24h Le Mans
At the mid-race point, the 24 Hours Centenary has delivered endless drama and excitement with four different marques in the top four spots.
Twelve hours into the race, Toyota, Ferrari, Cadillac and Porsche have battled relentlessly for first place. It seems Toyota may have the advantage, but this running has been nothing if not unpredictable so far. The Japanese constructor learned the hard way when, as the clock struck midnight, the #7 GR010 Hybrid found itself involved in a chain collision with Graff Racing's #39 ORECA 07-Gibson, JMW Motorsport's #66 Ferrari 488 GTE Evo and Alpine Elf Team's #35 ORECA 07-Gibson. The Hypercar was hit from behind and forced to retire.
No Hypercar team has entirely avoided the repercussions of this merciless night at the 24 Hours. Porsche Penske Motorsport's #5 Porsche 963 suffered a leak in its cooling system and lost 30 minutes. Ferrari AF Corse's #50 Ferrari 499P experienced mechanical problems, giving up 28 minutes. The #3 Cadillac V-Series.R driven by Sébastien Bourdais was pushed into a spin after contact from behind at the Raccordement by Motul. And, the Peugeot TotalEnergies team's #94 Peugeot struck the tyre wall at the Daytona Chicane while in P3. Despite heavy damage to the front right, Gustavo Menezes managed to return to the garage, but repairs took 23 minutes.
The LMP2 category lost a contender for victory: Prema Racing's #63 ORECA 07-Gibson left the track at the Pont Corner at 01:39 while driven by former Formula 1 competitor and official Lamborghini driver Daniil Kvyat.
Six cars were still in the same lap in the category with Duqueine Team's #30 ORECA 07-Gibson leading the charge ahead of Panis Racing, COOL Racing, Team WRT, Inter Europol Competition and IDEC SPORT Racing. The situation was the same in LMGTE Am with seven cars neck and neck. Project 1-AO's #56 Porsche 911 RSR-19 held the lead, trailed by AF Corse's #54 Ferrari 488 GTE Evo.
This centenary running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans has been particularly challenging for the drivers and teams, with 14 retirements (12 due to incidents).
1. #51 Ferrari 499P – Ferrari AF Corse – Alessandro Pier Guidi / James Calado / Antonio Giovinazzi – 154 laps
2. #8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid – TOYOTA GAZOO Racing – Sébastien Buemi / Brendon Hartley / Ryo Hirakawa +3.545 seconds
3. #2 Cadillac V-Series.R – Cadillac Racing – Earl Bamber / Alex Lynn / Richard Westbrook +1 minute
4. #6 Porsche 963 – Porsche Penske Motorsport – Kévin Estre / André Lotterer / Laurens Vanthoor +1 lap
5. #3 Cadillac V-Series.R – Cadillac Racing – Sébastien Bourdais / Renger van der Zande / Scott Dixon +35.612 seconds
Peugeot has previously led the 24 Hours several times before the mid-race point, namely the three times the French marque claimed the top step on the podium: in 1992 (Yannick Dalmas/Derek Warwick/Mark Blundell), in 1993 (Geoff Brabham/Christophe Bouchut/Éric Hélary) and in 2009 (Marc Gené/David Brabham/Alex Wurz). In 2008, Jacques Villeneuve/Nicolas Minassian/Marc Gené, the leaders at mid-race, were faced with the return of the Audi of future winners Rinaldo Capello/Tom Kristensen/Allan McNish. The following year, Stéphane Sarrazin/Franck Montagny/Nicolas Minassian were forced to retire on Sunday morning.
