It has been an action-packed first four hours of the 82nd 24 Hours of Le Mans, with two short but very heavy rain showers causing chaos on track, with several incidents and accidents throughout the four classes. The safety car was deployed on both occasions due to accidents which resulted from the conditions.
The LMGTE Pro category saw a spirited fight in the opening hours between the Corvette Racing entries and the pole-sitting No.51 AF Corse Ferrari 458 of Gianmaria Bruni. The American muscle cars eventually prevailed and gained an advantage in the first rain shower by gambling on tyres and not stopping as the rest of the field did.
As the heavens opened for a second time, both the No.73 Corvette and FIA WEC World GTE Champion Bruni opted to pit for wet tyres and change drivers (Bruni making way for Toni Vilander), and the two Porsche Team Manthey 911 RSRs moved into second and third, with Frédéric Makowiecki and Patrick Pilet in control.
The gamble for wet tyres, or opting to remain on slicks, played its part again and at the four hour mark, with full racing conditions and a dry track, it was the No.74 Corvette in the lead of the Pro category followed by the No.91 and 92 Porsche 911 RSRs in 2nd and 3rd respectively. The No.51 was 38 seconds behind in 4th.
A retirement of note in LMGTE Pro is the No.71 AF Corse Ferrari of Davide Rigon, Olivier Beretta and replacement for injured James Calado, Pierre Kaffer. After a lot of hard work to replace the damaged chassis and re-prepare the F458 for the race, the car was retired after 28 laps with an engine problem.
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It hasn’t been AF Corse’s day so far as the championship-winning Italian team has also lost its class leading LMGTE Am car as well. British driver Sam Bird made a great start in the No.81 Ferrari 458 Italia and was leading comfortably ahead of his class rivals when the rain came down and Bird became the innocent victim of the incident involving the No.8 Toyota and No.3 Audi. The damage to the Am car was too great to continue and it was retired with 22 laps having been completed.
After four hours of racing, it was therefore the No.98 Aston Martin Vantage V8 of Christoffer Nygaard, Pedro-Lamy and Paul Dalla Lana which leads the category, ahead of the No.53 Ram Racing Ferrari and the No.77 Dempsey Racing Proton Porsche 911 GT3 RSR which also had its turn at the head of not only the Am class but the Pro class too thanks to the differing pit stop strategies.
Full classifications for each hour can be found HERE, or for more detail of each hour, click HERE.
Photos: CIRCUIT DES 24 HEURES (LE MANS, FRANCE), 24 HOURS OF LE MANS, RACE, SATURDAY 14 JUNE 2014. The start of the LMGTE race (top) and the No.98 LMGTE Am Aston Martin Vantage V8.
