Into hour 16 at Le Mans, the #12 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA V-Series.R remained in the lead after its 22nd pit stop. Will Stevens is 47 seconds down the road from the #8 Toyota Racing TR010 Hybrid with Brendon Hartley newly in the driver’s seat, who cycled out ahead of the BMW. Sheldon van der Linde re-entered the #20 WRT BMW on lap 252, running third after fitting new tyres.
The #183 AF Corse ORECA LMP2 served its pit stop penalty but still runs second in the Pro-Am group (more shortly). Meanwhile, the #7 Toyota and the #51 Ferrari AF Corse 499P had a proper battle, pitting at the same time and rejoining the race nose to tail in a too close for comfort release on the pit lane.
The #87 Akkodis ASP Team Lexus was handed an incident responsibility penalty for contact with the #57 Kessel Racing Ferrari. The #3 DKR Engineering ORECA also received a drive-through for a slow zone infringement.
The #14 TDS Racing ORECA driven by Kévin Estre brought out a slow zone in Zone 6 after going straight off track and into the barrier at Indianapolis Corner, after fighting at the top of LMP2 Pro-Am. Luckily, it hit the wall straight on, giving the team the chance to potentially repair the car.
The #38 JOTA Cadillac returned to the pits once again, returning to the track 38 laps off the lead lap. Soon enough, Earl Bamber ran off track related to the persisting power steering problem, and the #38 car’s day was officially done at the top of the hour, retiring from the race.
In LMP2, the #30 Duqueine Team ORECA held strong in first place with Richard Verschoor in the car, followed once again by the #343 and the #43 Inter Europol Competition cars in second and third, with a large gap of over one minute between the #30 and the #343.
Nicky Catsburg continued to dominate LMGT3 in the #33 TF Sport Corvette, over three minutes down the road from Jack Hawksworth in the #78 ASP Lexus. Canadian Zacharie Robichon held third position for his Heart of Racing Aston Martin team in the #27.
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