Antonio Fuoco has been installed in the #50 Ferrari AF Corse 499P and has driven Ferrari to the lead in the 93rd annual 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Fuoco took the reins from Nicklas Nielsen, and the #50 Ferrari also took four new Michelin medium tyres, as did the two Porsche Penske Motorsport 963s that ran first and third.
But the #50 Ferrari benefited more from the fresh rubber, and with 21 hours and 26 minutes left Fuoco reeled in the #5 Porsche of Mathieu Jaminet along the Mulsanne Straight, passing him into Indianapolis to take the lead.
Fuoco is now trailed by the #6 Porsche in the hands of Triple Crown contender Laurens Vanthoor. Vanthoor made a brave, stellar overtake on his team-mate Jaminet in the Porsche Curves, using the slower #57 Kessel Racing Ferrari LMGT3 of Takeshi Kimura as a pick.
Jaminet will take third on track once the #94 Peugeot pits from a long stint, then it’s the #51 Ferrari of Antonio Giovinazzi, who’s clawed his way past BMW M Team WRT’s Dries Vanthoor and Cadillac Whelen’s Felipe Drugovich into net fourth position.
In LMP2 it’s the #43 Inter Europol Competition ORECA 07-Gibson that has retaken the lead after Patrick Pilet brought the #16 RLR MSport ORECA in for a pit stop and gave way to Bronze co-driver Michael Jensen for his first stint.
Franck Perera is second in the #48 VDS Panis Racing car, though he had a scare when being lapped by the Ferrari of Giovinazzi at the Ford Chicane.
Ahmad Al Harthy and Team WRT led LMGT3 at the interval. The #46 BMW M4 LMGT3 EVO has been in control so far, but with Alessio Rovera on a charge in the #21 Vista AF Corse Ferrari 296 LMGT3 in second, hunting down the leader.
Both Alpine Hypercar Team A424s took stop/go penalties for speeding in the pits: five seconds for the #35 car, and 20 seconds for the #36 car, which has dropped them further in arrears.
The two Hertz Team JOTA Cadillac V-Series.Rs have tumbled down the order after their front-row lockout, and the frustration had gotten to Earl Bamber in the #38 car, not happy with the way Will Stevens was racing him while going slower, or seemingly with his team for not changing places quickly enough.
Yet incredibly, after three hours, all 21 Hypercars are on the lead lap – it won’t last, but so far things have still been relatively trouble-free!
