With green flag racing returning in the third hour after barrier damage was repaired following incidents for the #35 Alpine and #007 Aston Martin, the #83 AF Corse Ferrari of Phil Hanson led the similar #51 Ferrari driven by James Calado
The lead changed at 2hrs 33mins when Calado easily slipped by Hanson on the run up to Turn 1 and then pulled out a small lead before his second scheduled pit-stop
The #83 AF Corse Ferrari lost significant time in the pits as Hanson was compromised on entry to his pit space and had to be pushed back. Yifei Ye resumed the race, but having lost 35 seconds to the leading #51 Ferrari AF Corse 499P of Antonio Giovinazzi, who had taken over from James Calado
The safety car returned after 2hrs 50mins following an initial Virtual Safety Car (VSC) period to retrieve the spun #99 Proton Competition Porsche 963. Nicolás Varrone had run as high as fifth courtesy of a strong early stint, but fell to the rear of the field after his excursion
Green flag racing returned just as the fourth hour arrived, with Giovinazzi leading the #6 Porsche Penske 963 with Matt Campbell at the wheel, while Antonio Fuoco was the second half of a Ferrari sandwich in the #50 Ferrari AF Corse
Campbell clawed his way into contention for the lead and hunted down Giovinazzi, but the gap stabilised at around the three-second mark as conditions continued to test the whole field
Porsche also ran fourth, with the #5 employing a unique strategy of staying out and not making a first pit-stop until 2hrs 42mins of running as Julien Andlauer handed over the cockpit to Mathieu Jaminet
Jaminet stayed in touch with the top three until a lurid spin at 3hrs 32mins, gyrating multiple times at Turn 10 but continuing without losing a position
TOYOTA GAZOO Racing endured a tough few hours of racing as both the #7 and #8 cars suffered spins, the latter following contact with the #33 TF Sport Corvette LMGT3 driven by Jonny Edgar, who received a drive-through penalty for the incident
The #7 Toyota then triggered another VSC just before the fifth hour arrived, when José María López spun and beached the GR010 Hybrid in a gravel trap
Sitting a strong sixth is the #94 Team Peugeot TotalEnergies 9X8 Hypercar of Malthe Jakobsen, the young Dane impressing again in his first full FIA WEC season for ‘The Lions’
The rest of the order after four hours of running was: 7th #12 Cadillac; 8th #009 Aston Martin; 9th #007 Aston Martin; 10th #93 Peugeot
LMGT3
Leading the LMGT3 category for most of the mid-phase of the race was the #77 Proton Competition Ford Mustang in the hands of Ben Tuck
The British driver managed to hold off the #95 United Autosports McLaren of Sean Gelael, although the two were equally-matched throughout the third and fourth hours
United Autosports also held third for much of the mid-portion, with the #59 McLaren driven by Sébastien Baud in a close battle with the chasing #60 Iron Lynx Mercedes of Lorcan Hanafin in fourth
Hanafin was especially impressive as he nursed older Goodyear tyres than those around him in the race
One of the fiercest scraps was between the #85 Iron Dames Porsche of Rahel Frey and the championship-leading #92 Manthey 1st Phorm Porsche of Riccardo Pera. The Italian took fifth place from Frey midway through the fourth hour
With the #21 VISTA AF Corse and the #33 TF Sport Corvette having troubled races, Manthey 1st Phorm looks set to increase its advantage in the title table
The #33 TF Sport crew’s misery was compounded when the car stopped on-track as the clock ticked to four hours, with Jonny Edgar seemingly unable to re-start the Corvette due to a loss of fuel pressure
The #46 Team WRT BMW team saw its challenge fade after picking up a drive-through penalty for a VSC offence in the third hour
The rest of the LMGT3 positions at four hours are: 7th #54 VISTA AF Corse Ferrari; 8th #10 Racing Spirit of Léman Aston Martin; 9th #88 Proton Ford Mustang; 10th #61 Iron Lynx Mercedes
