24h Le Mans
A spate of accidents and incidents produced a host of slow zones before the rain began to fall quite heavily in some parts of the circuit, bringing out the Safety Car for the second time. The #94 Peugeot 9X8 took advantage to seize the race lead following some expert driving by Gustavo Menezes.
Two heavy crashes affected the LMP2 class shortly after the hour mark. Nielsen Racing’s spectacularly decorated #14 Oreca 07-Gibson veered off to the right and into the barriers on the climb towards the Dunlop chicane. The #13 Tower Motorsports machine had just completed its three-minute stop-and-hold penalty for Steven Thomas’s involvement in the spectacular crash in Wednesday’s first free practice session. This time, American Ricky Taylor hit the barrier hard at the exit from Tertre Rouge.
The LMGTE Am favourite, the #33 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R spent nine minutes in the pits for an issue with its right front damper. Fortunately for the US challenger seeking a ninth class win, there is still lots of time left on the clock. A collision between two class members – the #21 Ferrari 488 GTE EVO of AF Corse driven by Ulysse de Pauw and the #55 GMB Motorsport Aston Martin Vantage AMR – and the #3 Cadillac V-Series.R with Sébastien Bourdais at the wheel sent the two severely impacted GTEs into the gravel on either side of the track at Dunlop while the Cadillac Hypercar managed to continue to the pits with visible rear-end damage. Then Claudio Schiavone in the Iron Lynx #60 Porsche 911 RSR-19 went wide entering Tertre Rouge. The Italian spun back in towards the racing line, spearing the #16 Proton Competition Porsche driven by Ryan Hardwick, and just missing one of the Toyota Hypercars.
The #22 United Autosports Oreca 07-Gibson, driven by Fred Lubin, then collided with the #77 Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche 911 RSR-19 on exiting Tertre Rouge, causing the LMGTE Am machine to shed its left rear Michelin tyre.
In the top class, Sébastien Bourdais in the #3 Cadillac V-Series.R clocked the fastest lap in the race so far in the 12th lap with a time of 3:28.298. In the second and third hours, Toyota, Ferrari, Porsche and Cadillac swapped places several times by dent of differing pit stop strategies under yellow flags and spectacular overtaking manoeuvres such as António Félix da Costa’s move in the Porsche 963 operated by Hertz Team JOTA to get the better of Laurens Vanthoor in the #6 works car. Fastest in Thursday’s Hyperpole, Antonio Fuoco in the #50 Ferrari 499P then outmuscled the #6 Porsche as they hurtled towards Mulsanne Corner. On the 38th lap, as rain began to fall in certain parts of the circuit, Gustavo Menezes in the #94 Peugeot 9X8 drove brilliantly to move successively from fifth to third by overtaking the #38 Hertz Porsche and the #51 Ferrari, and then into second as Earl Bamber pitted the #2 Cadillac.
The light shower turned into a torrential downpour as the clock ticked towards the 3-hour mark. Cars shod with slicks aquaplaned all around the track apart from the pit straight where the sun continued its efforts to pierce the cloud cover.
Many that managed to keep their machine on the tarmac advanced gingerly towards the pits to change to grooved tyres while the safety car was deployed once again at 18:53. With the two Ferraris in the pits, the Peugeot TotalEnergies #94 Peugeot 9X8 moved into the lead, sending the home crowd into raptures.
The #93 sister car, however, was less fortunate as Jean-Éric Vergne ended in the gravel at Mulsanne Corner during the safety car period and needed to be hooked back onto firm ground. The pass-around procedure was in operation to put an end to the safety car period as the clock struck 8.00 pm.
#94 Peugeot 9X8 | Peugeot TotalEnergies | Loïc Duval/Gustavo Menezes/Nico Müller | 46 laps
#6 Porsche 963 | Porsche Penske Motorsport | Kévin Estre/André Lotterer/Laurens Vanthoor | +5:49.469
#7 Toyota GR010-Hybrid | Toyota Gazoo Racing | Mike Conway/Kamui Kobayashi/José María López | +5:51.953
#8 Toyota GR010-Hybrid | Toyota Gazoo Racing | Sébastien Buemi/Brendon Hartley/ Ryō Hirakawa | 5:52.699
#75 Porsche 963 | Porsche Penske Motorsport | Felipe Nasr/Mathieu Jaminet/Nick Tandy | +6:58.596
The first hour was reminiscent of 1998, when Porsche hung back behind the leaders Mercedes – who started in pole position – and Toyota, with the GT-One making its Le Mans début. As the hours ticked by, their constant cat-and-mousing exhausted the top two, leaving space for an iconic Porsche 911 one-two sweep for Laurent Aiello/Stéphane Ortelli/Allan McNish and Bob Wollek/Uwe Alzen/Jörg Müller.
