There are eight hours to go, and so much is still to be decided in what has been an enthralling Le Mans 24 Hours.
If Hour 15 was about LMP2’s lead battle, Hour 16 was about Hypercar.
Alessandro Pier Guidi in the No. 51 Ferrari continued to reel in Ryo Hirakawa’s No. 8 Toyota in the opening laps of the hour. Hirakawa’s pace was no match for the Italian but when the pair pitted for their 19th stop of the race, they were nose to tail with the Toyota still ahead.
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When Hirakawa pulled in for the stop, he it emerged that he was carrying splitter damage and a slow right-rear puncture. The team, rightly, opted to change the front end and the damaged tire before sending him on his way with another full tank of fuel.
But it would cost the No. 8 Toyota crew the lead. The No. 51 Ferrari, even with a driver and tire change, still left the pit lane in front, with James Calado given the nod to build a lead for the team.
“The guys did an amazing job to get us out in front. We lead but it’s too early to think about the results,” Pier Guidi said after handing over to Calado.
The gap when Calado left the pits was 5.5 seconds, into Hour 17 it was 11.5s, the Briton edging away from Hirakawa. Was that the moment that we will look back on, which decided the race for the overall win?
Behind, there was further intrigue just outside the top three spots in the class, as Kevin Estre in his No. 6 Porsche 963 caught the No. 3 Cadillac of Sebastien Bourdais. The two Frenchman were all over each other, Bourdais opting to keep it smooth while Estre was ragged, throwing his car around trying to find a way past.
In the end, there was no change of position, as Bourdais was able to manipulate the traffic to pull away a little. But it was a thrilling sequence for two cars that have done well to claw their way back into podium contention after dramas early in the race.
In LMP2 all was quiet, the No. 34 Inter Europol ORECAleads the No. 41 WRT ORECA, with the No. 30 Duqueine example third.
GTE saw Kessel continue to hold station out front with Takeshi Kimura putting in a faultless stint. He is 33 seconds ahead of the ‘Rexy’ Project 1 Porsche. Matteo Cairoli would be closer but a spin at Mulsanne Corner cost the Italian a handful of seconds. The true order is still to play out in the class, as a pit cycle began at the end of the hour.