The yellow #83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P now leads after three hours of the 92nd annual 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Just ten minutes into the hour, Thomas Flöhr crashed at the Dunlop Chicane and brought out a Slow Zone – and led a handful of Hypercar teams to pit their cars.
One of those was the “private label” Ferrari which was battling for the lead with the factory #50 Ferrari just a few minutes before this. Robert Kubica handed the car off to his rookie co-driver Robert Shwartzman, who has been able to build a 20-second lead over the #5 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 of Michael Christensen in second.
Antonio Fuoco has taken over the #50 Ferrari from Nicklas Nielsen and is closing in on Christensen – he runs third.
The #8 Toyota Gazoo Racing GR010 Hybrid of Sebastien Buemi is fourth, over 80 seconds off the lead. Buemi leads a pack of cars that didn’t pit during the slow zone for Flöhr’s crash.
He’s ahead of James Calado in the #51 AF Corse Ferrari, with Callum Ilott in the #12 Hertz Team JOTA Porsche in sixth, just ahead of the #7 Toyota of Kamui Kobayashi which is now starting to finally feature at the sharp end of the grid.
Unfortunately, this hour was not one of good fortune to the BMW M Hybrid V8 art car, the #20 Team WRT BMW. Robin Frijns lost control entering the Ford Chicane, spun off to his left, and hit a bundle of tyres with the right rear.
Frijns was able to drive away but the Dutchman had to limp painfully around the entire Circuit de la Sarthe before he could bring the car back to the pits, where the #20 was wheeled in for repairs to the right-rear suspension.
The car has just gone back out again but is now seven laps off the overall lead and out of contention, while the #15 BMW is only 16th after its early incident – BMW’s early optimism has been dashed before sunset.
Inter Europol and Vector trade lead; #23 United comes into the garage
Again leading at the three-hour mark is the #34 Inter Europol Competition car, now with Clement Novalak at the wheel. The #34 Inter Europol Car is trading the lead with the #10 Vector Sport car through the pit stop cycle, with the #34 expected in next.
In the top five are the #37 COOL Racing, #22 United Autosport, and #183 AF Corse cars – AF Corse currently leads LMP2 Pro/Am. At the moment, there are predominantly Silver- and Bronze-rated drivers in the car, as the track has dried out and the field has spread.
Clement Novalak in the #34 Inter Europol Competition car, Ritomo Miyata in the #37 COOL Racing, and Alex Quinn in the #14 AO by TF car are the only Pro-rated drivers on track at the moment. However, Ryan Cullen in the #10 Vector Sport car, currently in second place, has only just stepped into that car for his first stint.
The major LMP2 casualty of hour three was the #23 United Autosport USA Oreca 07 of Keating, Albuquerque and Hanley. Ben Keating brought that car to the lane just before the halfway point of the hour, and that car hasn’t returned to the track since.
Just before the turn of the hour, Ben Keating took to X (formerly Twitter) to explain the trip to the garage.
“I had a trip into the gravel very early in my first stint.” Keating said on X. “Later, it looks like a piece of gravel got stuck between the belt and alternator pulley and broke the pulley. There is no coming back from this. This is a great team. Bad race for me.”
LMGT3 split by strategy – Manthey #91 leads at interval
With cars currently pitting out of sync and losses of position for the #70 Inception Racing McLaren, #88 Proton Competition Mustang, #155 Spirit of Race Ferrari and the #92 Manthey PureRxcing Porsche due to gambling on wet tyres, the LMGT3 leader is currently the #91 Manthey EMA Porsche.
Morris Schuring is currently aboard for the first time and holds a five-second advantage over the #46 Team WRT BMW M4, with Ahmad Al Harthy in his first stint.
The JMW Motorsport Ferrari that had pulled an early advantage is now effectively pitting out of sync, third in class, with Salih Yoluc threatening second place.
The #87 Akkodis ASP Lexus RC F has been lapping hard in the hands of Esteban Masson, hauling the car into fourth.
Thomas Flöhr was in the wars again. Having just taken his drive-through penalty, the experienced Swiss Bronze driver lost the #54 Vista AF Corse Ferrari into the Dunlop Chicane, clattering the tyre wall to drivers’ right. Craned away, the car is the first official retirement of the race.
Stewards kept themselves busy – the #95 United Autosports McLaren of Hiroshi Hamaguchi was one of three cars handed a drive-through penalty for slow zone infringements.
