The #20 BMW M Team WRT, the #101 Cadillac WTR, and the #12 Cadillac Hertz Team Jota all had an unfortunate bout of bad luck when a Full Course Caution emerged five minutes into hour four of the race, just in time to mess with their planned stops.
The BMW and the Cadillacs were forced to come in under caution for emergency 11-second fuel stops, then returned for a proper pit stop five minutes later after the green flag re-emerged for their full stop. Sheldon van der Linde and Ricky Taylor remained in their respective cars.
Cars 12 and 101 were summoned to race control, but the investigation of those pit stops was cancelled.
The #9 Proton Competition LMP2 made hard side-by-side contact with the #51 Ferrari AF Corse, knocking a bollard onto the track. The debris threatened to bring out a FCY, but was moved off the circuit in time to cancel the caution. The #9 immediately came into the pits with rear deck damage and a roughed-up side panel; the Ferrari sustained no noticeable damage.
The #51 received a drive-through penalty for the incident, which was served on lap 61. Alessandro Pier Guidi was heard complaining three times about the stewards’ decision, firmly believing that the responsibility lay with the #9 instead.
Jack Aitken in the #38 Cadillac passed the #20 BMW of Sheldon Van Der Linde on track for the overall lead halfway through the hour. Just after, a radio from the Van Der Linde’s engineer was broadcast, encouraging the driver to let Aitken go, and to focus on their long-stinting target of 12-13 laps.
The #13 Autosport Corvette, already four laps down following a long pit stop, was called back into the pit lane by race control for a stop-and-repair due to the door straying open, among other issues.
The #83 AF Corse was penalised with a five-second penalty added to their next pit stop because of an unsafe release in the pit lane as the #7 Toyota was coming through for their pit stop on lap 62.
On lap 66, just about at the fifth hour, the #20 BMW came in from the lead for its sixth stop, the #8 Toyota receiving the lead once more. Behind the #8 returned the #20, 30 seconds back after its pit stop, with the #38 Cadillac just 2.4 seconds behind in third overall.
Bijoy Garg took over the lead in the #343 Inter Europol Competition car when Richard Verschoor brought in the #30 Duqueine Team car on lap 55, with Doriane Pin taking over and coming out P3. Pin would retake the lead by lap 63, re-establishing a comfortable gap to the next car behind.
Oliver Gray fought with Adrien Closmenil for fourth in class for two laps, ending the hour with Gray’s #29 Forestier Racing by Panis, and Closemenil’s CLX Motorsports cars in second and third in LMP2, respectively.
In LMGT3, the #91 Manthey DK Engineering car driven by Ayhancan Güven took the lead from Tom van Rompuy in the #78 Akkodis ASP Team Lexus after the Lexus pitted for fuel and a driver change to Hadrien David.
In second position was the #87 Akkodis ASP Lexus, with José María López at the wheel. In third was the polesitting #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin with Mattia Drudi double-stinting a set of Medium tyres.
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