Toyota, BMW and Cadillac continue to slug it out for supremacy at the front of the field in an intriguing 24 Hours of Le Mans, as Saturday turns to Sunday at the Circuit de la Sarthe, with the first safety car of the race arriving at 23:40
Each of the three manufacturers led stages of the race, as all three employed slightly different pit-stop strategies and the #8 Toyota, #38 Cadillac and #20 BMW postured to try to take charge
The #20 BMW and #8 Toyota effectively converged on pit-stop sequences, with the Bavarian manufacturer going a lap longer on fuel, consistently achieving 13-lap stints while its Japanese rival mostly completed 12
In the eighth hour, as the pit-stops played out, Sébastien Buemi pitted and elected not to change tyres, while the #20 BMW took on fresh rubber; with the #38 Cadillac going for soft-compound Michelins and BMW plumping for mediums, the race entered a fascinating phase
At 23:25, Earl Bamber set the fastest lap of the race thus far on a 3m26.370s on soft Michelin tyres, which looked set to trigger a similar strategy amongst Cadillac's rivals; prior to Bamber’s stints, hometown hero Sébastien Bourdais had completed excellent stints at the wheel, stretching the stint length
Ahead of the last scheduled pit-stops before midnight, Buemi had caught Frijns in the #20 BMW and the two ran almost nose-to-tail in first and second positions, but with Bamber having pitted slightly earlier, it was the gold Hertz Team JOTA-run Cadillac V-Series.R that led by 24 seconds as the ninth hour approached
With the first safety car intervention to retrieve the stranded #54 VISTA AF Corse Ferrari from the Forest Esses, however, the complexion of the race looked poised to change as midnight approached
The sister #12 Cadillac, driven by Will Stevens, is similarly in the mix and also on soft tyres, running ahead of the #20 BMW, although on a different pit-stop strategy prior to the safety car being deployed
Outside of the top four, the chase was led by the #101 Cadillac WTR entry in the hands of Filipe Albuquerque; the Portuguese ace leads James Calado’s sixth-placed Ferrari, the best-positioned of the Prancing Horse entries
Alpine faded a little in the early evening, as both the #35 and #36 A424 Hypercars run in the lower reaches of the top ten
The #7 Toyota continued to attempt a recovery from the fourth-hour slow puncture suffered by Nyck de Vries; Mike Conway got his second stint at the wheel and battled with the #50 Ferrari AF Corse 499P as the pair sit eighth and ninth
The #50 Ferrari is similarly endeavouring to make up lost ground, as it bids to bounce back from the earlier spin suffered by Antonio Fuoco
There was disaster in the seventh hour for the #15 BMW M Team WRT entry, which was taken out of contention following an incident with the #3 DKR Engineering LMP2 car driven by John Farano; slight contact at Maison Blanche saw bodywork damage that caused a right rear puncture just before 22:00
Dries Vanthoor was forced to complete a slow lap back to the pits before taking on a new rear deck and new Michelin tyre; the delay cost the car over three laps and dropped it to the rear of the Hypercar field, but Kevin Magnussen then pitted again at 23:15 with a technical problem at the front end
LMGT3
Akkodis ASP Team started to take control of the LMGT3 category as they ran one-two after eight hours of racing before the safety car neutralisation
The #87 Lexus held a small advantage over the sister #78 car in the hands of Petru Umbrărescu and Tom van Rompuy, both of whom drive mammoth stints to stabilise the gap
But the safety car for the clash between the #54 VISTA AF Corse Ferrari and #88 Proton Competition Ford Mustang at the Forest Esses changed the order significantly, with the pole-sitting Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin taking up the lead
Kessel Racing was elevated to second position, as Dennis Marschall took to the track for his second stint at the wheel of the #74 Ferrari 296
Third at midnight was the #21 VISTA AF Corse Ferrari, with Simon Mann just ahead of the #77 Proton Competition Ford Mustang, while the top six was completed by the pair of hitherto all-conquering Akkodis-run Lexuses
A puncture for the #91 Manthey DK Engineering Porsche 911 GT3 R slowed that car’s progress, which had been meteoric in the hands of Ayhancan Güven, ably supported by James Cottingham and Timur Boguslavskiy
The #61 Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG suffered a suspension issue and was forced to retire from the race, while the #13 Autosport Corvette is also out after a terminal mechanical problem
LMP2
Duqueine Team opened up a strong gap in the LMP2 category, as Doriane Pin and subsequently Julien Andlauer completed strong stints to consolidate the foundation laid by Richard Verschoor earlier in the race
Andlauer, loaned to the team from Porsche for Le Mans, survived a trip across the Mulsanne Corner gravel trap just before the safety car was summoned as the race reached one-third distance
Inter Europol Competition runs second with Bijoy Garg in the car for the second time, while the #26 Vector Sport car was elevated to third position as Pietro Fittipaldi capitalised upon the safety car situation
All of FIA WEC. All of endurance racing’s greatest battles. Watch live and on demand with FIAWEC+ – the official streaming platform of the FIA World Endurance Championship, wherever you are, whenever you want, including the legendary 24 Hours of Le Mans. Stream FIA WEC live with FIAWEC+.
