It’s noon in Le Mans, France – and there’s just four hours left in the 92nd annual running of the Grand Prix d’Endurance. With four hours to go, the #50 Ferrari AF Corse 499P and #2 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R have been trading the overall lead on diverging strategies.
The blue #2 Cadillac, now driven by Alex Palou, is about six laps longer into its stints than the leading group – half of the expected target of 12 laps per stint in the Hypercar class.
In the “main” group, Antonio Fuoco still leads in the #50 factory AF Corse Ferrari. He was running ahead of the private-label #83 Ferrari of Robert Shwartzman, until Sebastien Buemi came powering through in the #8 Toyota Gazoo Racing GR010 Hybrid.
The four-time Le Mans winner Buemi passed the rookie around the outside of Mulsanne Corner to grab second place.
The #6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 driven by Kevin Estre is a few seconds behind the leading trio in fourth; James Calado rounds out the top five in the #51 Ferrari, and Will Stevens runs sixth in the #12 Hertz Team JOTA Porsche that, it must be restated, was nothing more than a bare carbon tub just 72 hours ago.
Also off-sequence is the #7 Toyota, which suffered a slow left-front puncture just as Kamui Kobayashi was battling Estre for fourth place on the road. He’s slipped to ninth place at the interval, a place behind the #2 Cadillac that pitted a few laps ago.
Tail-to-nose in LMP2; Inter Europol to the lead!
Inter Europol Competition has now taken the lead in LMP2, after a small mistake from Patrick Pilet in the #10 Vector Sport car at Indianapolis just before the end of the hour opened the door for Clement Novalak to breeze through in the green and yellow #34 ORECA 07.
The gap is still less than a second, after an hour of close running in the class.
The #28 IDEC Sport car of Job van Uitert has dropped back due to a slower pit stop to change tyres, dropping it now into the battle for third place with the #22 United Autosport, #183 AF Corse, and #37 COOL Racing cars.
The 20th hour gave us two battle groups that were effectively nose-to-tail for the entire duration of the hour. Pilet, van Uitert, and Novalak battled for the lead while Nolan Siegel (#22), Ritomo Miyata (#37), and Nicolas Varrone (#183) battled for third.
The two groups navigated traffic, both passing and getting passed, without anyone gaining or losing substantial time, but Novalak was able to squeeze past Van Uitert for second in class at the half-hour mark.
The pit stop sequence at the end of the hour saw a longer stop for the #28 IDEC Sport car, dropping it into the battle for third. At the turn of the hour, it is the #22 United Autosport car in third, ahead of the COOL Racing #37, then the #28 IDEC Sport car, followed by the #183 AF Corse. The battle for third is all within one second.
Pilet and Novalak continued their battle after the pits, with the Inter Europol car all over the rear of the leading Vector Sport machine. Eventually, Pilet made a small mistake, running wide at Indianapolis. The small mistake was enough for Novalak to take the lead, but the gap at the end of the hour was still less than a second.
Manthey, WRT set for clash in LMGT3
Morris Schuring is back at the wheel of the leading #91 Manthey EMA Porsche, just three seconds ahead of the #31 Team WRT BMW of Augusto Farfus.
But with four hours to go the LMGT3 race is coming alive, still anyone’s to win – with 50 seconds covering the top five.
Esteban Masson in the #87 Akkodis ASP Lexus muscled into the #31 BMW, and Augusto Farfus was briefly forced off track. But the Brazilian veteran was typically robust in his response, taking back second place from the #87 Lexus onto the Mulsanne straight, and he is now seven seconds off Lietz’s lead.
Masson’s car would get ten seconds added to its next stop for the move on the BMW. The #87 car remains in third place, but still has Rahel Frey less than ten seconds behind in fourth for Iron Dames and Lamborghini, so the penalty could be crucial.
Rounding out the top five is currently the #88 Ford Mustang, with Dennis Olsen carrying the flag for the Proton Competition team which still has all three cars running.
The #95 United Autosports McLaren took to its garage – a starter motor issue, said to be the result of the engine seizing, dropped the car out of its earlier contention.
This left the #59 720S GT3 Evo carrying the hopes of the British team, with Gregoire Saucy still aboard and 25 seconds off the lead in sixth place. But the papaya and black #59 machine pulled over on drivers left on the run up from Arnage, bringing the end to its impressive first tilt at Le Mans and forcing a Full Course Yellow.
The #81 Corvette is running again after Charlie Eastwood limped it back to its pit with an electric problem – now 15th in class. The sister #82 Corvette fares little better in 16th but still runs.
