incident) to bring up the rear of the field.
