24h Le Mans
Ferrari have played their hand - the cards are now on the table with three cars in the top four positions. The prancing horse have the factory #50 and #51 Ferrari 499Ps and #83 AF Corse run car all fighting for the win, with the #6 Porsche and #8 Toyota keeping within 35 seconds and in the mix going into the second day.
What a busy first four hours, if you are only joining us at hour eight… where have you been! You can catch-up on the first phase of the race - before we get stuck into the transition into the darkness as the sun went down at Le Mans.
Moments after the four hour mark - we were treated to an elbows-out, wheel-to-wheel battle royale between Ferrari and Porsche. The #6 Porsche Penske Motorsport car was handed from Kévin Estre to Laurens Vanthoor who had to fight hard from a chasing brace of prancing horses in the form the #50 Ferrari AF Corse and the satellite #83 AF Corse car.
Both managed to muscle their way past the Porsche, but Robert Kubica at the wheel of the yellow #83 cut too much on the inside of the final kink curb before Mulsanne corner and picked up a five-second time penalty for his track limit excursion. Despite this error, the Ferraris have been faultless and have turned the screw and are now one, two and three and galloping away in true prancing horse style.
An incredible stint from Kubica put the #83 Ferrari right in the mix and from 13th on the grid the car which was always at the sharp end of each session this week. With Kubica at the wheel - the #83 went from third, into second and then the lead as the sun began to set at Le Mans - carrying the 1st on the number board as it lit up the nighttime surroundings.
The two factory cars had a fight on their hands, the #83 in the hands of Yiefi Ye and then Phillip Hanson could go further than the scarlet red cars and at midnight had a buffer of less than two seconds over the works #51, lurking in the shadows. The #50 Ferrari had to serve a drive-through penalty - dropping them to fourth with a menacing stealth #8 Toyota managed the tyres superbly in the cool night time conditions to climb up to fifth. The gap at midnight was a mere 37 seconds blanketing the top five cars.
As for Porsche, continuing to spearhead the attack - the #6 was now in the hands of Australian Matt Campbell who was clinging onto the coattails of the Italian exports, whilst trying to go a few laps longer to differ the strategy, but still keep in touch. His objective was to try and keep hand over to Kévin Estre with less than 40 seconds going into the second day. It was 15. Game on!
The biggest disappointment for the American and British fans was the fall of the Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA cars. From the front row - the V-Series R V8 monsters just couldn’t turn the tyres on out of the box like Porsche and in particular Ferrari in the daylight and couldn’t get the same operating window either - dropping them into a fight for a top six rather than win. The gold #12 and red #311 led the Cadillac hopes with its impressive barks from the engines sounding spectacular as it echoed around the Circuit de la Sarthe.
The #94 Peugeot who has been on a different strategy to the rest of the pack was dicing with the #35 Alpine just outside the top ten. The Peugeot 9X8, perhaps a little heavier on their different fuel strategy, braked a little earlier than the Alpine was perhaps expecting and the Alpine itself missed its braking point - running into the back of the Peugeot, causing them both to spin out at the Mulsanne corner. Both thankfully were able to dust themselves off and rejoin. The #35 A424 got a drive-through penalty as the punishment.
A fact for you - at the stroke of midnight - 15 of the 21 Hypercars are still on the lead lap.
In the LMP2 prototype class the lead battle was brewing nicely - the #48 VDS Panis Racing ORECA was in second in the first four hours but slowly but surely the French team caught, clawed their way past the #43 Inter Europol Competition car which was looking so dominant in the early stages. Iron Lynx - Proton with the #9 car have staying in third, while IDEC Sport #28 is hunting a top three in fourth -both lying in wait for trouble to strike the cars in front. Spike - the dragon inspired ORECA from AO by TF lead the Pro/Am tussle bt have fallen back in the race for the outright LMP2 win in fifth.
To the delight of crowd - Valentino Rossi’s #46 Team WRT BMW M4 lead the GT battle by ?? seconds. A stellar shift all three drivers including Ahmad Al Harthy who handed to the car to ‘The Doctor’ to get to work early in the evening. An impressive stint helped them move into the margin, which lead driver Kelvin van der Linde duly took forward and the Bavarian marque holds a near one minute advantage. The #92 Manthey 1ST Phorm Porsche team have had a solid first day on track and climbed the order ahead of the #78 Lexus from Akkodis ASP - which looked so dominant at the start of the race.
We sadly lost another two LMGT3 cars ahead of the eight-hour milestone. The #60 Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG has suspected engine woes while transmission drama stopped the #95 in its tracks on the Mulsanne straight. With a Full Course Yellow (FCY) to move the strikened McLaren, driver Darren Leung tried as he may to resolve the issue - but had to call it a day with 80 laps on the board.
Three cars almost joined them - the #33 TF Sport Corvette, #10 Racing Spirit of Lemans Aston Martin and #63 Iron Lynx Mercedes spent time in their respective garages - but despite going three laps down on the LMGT3 leaders - the cars rolled out of the garages and into the night.
1. #83 AF Corse – Robert Kubica / Yifei Ye / Philip Hanson 134 Laps
2. Ferrari 499P #51 Ferrari-AF Corse – Alessandro Pier Guidi / James Calado / Antonio Giovinazzi +1.957
3. Porsche 963 #6 Porsche Penske Motorsport – Kévin Estre / Laurens Vanthoor / Matt Campbell +15.274
4. Ferrari 499P #50 Ferrari-AF Corse – Antonio Fuoco / Nicklas Nielsen / Miguel Molina +34.635
5. Toyota GR010 Hybrid #8 Toyota Gazoo Racing – Sébastien Buemi / Brendon Hartley / Ryo Hirakawa + 36.901
