With the safety car lasting the entire hour due to barrier repairs for the No. 15 BMW shunt, there was no on-track action to report on.
Under safety car, there were some items of note, though.
The No. 46 WRT BMW gave up the LMGT3 lead after coming in for a brake change under the caution. This dropped Ahmad Al Harthy to second.
Proton Competition’s No. 9 ORECA retired after losing power and stopping in the Porsche Curves during the sixth hour. There are now five cars out of the race — the No. 54 AF Corse Ferrari (crash damage), No. 35 Alpine (engine failure), No. 9 Proton (mechanical), No. 36 Alpine (engine failure) and No. 15 WRT BMW (crash damage).
Once the race gets going again, the top 12 cars in Hypercar will be on the lead lap, all bunched up, as well as the top seven in LMP2 and top 12 in LMGT3.
The No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari leads overall, the No. 22 United Autosports ORECA now leads LMP2 and Pure Rxcing’s Porsche is up front in LMGT3.
The safety car period looks set to end in the ninth hour. Once it does, this race could produce more of a fireworks display than the one currently ongoing in the infield.