The seventh hour of the Le Mans 24 Hours brought darkness and more rain, lots of it. Another heavy rain shower, this time mainly over the pit lane and run to Tetre Rouge, caused another round of panicked pit stops for wet tires, and unfortunately more incidents.
Thankfully there were no major accidents, though a handful of key cars ended up damaged. The first to be spotted off-track was the JMW Motorsport Ferrari 488, which had just taken the lead of GTE Am. Giacomo Petrobelli lost control of the car at Karting, and ended up stranded in the gravel.
Seconds later a Toyota and Ferrari 499P went off at the same place, but avoided hitting any barriers and had to use the access road to get back on track.
Rain then began to hit Indianapolis and Arnage. Frederick Lubin had an off without contact in the No. 22 United ORECA, before the No. 9 PREMA OREECA stopped in the same runoff area and was t-boned by the Racing Team Turkey ORECA of Salih Yoluc, the Turk a passenger sailing over the track, straight-lining the apex. Both cars made it back to pit lane for repairs.
More chaos ensues as heavy rain hits the track again. 🌧️#WEC #LeMans24 #LeMansCentenary pic.twitter.com/OsmtzQESLr
— FIA World Endurance Championship (@FIAWEC) June 10, 2023
Once the field came in and took wet tyres, the rain eased and cars stopped going off track. The No. 2 Cadillac was the only car to suffer a notable off later in the hour, Richard Westbrook spinning at Mulsanne Corner, losing a chunk of time and describing the conditions as “dangerous.”
There was a significant car to hit mechanical trouble, though. Adding to Porsche’s series of unfortunate events in the race so far, the No. 75 ground to a half with a loss of power. Mathieu Jaminet did get the car fired again, before stopping again before the end of the hour. The IMSA guest-entered car has since been officially retired. Porsche now doesn’t have a 963 on the lead lap.
As for the running order. The No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari now has a clear lead. Alessandro Pier Guidi has been masterful in the wet, pulling away from the No. 94 Peugeot which remains the surprise package of the race. Loic Duval put in a huge effort to keep the car in contention. He did, however, drop from 27 seconds behind to 1m24s behind Pier Guidi during the hour. The No. 51 is fully in control at the moment.
What about the No. 50 sister Ferrari? It is down to fifth having lost 30 seconds at its most recent stop due to an unplanned car reset.
The No. 7 and No. 8 Toyotas are third and fourth behind the No. 94 Peugeot.
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In LMP2, the hour saw a lead battle between the No. 34 Inter Europol ORECA of Fabio Scherer and No. 23 United Autosports ORECA build up, with Tom Blomqvist in the No. 23 reeling in Scherer throughout the hour. It will be interesting to see if the No. 23 will take the lead on pit lane or on track.
After JMW’s woes in the rain, GTE Am is now led by the “Rexy” Project 1 Porsche. The fan favourite has enjoyed an impressive run in the opening hours and has stayed out of trouble. With Matteo Cairoli now back aboard, his mission is to pull away from Michelle Gatting in the Iron Dames Porsche that is currently 22 seconds behind. The No. 54 AF Corse Ferrari is third.
Hendrick Motorsports Camaro ZL1 has also stayed out of trouble and run a steady race. It is 43rd overall.