Up front Sebastien Buemi in the #8 Toyota has turned the wick up and found a way to pull away from Andre Lotterer’s #6 Porsche during the hour.
After 11 hours of racing at Le Mans, the race has finally settled into somewhat of a rhythm.
The Swiss extended the gap from eight seconds to over 20, before pitting the car for a 15th time for a full service stop.
The gap now heading into the 12th hour is 16 seconds, with Lotterer now closer with a quicker stop, taking no tyres.
Third in the running is the #7 Toyota, which lost time due to getting held into a slow zone during the last hour. Kamui Kobayashi has been pushing hard but is 1 minute 41 seconds off the lead now, slowly falling back.
The top five on the screens is completed by the #2 Cadillac and #50 Ferrari, both cars over two minutes off the leading Toyota.
AF Corse’s lead grows as Nielsen drops out of contention
Through the pit cycles, and the driver changes, and the slow zones, and the night running, there has been one constant of the night so far: AF Corse’s #183 has cycled to the lead at the end of every pit sequence.
In the last hour, with Nico Varrone behind the wheel, they’ve even extended their lead.
Importantly as well, of the Pro-Am runners, Francois Perrodo has completed the largest proportion of his drive time, with over four hours completed. Not only do they lead Pro-Am, but they lead the LMP2 class overall – and they’re the only Pro-Am runner still on the lead lap.
Despite great lap times from PJ Hyett, he has not been able to keep the #14 AO by TF car on the lead lap, dropping now to 7th, behind the #28 IDEC Sport car now in 6th.
At the top of the field, behind the #183 is the United Autosports #22 – Oliver Jarvis setting the fastest LMP2 time overnight – then the #10 Vector Sport car with Ryan Cullen now behind the wheel. The #37 Cool Racing car and #34 Inter Europol Competition car are still on the lead lap, with now only five cars holding that privilege.
The key runner missing is the #24 Nielsen Racing car, which has now dropped two laps from the lead. David Heinemeier Hansson was at the wheel with the car running in second place, when he went for a move to pass the #77 Proton Competition Mustang in the Forest Esses. The cars made contact, spinning both into the gravel, with both requiring extraction under Slow Zone. It remains to be seen if there will be further remonstrations from Race Control – either way, Nielsen Racing’s chances at victory are all but over.
The gap at the front is over 90 seconds, with a pit stop cycle on the way shortly. If Perrodo can be clean and solid when he returns to the car, the #183 looks in a good position as we approach half distance.
McLaren, Lexus, and Porsche battle into the night
It’s difficult to get a handle on who is currently best positioned in GT3, as the pair of Manthey Porsches, the pair of Akkodis ASP Lexus’s, and the #59 United Autosport McLaren trade the lead through pit stops and driver changes.
Currently, it is Gregoire Saucy leading the way in the #59 United Autosport McLaren, but he is the only Pro-rated driver of the top five cars. He leads the #92 Manthey PureRxing Porsche of Alex Malykhin, who has completed over half of his required driver time so far. A few seconds behind are the pair of Akkodis ASP Lexus’s – Arnold Robin in the #78 leading the #87 of Takeshi Kimura – with the second Porsche, the #91 Manthey EMA Porsche of Morris Schuring, just behind.
The #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin has also played themselves into the mix with Alex Riberas right on the tail of the battle for 4th, as Riberas makes ground against the Am-rated drivers. The second McLaren sits 8th after Nico Pino had a spin at the first chicane, then Rahel Frey has just exited the pits in 9th, then the #55 Vista AF Corse Ferrari in 10th. Alessio Rovera in the #55 Ferrari has put in a blinding stint to bring that car back onto the lead lap in GT3.
Importantly for Saucy, he was cleared of any penalty in his incident involving the #155 Spirit of Race Ferrari last hour. That removes the question mark over his position at the head of the field, where he holds a slim six-second lead.
There has not been any word yet on the state of the #66 JMW Ferrari which had parked up next to the Porsche Curves, and there has been further woe for the #77 Proton Mustang, which has returned to the garage after the tangle with the #24 Nielsen LMP2 car.
What will the next hour bring? According to the forecast, more rain!
