Six hours into the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the #7 Toyota Gazoo Racing GR010 Hybrid driven by Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and José Maria López continues to lead their sister car – the #8 shared by Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa – by a little less than ten seconds. The #708 Glickenhaus Racing 007 LMH shared by Olivier Pla, Romain Dumas and Pipo Derani is third, a little less than two minutes behind the leading Hypercar.
At the top of the fourth hour of racing, López lost a significant amount of time, reportedly after going off through the former Ford Chicane. The #8 driven by Hartley took over the lead, grew a gap of of a couple of seconds and even bettered the race’s fastest lap time to a 3’27.906.
Moments later, the #36 Alpine Elf Team A480-Gibson driven by Mathieu Vaxivière was given a drive-through penalty for exceeding speed limits in a slow zone. The French car dropped to fifth position overall. Less than an hour later, drama hit the #36 Alpine again as the car was driven into its garage because of transmission problems.
“The clutch was not functioning properly. I could no longer lock the first gear,” said Vaxivière. Repairs took a while and the Alpine dropped to 28th position overall, four laps behind the two Toyotas. The Alpine returned to track for a few laps, but eventually the #36 was back again into the pits for lengthy repairs. The Alpine returned on track, some seven laps behind the lead car.
Five hours after the start of the race, the #8 and the #7 swapped positions. ‘Coach Kamui’ Kobayashi in the #7 managed to overtake the past SUPER GT champion Hirakawa in the #8 and then built a gap of nearly ten seconds ahead of his teammate.
Meanwhile in LMP2, it’s a JOTA 1-2, headed by the #38 JOTA Oreca 07-Gibson shared by Roberto González, Antonio Felix Da Costa, and Will Stevens after six hours of racing. The #28 JOTA Oreca driven by Oliver Rasmussen, Edward Jones and Jonathan Aberdein is second, a full lap behind the sister car, and a couple of seconds ahead of the #9 Prema Orlen Team Oreca shared by Robert Kubica, Louis Deletraz and Lorenzo Colombo.
The top two positions remained unchanged at the top of the fourth hour of racing with the #38 JOTA leading the #5 Team Penske Oreca driven by Dane Cameron, Emmanuel Collard and Felipe Nasr. That said, the #5 came under threat of the #1 Richard Mille Racing Team Oreca for second place.
Right behind these two cars, the #32 Team WRT Oreca, the #65 Panis Racing Team Oreca, the #9 Prema Orlen Team Oreca, the #28 JOTA Oreca, and the #37 Cool Racing Team Oreca fought for fourth position and stood within ten seconds of each other.
Five hours into the race, the #5 dropped several positions as the Penske team completed some repairs at the front end of their Oreca – but progressively managed to return to top three category spots as the race reached its six hours landmark.
Further down in the ranks, more bad luck struck the #10 Vector Sport Oreca as Ryan Cullen went off at Indianapolis and hit the barriers during the race’s fourth hour. The Brit was able to return to the pits for front body work repairs, but lost a lot of time.
The #27 CD Sport Ligier JSP217-Gibson – the only one of its kind in this field – lost a wheel as driver Christophe Cresp entered the Porsche Curves. The car did not hit the guardrails and was able to return to the pits. The #24 Nielsen Racing Oreca driven by Rodrigo Sáles collided with Sarah Bovy in the #85 Iron Dames Ferrari 488 GTE Evo at the exit of the Porsche Curves. Both cars were able to continue their race without apparent damages.
The LMP2 Pro/Am category is now led by the #83 AF Corse Oreca shared by Francois Perrodo, Nicklas Nielsen and Alessio Rovera.
Corvette Racing leads GTE Pro at the six hour mark. Although the leading #63 Corvette C8.R is controlling the pace and a healthy gap, second place has been under pressure for the #64 car as their 1-2 advantage has ebbed and flowed, while the Porsche GT Team found a rhythm in cooler temperatures and seeming comfortable on its tyres.
A Slow Zone on the run to Indianapolis for the stricken Vector Sport LMP2 didn’t work to the advantage of the leading Corvette pair. Corvette Racing explained that the cooling effect was losing them time at a critical part of the circuit. Moreover, their tyres were beginning to struggle in general. This enabled the Porsche pair to close up and to pass the #64 machine, the #92 and #91 cars circulating close together until the next round of stops.
Having taken back a place, Alexander Sims would miss a braking point into Mulsanne Corner, dropping the #64 car behind the #91 Porsche, before recovering the place again at the next round of stops. The Corvette pit crew was working well and the British driver was on a charge, hauling in the #92 Porsche 911 RSR-19 of Laurens Vanthoor and making the pass to regain Corvette’s 1-2, 41 seconds behind Nicky Catsburg in the #63, the top four all lapping in the 3:51s. Vanthoor came back though, closing to within a second of the #64 car, straight line speed not lacking as the pair traded tenths. This was the GTE-Pro battle of this phase of the race.
As the stops cycled through at the end of the sixth hour and the light begins to fade, all four cars have switched drivers. Antonio Garcia is leading in the #63 Corvette, half a minute ahead of Kevin Estre’s #92 Porsche , chased down by Nick Tandy in the #64 Corvette. AF Corse’s #52 Ferrari sits fourth, but is due to stop, which will bring the #91 Porsche back into fourth.
WeatherTech Racing have a strong grip on the GTE Am race at the six-hour mark, Cooper MacNeil now taking his turn at the wheel of the #79 Porsche.
Northwest AMR has shown strong progress, holding a sturdy pace and staying out of trouble so far. Nicki Thiim hauled the #98 Aston Martin Vantage AMR up the order earlier on and is now back aboard, a minute and 12 seconds off the lead. Third place has been regained by the #77 Dempsey Proton Porsche, Harry Tincknell now aboard once more and shadowing the Aston Martin in the 3:55’s.
The #33 TF Sport Aston Martin is poised in fourth, Marco Sørensen just three seconds shy of the Porsche. After a settled period, it’s game on again.
D’Station Racing’s earlier pace has cooled off, Satoshi Hoshino’s times falling a little shy of his team-mates, dropping the #777 Aston Martin behind the quickest of the AF Corse Am entries, but the car still sits tenth. The #54 and #61 AF Corse Ferraris have had the strongest showing for Ferrari, the pace of the Italian marque in this category so far somewhat off the pace.
Incidents aplenty, the most notable of which were Christoph Ulrich being unseated by the bump on entry to the fast right-hander into Porsche Curves, spitting the red #21 AF Corse Ferrari into the gravel and littering the track with debris at the left-hander at Karting, as the car rejoined. At the same part of the course, the #85 Iron Dames Ferrari was tagged at the first left-hander of the Porsche Curves, Sarah Bovy the innocent party as the Nielsen Racing LMP2 car took an aggressive line, leaving the Belgian driver no space. A left-side impact could have been much worse, Bovy holding the Ferrari well, while the LMP2 is under investigation.
All 62 cars continue to run after the end of the first quarter.
