With seven hours remaining in the 2023 Le Mans 24 Hours, the Ferrari vs Toyota battle for the overall lead is still on and it’s fierce.
Currently, the gap is 28 seconds, the No. 51 499P, now driven by Antonio Giovanazzi after a short stint from James Calado. During the hour the No. 8 closed the gap a little, Ryo Hirakawa getting it down to 19 seconds while Calado wrestled with tyre degradation issues on his rears. Since Buemi climbed in, the gap has grown again, however.
“The stint was pretty decent, it’s been a great fight with the Toyotas. We have been nose to tail, it’s a magic place to be and I’m so proud of the guys,” Calado said after his stint. “The car has never gone this far before in terms of hours.”
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Third and continuing to lurk, ready to take advantage of any mistakes is the No. 2 Cadillac, with Richard Westbrook now in, two and a half minutes off.
Cadillac Racing’s No. 3 V-Series.R is fourth and the pressure from behind that Sebastien Bourdais soaked up in the previous hour, is gone. At the start of the seventeenth hour, Kevin Estre, in pursuit of the No. 3 through traffic went for a gap that slammed shut on the Porsche Curves. Estre had to take evasive action and ended up going into a tire wall nose first. He was able to rejoin and head back to the pits, the damage to his No. 6 Penske Porsche appearing minor initially.
But there was significant damage to the floor, and the mechanics were forced to push the car back in the garage for work.
That promoted the No. 93 Peugeot back into the top five. The No. 708 Glickenhaus was sixth, but Olivier Pla had an off into the barriers at Indianapolis after running wide over the runoff.
In LMP2, the titanic battle between the No. 41 WRT ORECA and the no. 34 Inter Europol ORECA continued during the hour. Robert Kubica made an opportunistic move on Jakub Smiechowski at the first Mulsanne Chicane, following the No. 2 Cadillac through up the inside. But the car has since dropped back to second.
In GTE Am, the race has come alive too. It’s so close, with the top five within 20 seconds. The big story here is the comeback from Corvette. The C8.R has come from two laps down to sit second, with Nicky Catsburg making up huge chunks of time throughout the morning. He is now 30 seconds off Matteo Cairoli in the No. 56 ‘Rexy’ Project 1 Porsche.
Corvette, RACER understands, has benefitted greatly during the race from Ben Keating’s long-time Le Mans spotter, who has spent the entire race cycling through corner cameras manually with a remote, following the No. 33, instructing all three drivers.
The Iron Dames Porsche is third, with the No. 54 AF Corse Ferrari and No. 25 ORT by TF Aston Martin fourth and fifth.
Takeshi Kimura struggled for pace during his most recent stint. His No. 57 Kessel Racing Ferrari has dropped down to eighth, having led a significant portion of the morning.