After being told to cede the lead to James Calado in the #51 Ferrari AF Corse 499P, Phil Hanson ran off track and through the gravel in the #83 AF Corse 499P, unintentionally fulfilling the request. That promoted Calado to first, where he continues to run ahead of Hanson.
The #83 now looks to be attempting longer stints, but the Ferraris are largely doing 12-lap stints, while several of the other contenders are able to go a lap further. That could spell trouble for Ferrari as the race proceeds. As the hour ticked over, Ferrari occupied the top three spots after the #6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 with Kevin Estre at the wheel pitted prior to the race entering its 10th hour.
The #6 Porsche was joined by its sister car, the #4 of Nick Tandy, in the top five, ahead of the #15 BMW M Team WRT M Hybrid V8 of Dries Vanthoor and the #8 Toyota Gazoo Racing GR010 Hybrid of Brendan Hartley.
Although running outside the top 10, Earl Bamber set a new fast lap in the #38 Cadillac Hertz Team Jota V-Series.R, posting a time of 3:27.534 at the end of a stint with single-stint soft tyres on the car. That time is only a few tenths off the outright Hypercar race lap record.
The #93 Peugeot 9X8 spent a long time in the garage dealing with a steering issue, and is now five laps down.
As the temperatures have dropped, several Hypercar teams are experimenting with the soft Michelin tyres, but they seem to be good for two stints only, while the medium tyres have regularly been triple-stinted.
VDS Panis Racing continues to head LMP2, with Franck Perera freshly installed in the #48 ORECA. Jakub Smiechowski is still chasing in the #43 Inter Europol ORECA, with Iron Lynx-Proton in third, Maceo Capietto driving the #9. PJ Hyett is still at the wheel of the top Pro-Am competitor, “Spike” the #199 AO by TF entry.
On a little different strategy compared to the Team WRT BMW that has led LMGT3 for the majority, the #92 Manthey 1st Phorm Porsche 911 GT3R of Platinum Richard Lietz took the point ahead of Bronze Ahmad Al Harthy in the #46 BMW.
Akkodis ASP continues to run strong with its two Lexuses showing good pace and running together in third and fourth, while TF Sport cycled into fifth with the #81 Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Charlie Eastwood.
