LM24, Hour 6

2023 LM24, Hour 6: Too Close To Call Into Darkness

Toyota, Ferrari, Porsche, and Cadillac all with viable contenders on mixed strategies

10 June 2023, 9:22 PM
At the end of the first quarter, it is far too close to predict a winner of the Centenary edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

So far after six hours, we’ve seen sunny skies and torrential downpours, and all matter of weather conditions in between them. Five manufacturers have taken a turn leading the Hypercar class and overall – and that includes a privateer-entered car which briefly led this race.

But of them all, Ferrari AF Corse and the two Ferrari 499Ps have been the most reliable presence at the front.

After six hours, the Toyota Gazoo Racing GR010 HYBRIDs are running first and second overall, with Brendon Hartley first in the #8, and Jose Maria Lopez second in the #7, just 2.4 seconds behind. Nick Tandy in the #75 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 is close behind in third, holding down the fort for Porsche after a slew of misfortunes hit the two full-time WEC cars #5 and #6.

The #5 Porsche slowed down with a sensor issue, then had to serve a drive-through penalty for passing under a safety car, and the #6 has been set back with punctures.



But they are somewhat off-sequence compared to the “true leaders”, the two Ferraris. Alessandro Pier Guidi is ahead of Nicklas Nielsen in the #51 and #50 respectively. The #50 was running ahead of the #51 before a coordinated change of positions when Giovinazzi was aboard the #51 and Molina was in the #50.

Behind them are the #94 Peugeot TotalEnergies 9X8 of Loic Duval, and the #2 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R of Alex Lynn, again salvaging dignity for a beleaguered manufacturer. Both these cars are on the same pit sequence as the two Ferraris.

Since our last update, Hertz Team JOTA’s mechanics have the #38 Porsche 963 back on track after a 20-minute repair job – a fantastic bit of work. It still leaves them four laps down, but it could have been much worse after Yifei Ye crashed out of the lead.

Glickenhaus Racing’s race is beginning to come undone a bit: Ryan Briscoe and the #708 SCG 007 was given a five-minute penalty stop for his clash with the #43 DKR Engineering Oreca LMP2, and the #709 SCG007 of Nathanael Berthon had a mechanical issue and began to slow out on track. They’re still well ahead of the #4 Floyd Vanwall Racing Team Vandervell 680, though.

So far there are still only two retirements in LMP2, the Nielsen Racing #14, and the Tower Motorsports #13, both crashed out on their own in the second hour.

It’s too early to call a winner here either but at the top of the hour, we have another surprise player in the mix: The #34 Inter Europol Competition Oreca 07-Gibson was leading with Kuba Smiechowski, the driver/manager, aboard.

The JOTA #28 of Oliver Rasmussen and the United Autosport #23 of Oliver Jarvis are also in the mix for at least a podium as it stands, and so too are the Panis Racing #65 and the Team WRT #41.
The leading positions in GTE-Am were just starting to settle into a rhythm.

Giacomo Petrobelli was leading in the #66 JMW Motorsport Ferrari, which was having an untroubled run. Thomas Neubauer had completed the majority of the Ferrari’s running, making the best of the team’s strategy during the cautions. But Petrobelli now had the Iron Dames Porsche closing in fast from second place.

The Iron Dames Porsche had used up a decent chunk of the crew’s Bronze time, Sarah Bovy delivering an impressive performance in tough conditions, Michelle Gatting now aboard and taking up the hunt. Passing the #911 car, the Danish driver was considerably quicker, soon reeling in Thomas Flohr’s #54 Ferrari to take second place, Flohr in the car for the first time.

Martin Rump’s solid stints in the #911 had taken the car into the class lead, but now it was down to Michael Fassbender to deliver incident-free running to keep the Porsche in touch as it dropped back to fifth behind the #56 Project 1 – AO Porsche, which had Gunnar Jeanette at the wheel for the first time.

Michael Dinan spun at the first chicane, the rear of his #25 Aston Martin gently contacting the tyre wall to drivers’ right. The American driver rejoined having lost eighth place to the #57 Kessel Racing Ferrari (which had recently kissed the tyre wall in a similar low grip excursion).

The #72 TF Sport “Pescarolo homage” Aston Martin also lost its line in the Porsche Curves, Arnold Robin backing the car into the tyre wall having nearly collected the #51 Ferrari 499P Hypercar.

The sun has already set over Circuit de la Sarthe. The most treacherous chapters of the race are yet to be written. And with what little daylight is left, we can see the rain clouds circling in again…