Tag: Le Mans

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.

HOUR 17 RUNNING ORDER

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.

HOUR 16 RUNNING ORDER

The 15th hour was full of action in all three categories as we approach the two-thirds distance at the Le Mans 24 Hours.

In Hypercar, the top three remain the key contenders, with the No. 8 Toyota that has been leading getting slowly reeled in by the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari of Alessandro Pier Guidi.

The Italian has brought the gap down to 10s to Ryo Hirakawa ahead, shaving 28s off the No. 8’s lead in the past 60 minutes. A battle for the overall lead appears to be around the corner.

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Earl Bamber is currently in the No. 2 Cadillac that sits third, two and a half minutes adrift.

In LMP2, there was plenty to report. The main headline was the LMP2 Pro/Am leading (10th in LMP2 overall) AF Corse ORECA crashing out. Ben Barnicoat made a costly error through the Porsche Curves, the 26-year-old tapping a curb and causing the car to snap sideways, sending him flying off the circuit and into the barriers. It was an on-the-spot retirement with heavy damage to its left side. Barnicoat climbed out and was spotted by cameras sitting behind a concrete wall with his head in his hands. Devastating.

There were on-track battles for the podium places shortly after in the LMP2 class. The first was Paul Loup Chatin reeling in Chilean driver Nicolas Pino in the No. 30 Duqueine ORECA and taking third into the second Mulsanne chicane. 

A few laps later the battle for the lead began. With an injured ankle, Fabio Scherer somehow managed to catch and pass Robert Kubica’s No. 41 WRT ORECA for the lead. 

“I just want to drive and win this thing. I don’t want to know if it’s broken or not,” said Scherer before climbing in the car. 

It’s been a heroic effort from him. The entire Inter Europol team will hope he is rewarded for his dedication to the cause.

In GTE Am, the No. 57 Kessel racing continues to consolidate its lead, which is now 1 minute and 42 seconds with Takeshi Kimura at the wheel, over the No. 54 AF Corse Ferrari of Davide Rigon.

Behind, Ricardo Pera has been on a charge in the recovering GR Racing Porsche which suffered costly off in the rain during the first half of the race while leading the class. Pera caught and passed Ahmed Al Harthy at the Dunlop Bridge. Next in his sights is Rigon for second.

Further back, Corvette Racing’s recovery continues too. The American team has moved heaven and earth to gain back the two laps it lost to a front damper failure early in the race. Now back on the lead lap, and with plenty of time left, Nico Varrone is aboard and three minutes off the lead. Will the No. 33 feature in the battle for podium spots this afternoon? It would be quite a story!

HOUR 15 RUNNING ORDER

Even at 2:18 a.m. in France, the crowd that remained on the front stretch at the Circuit de la Sarthe gave an audible cheer as the AF Corse team wheeled the No. 50 Ferrari 499P back out onto the pitlane after nearly thirty minutes of repairs to the right front brakes were completed.

Antonio Fouco remained in the car that he put on the pole earlier in the week and watched as his chances of a Le Mans victory slipped away. Eventually, he brought the 499P back to the track seven laps behind the then race-leading No. 94 Peugeot of Nico Muller.

💪 And here we go again! The Ferrari #50 finally takes to the track again 💨@FerrariHypercar
#LeMans24 #LeMansCentenary pic.twitter.com/ESLkgdIjfm

— 24 Hours of Le Mans (@24hoursoflemans) June 11, 2023

Muller was later passed by Sebastian Buemi who assumed the controls of the No. 8 Toyota GR010 from Ryo Hirakawa. The No. 94 Peugeot eventually dropped to third as James Calado used his Ferrari’s straight-line speed to pull in front of the Peugeot on the straightway leading to Indianapolis. The top runners in Hypercar have all completed pitstops recently but Peugeot is on a slightly different cycle compared to the No. 8 Toyota and the No. 51 Ferrari.

With just minutes remaining in the hour, the No. 32 Inter Europol Competition ORECA 07 — the sister car to the class leader — snapped loose on the brakes into the first chicane and went nose-first into the barriers. A slow zone was implemented as a result of Jan Magnussen’s off.

Elsewhere in the field, it was a rare quiet hour for this year’s centenary rendition of the Le Mans 24 Hours with the only thing encountering issues being the timing and scoring screens which failed halfway through the hour. As of 2:55 am, it was the No. 56 Project 1 – AO Porsche leading GTE Am ahead of the No. 54 AF Corse Ferrari and the No. 85 Iron Dames Porsche 911 RSR. The No. 34 Inter Europol Competition ORECA 07 was still at the helm of the race in LMP2.

HOUR 11 STANDINGS

Nico Muller and Peugeot were in control of the 24 Hours of Le Mans after ten hours. Muller inherited the lead of the race after Ryo Hirakawa brought the No. 8 Toyota GR010 to the pits during a full course yellow period that encased the second half of the hour.

Perhaps more noteworthy, however, was the No. 50 Ferrari that was wheeled into the garage in the closing minutes of the hour. Antonio Fouco was running fourth when the car was brought in. The team set to work on the front of the car in search of a leak. The car was still in the garage at the end of the hour and is two laps down but likely to lose more.

Coincidentally, it was the second Hypercar with a leak of some form after the No. 5 Team Penske Porsche 963 suffered a water leak and dropped down the order.

The developments in recent hours have meant Toyota, Ferrari, and Porsche all have just one car left in contention for the second half of the race.

Earlier in the hour, Hirakawa had gained the top spot after he pounced on Peugeot’s Muller once the field resumed green-flag racing following a safety car for an incident that had resulted in the retirement of Toyota’s No. 7 GR010.

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Hirakawa followed Sebastian Bourdais past the No. 94 Peugeot 9X8 on the start at the Dunlop Chicane. Bourdais was regaining his status on the lead lap for the No. 3 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R while Hirakawa was moving through to take the race lead.

The No. 2 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R is second but much of the field is cycling through pitstops after a full course yellow.

A pair of LMP2 runners ran into trouble with the most consequential incident befalling the No. 63 Prema Racing ORECA 07. Daniil Kyvat was at the wheel when circuit cameras captured the car sliding backward through the Porsche Curves with heavy damage to the rear of the car after impacting the barrier on driver’s left. Kyvat climbed from the car uninjured, but the incident meant the end of that team’s race.

Earlier in the hour, the No. 28 Jota ORECA 07 of Pietro Fittipaldi found himself beached in the gravel at the first chicane after contact with the No. 65 Panis Racing ORECA 07. Fittipaldi was running fifth at the time of the incident.

It’s still the No. 34 Inter Europol Competition ORECA 07 in the lead of the race in LMP2. The No. 30 Duqueine ORECA 07 of Rene Binder is second and the No. 41 Team WRT ORECA 07 of Rui Andrade is third but pitstops are complicating the always-close running order in LMP2.

In GTE Am, Matteo Cairolli in the No. 56 Project 1 – AO Porsche 911 RSR passed Francesco Castellaci in the No. 54 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE for the lead of the class. Ahmad Al Harthy in the No. 25 ORT by TF Racing Aston Martin Vantage was third.

HOUR 10 STANDINGS

The ninth hour was held entirely under the safety car, while marshals cleaned up the mess from the multi-car incident at Tertre Rouge at the end of the previous hour.

As the hour began the No. 7 was formally retired, Kamui Kobayashi jumping out of the car, throwing in the towel after multiple attempts to restart his GR010. The No. 66 JMW Motorsport Ferrari also was also an on-the-spot retirement from its damage in the incident.

The @TGR_WEC No.7 is stopped on track.#WEC #LeMans24 #LeMansCentenary pic.twitter.com/XbNyJX7ykc

— FIA World Endurance Championship (@FIAWEC) June 10, 2023

With the race neutralized, heading into Hour 10 the race is still being led by Peugeot’s No. 94 9X8. Nico Muller will have to defend hard from the No. 8 Toyota of Ryo Hirakawa when the race resumes. The No. 8 crew, having picked up the baton from the No. 7 after its retirement, represents Toyota’s only hope of claiming a sixth victory at Le Mans in a row, and stay unbeaten this season in the FIA WEC.

There are five cars on the lead lap, though, with the No. 2 Cadillac still very much in the fight, with Alex Lynn (sporting his Derek Bell tribute helmet) now aboard. The No. 50 and No. 51 Ferraris are also still on the lead lap despite their recent setbacks and will hope to find a way back to the front as we approach the halfway mark.

In LMP2, WRT’s No. 41 ORECA has taken the lead from the No. 34 Inter Europol ORECA. The Panis Racing ORECA is third. But LMP2 is set to be a dogfight when the race returns to green — with the gaps closed, there will be a train of 10 cars on the lead lap together.

Iron Dames’ Porsche now holds the GTE Am lead after the most recent stops. The No. 54 AF Corse Ferrari has risen to second, while the ‘Rexy’ Project 1 Porsche is down to third. There will be a six-way fight for the GTE lead after the safety car pulls in.

HOUR 9 STANDINGS