Hypercar
- The halfway point arrived at the 93rd running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans with Ferrari/Porsche and Toyota fighting it out on the lead lap of a race that is boiling up in to a close fight in the final half of the world’s greatest endurance sportscar race and the fourth round of the 2025 FIA WEC
- That drama is then accentuated by the arrival of the first Safety Car of the race which closes the field up at 4am
- Sunday had earlier began with a brief excursion for the leading #83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P driven by Phil Hanson, who lost only a small amount of time as he skated through the gravel at Mulsanne Corner
- Hanson then handed back over to Robert Kubica, who swapped the lead of the race with the #6 Porsche Penske, which itself was off-set on fuel strategy from the Ferraris.
- Kévin Estre pitted early in his first Sunday morning scheduled stop due to a slow puncture. But fortunately for the French ace the incident did not derail his attack on the Ferraris. He handed the 963 Hypercar over to teammate Laurens Vanthoor, who remained in the lead as the halfway mark arrived
- The relatively smooth race for the Prancing Horse then started to change a little at 2am when notification arrived that the #51 Ferrari AF Corse 499P had to serve a 20-second stop/go penalty for speeding in the pitlane.
- Antonio Giovinazzi served the sanction and re-emerged in to the race fifth, behind the #4 Porsche Penske 963 Hypercar driven by Nick Tandy. The difficulties continued for Giovinazzi, who also suffered a puncture and was forced to make an unscheduled pit stop
- There was also lost time for the #50 Ferrari AF Corse, as a five-second time penalty was added to a pit stop just before 3am. This was applied to Antonio Fuoco who was adjudged to have cut the Dunlop Chicane. Just prior to that the #50 Ferrari pitted off-sequence for a tyre change
- All this action meant that the #6 Porsche Penske driven by Laurens Vanthoor led Robert Kubica in the #83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P
Safety Car Changes Race Complexion
- The third Full Course Yellow of the race was deployed at 2.45am to clear debris from the track. But shortly after that was withdrawn, a first Safety Car changed the complexion of the race after the Nielsen Racing Oreca-Gibson LMP2, driven by Cem Bolukbasi, crashed heavily at Tertre Rouge
- That saw a flurry of pit stops and a lengthy period of rebuilding barriers at Tertre Rouge. The Turkish driver was able to vacate the car himself and then underwent precautionary checks at the circuit medical centre
- The bigger winner was the #8 TOYOTA GAZOO Racing GR010 Hybrid Hypercar with Ryo Hirakawa able to vault in to second position and on to the tail of leader Laurens Vanthoor in the #6 Porsche Penske 963 Hypercar
- The race goes green at 03.51am as battles raged throughout the entire field.
- As 4am arrived the order read: 1st #6 Porsche; 2nd #8 Toyota; 3rd #83 AF Corse Ferrari; 4th #4 Porsche; 5th #15 BMW; 6th #51 Ferrari; 7th #50 Ferrari; 8th #12 Cadillac HTJ; 9th #5 Porsche; 10th #38 Cadillac HTJ
- Further down the field a problem with the #311 Cadillac Whelen Hypercar saw a steering torque sensor and ECU changed to try to cure a problem reported by Frederick Vesti before Jack Aitken got back in the car, which dropped to the rear of the Hypercar field
- There were also issues for the #93 Peugeot TotalEnergies entry which spun but then continued under Safety Car in the hands of Mikkel Jensen
- The Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing Hypercar pulled off the track a minute before the midway point on the Mulsanne Straight with Filipe Albuquerque seemingly retiring the car
LMGT3
- The #92 Manthey 1st Phorm Porsche 911 LMGT3 entry capitalised on the Safety Car situation to take a clear lead after 12 hours of racing
- Riccardo Pera enjoyed a 42-second advantage over the #81 TF Sport Corvette operation which stealthily came through to become a factor after solid stints from Charlie Eastwood, Tom van Rompuy and Rui Andrade started to pay dividends
- The #78 Akkodis ASP Lexus challenger placed third as Finn Gehrsitz pressured the TF Sport Corvette for second place at the midway point
- The #21 VISTA AF Corse Ferrari with Simon Mann at the wheel was placed under investigation for a Safety Car infraction but retained fourth place at 4am
- The top six was rounded out by the #87 Akkodis ASP Lexus, which took the opportunity to make a brake change during the Safety Car period but re-joined still in contention ahead of the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin
- An issue struck for the #46 Team WRT at 2.30am as Kelvin van der Linde got beached in the Porsche Curves gravel trap and had to be rescued by recovery vehicles. The former LMGT3 category leader tumbled down to the foot of the class field
- Double trouble for the Belgian team too as the #31 Team WRT BMW car pits just before half-distance and is wheeled back in to the box for repairs after hitting a rabbit on the track
LMP2
- LMP2 continues to be led by the VDS Panis Racing Oreca-Gibson as it heads the #9 Iron Lynx Proton
- The #43 Inter Europol Competition Oreca-Gibson continues strong run as it holds third position but is under huge pressure from the #28 IDEC Sport and AO by TF Sport cars. The trio are covered by just a few seconds after the Safety Car peels off in to the pits and the race goes green. The #18 IDEC Sport entry driven by Mathys Jaubert completes the top six
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