Getting into the late morning running as the track is beginning to heat back up, the #20 BMW M Team WRT Hybrid V8 led at the end of hour 18. The battle for P2 between the #8 Toyota Racing TR010 Hybrid and the #12 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA V-Series.R, with Brendon Hartley running up on Louis Delétraz for half a stint.
At the end of that battle, Hartley got past the Cadillac ahead of the Mulsanne straight, using traffic to put time between Delétraz and himself, sitting in second position. Then unleashed, Hartley put in the fastest lap of the race on lap 286, finding a metaphorical new gear in the Toyota.
The #8 would pit close to the end of the hour on lap 287, taking a brake change on the front left and Ryō Hirakawa entering the car before returning to the track in fourth position. The top three overall to end the hour was the #20 BMW, then the #12 Cadillac, followed by the #7 Toyota with Kamui Kobayashi aboard.
There was a brief Full Course Yellow in the middle of the hour for some kicked-up gravel on the racing line. The green flag came out again on lap 278 – going back to green, the #15 WRT BMW, driven by Dries Vanthoor at the time, failed to get back up to speed due to an electrical issue affecting the steering wheel. The screen had gone dark, preventing Vanthoor from disabling the FCY speed limiter.
The #19 Genesis Magma Racing car came in to repair the car after reporting a “slew” of problems that had manifested over the course of the race. The final straw came when they lost a transponder on the way into the pits; the car returned to the track in P14, eight laps down.
The leaders of LMP2 struggled against a tough pit cycle that saw the leading #30 Duqueine Team ORECA wheeled into their pit box amongst a crammed pit lane, delaying their stop. The #43 Inter Europol car had better luck, coming into an empty pit lane, gaining around 25 seconds. This was before the #43 was hit with a Race Control message to stop for repairs, coming out in third position.
The #9 Proton Competition ORECA went straight off in the final corner, picking up extensive suspension damage and an advertisement board, coming to a stop on track just off the racing line at Tertre Rouge.
In LMP2, the #30 Duquiene Team car led, ahead of the sister Inter Europol Competition cars, the #343 in second and the #43 in third.
In LMGT3, nobody looks like they can challenge the #33 TF Sport Corvette at this point, one minute and 43 seconds in front of Mattia Drudi in the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin. Hadrien David in the #78 Akkodis ASP Team Lexus rounded out the top three.
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