Hypercar
- The 94th 24 Hours of Le Mans reached the halfway point with an enhanced battle between Cadillac and Toyota proving to be a consistently captivating and close fight for supremacy
- The #8 Toyota TR010 Hybrid Hypercar quadrupled its set of medium Michelins via Sebastien Buemi and Brendon Hartley before and after midnight. The Kiwi inherited a 13-second gap after some mighty laps by the Swiss ace when the race went to green status again, after the only safety car of the race so far, ended just after midnight
- But Hartley lost that advantage at 1.20am when he outbraked himself at Mulsanne Corner and was forced to rejoin, losing the hard-won gap. He rejoined just ahead of the Will Stevens driven #12 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA in second place and the pair ran nose-to-tail for several laps
- The Toyota was put under significant pressure not only by Stevens, but also by the #38 Cadillac, which changed hands from Earl Bamber to Jack Aitken at 01.30am
- A short-filled pit stop put Aitken ahead of the #8 Toyota to ensure that the Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA run pair ran 1-2, with Stevens ahead of Aitken until 2.30am. That was when Hartley fought back and found his way past the #12 Cadillac
- But the Toyota was unable to stop Aitken extending the lead at the front with the British driver building a 22- second gap over the sister #12 Cadillac, as the race hit the 12 hour mark
- The #20 BMW held fourth position for most of the early hours of Sunday morning after fading slightly from the very front of the overall lead battle, although Sheldon van der Linde stayed in touch with the leading trio well
- The #7 Toyota, driven. By Kamui Kobayashi, managed to put a fine on-track move on the fifth placed #101 Cadillac WTR Hypercar at Mulsanne Corner just before the 12-hour mark arrived
- The #50 Ferrari AF Corse 499P Hypercar drops out of contention after it pitted just after the green flag flew in the ninth hour. A need to change the fire extinguisher in the car meant it lost eight laps and fell behind the much delayed #15 BMW in 18th position
- A fantastic debut performance by Genesis Magma Racing played out over the first half of the race but issues struck for the #19 GMR001 driven by Paul-Loup Chatin, as the car stops on the Mulsanne Straight and triggers the third full course yellow at 03.25am. Chatin managed to re-start the car and returned to the action although having lost four positions
LMGT3
- Mattia Drudi and Zacharie Robichon built up a small gap at the front in the LMGT3 category, delighting the legions of Aston Martin fans at Le Mans
- The #27 Heart of Racing Vantage LMGT3 challenger ran ahead of the pair of Akkodis ASP Lexus entries, as Jack Hawksworth and Jose-Maria Lope endeavoured to chase down the Aston in the #78 and #87 cars respectively
- But the order regularly shuffled as a variety of tyre and fuel strategies played out over most of the field in a typically tight battle throughout the remaining 23 entries
- The LMGT3 battle as by no means an exclusive battle at the front between Aston Martin and Lexus though, as the #33 TF Sport Corvette of Jonny Edgar, Ben Keating and Nicky Catsburg start to come to the fore after a strong mid-phase of the race
- Staying in touch with the Corvette was the #62 Team Qatar by Iron Lynx Mercedes, making it four different manufacturers in the top four positions in the LMGT3 category
- There was rouble for the #150 Richard Mille AF Corse Ferrari in the 12th hour that meant it lost time in the pits after needing a new door fitted
LMP2
- The lead of the LMP2 category fluctuated during the early hours between the longtime leading #30 Duqueine Oreca-Gibson driven by Doriane Pin, Julien Andlauer and Richard Verschoor and the #343 Inter Europol Competition of Nico Mueller, Bijoy Garg and Reshad de Gerus
- At 4am it was the Duqueine car (Pin) that held the advantage over the Inter Europol Competition entry (Garg), with the second of the Inter Europol Competition cars, the #43 entry driven by Tom Dillmann, in third position.
- Le Mans rookie Enzo Trulli brings out the second full course yellow period at 3.17am after locking up and skating off at Arnage. The #25 Algarve Pro Racing entry has to be pulled out of the gravel trap by rescue workers but re-joins the action and runs P16 in class
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