Antonio Fuoco is pulling away at La Sarthe. The #50 Ferrari AF Corse driver now finds himself 18 seconds clear of the #6 Porsche of Laurens Vanthoor with four hours complete.
The gap has been slowly growing lap by lap since the Italian took the lead, but it’s significantly larger than it may have been had Vanthoor not been caught out by a slow zone.
The fighting action has been frantic between the three Ferraris, which have crept up the timing screens since the start, and the No. 6 Porsche, which is currently the only car flying the flag for Roger Penske in the top five.
Robert Kubica is third in the #83 499P and all over Vanthoor’s rear bumper, though his mirrors are full of the front end of Antonio Giovinazzi’s #50 car.
Further back, the #20 BMW is up to fifth with Robin Frijns now in. The Whelen Cadillac continues to lead the General Motors attack in sixth.
Elsewhere, the #5 Penske Porsche was handed a drive-through for a slow zone infraction, which has dropped the car out of the top 10 and to 14th.
In LMP2, it’s as you were out front with Inter Europol’s Kuba Schmiechowski still holds a healthy lead over the #29 ORECA from TDS and the #48 07 from VDS Panis.
GT3 sees Vista AF Corse now lead with Alessio Rovera, who managed to get past the No. 46 WRT BMW and pull a gap of 14 seconds. The #92 Porsche is third.
We now have a first retirement, following the first major incident of the race. Gianmarco Levorato ended up destroying the rear end of the #88 Proton Competition Ford Mustang at Tertre Rouge.
The Italian lost a wheel and the rear at turn-in, sending him spinning into the barriers and out of the race. There did not appear to be any contact from the car directly behind at first glance.
Ford Performance confirmed to DSC that Levorato is out of the car, and we await further updates on his condition.
That incident created a slow zone, which led to further drama when the #25 Algarve Pro Racing ORECA ended up rear-ending the RLR M Sport ORECA going into the section of track affected by the yellow.
The contact damaged the front end of the #25 and forced Matthias Kaiser in for a nose change before he was penalised for the incident.
