We’ve reached the quarter mark of the centenary running of the Le Mans 24 Hours, and in every class, it’s been a drama-filled race, with no team about to build any sort of comfortable lead through the safety car periods and rain showers.
In Hypercar, the race finally settled down somewhat, and Ferrari emerged as the true leader, its pair of 499Ps running strongly in first and second, pulling away from the chasing pack through much of the hour.
But as Hour 7 started it was the No. 75 Porsche that inherited the lead, as the two AF Corse Ferraris pitted at the end of the sixth hour. Nick Tandy is ahead of the two Ferraris, but the Briton is set to pit shortly after the start of the next hour and drop back down the order.
As it stands, it’s going well for Ferrari, and for the No. 94 Peugeot and No. 2 Cadillac. Clean runs for all four cars, with no dramas or misfortune, have put them firmly in contention as the sun sets over the circuit.
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The No. 94 Peugeot, which led earlier in the race, ran third throughout the hour with Loic Duval pushing hard to keep up with the Ferraris. The pace isn’t there, though, as the Ferraris ended up matching and bettering the Frenchman’s pace. Duval is 20 seconds off the No. 51 of Alessandro Pier Guidi, which has recently leapfrogged the No. 50 of Nicklas Nielsen.
The Cadillac Racing No. 2 V-Series.R, the only Caddy to have a clean run so far, is within a minute of the lead, and running well. Cadillac, like Ferrari and Toyota, will hope to make progress overnight when they likely attempt to triple and quadruple each set of tires.
In LMP2, JOTA’s No. 28 ORECA of Oliver Rasmussen holds a 28-second advantage over the No. 34 Inter Europol ORECA, which has had an impressive outing so far. The No. 23 United Autosports ORECA is third.
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GTE AM is now being led by JMW, with the No. 54 AF Corse Ferrari second and the Iron Dames Porsche third. The TF Sport No. 72 was the latest car in the class to crash out. Arnold Robin, while running eighth ran wide through the Porsche Curves, hit the wall at the double left-hander and went sailing backwards into barriers, taking off the car’s rear wing.
The Am class so far has been incredibly hard to read, with so many cars hitting trouble. Just eight of the 21 cars are on the lead lap, and six cars have retired.
If you thought this race was about to enter a quiet phase, think again, as the rain began coming down hard at the pit lane area as Hour 7 began.