2023 LM24, Hour 21: LMP2 And GTE Am Battles Heating Up

The #51 Ferrari AF Corse 499P continues to lead overall and in the Hypercar class. James Calado has a lead of 13.8 seconds to the #8 Toyota Gazoo Racing GR010 HYBRID which is currently being driven by Brendon Hartley.

Hartley spent much of this past hour trying to drive away from the #50 Ferrari, which is no longer a factor for the win – but Miguel Molina was driving at enough of a pace to not only get a lap back, but also put pressure on the Toyota and potentially disrupt Hartley’s pursuit of Calado.

In a steady third is the #2 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R, with Alex Lynn in the cockpit.

There wasn’t much drama in the Hypercar ranks, but some teams still have work to do just to get to the chequered flag. The #93 Peugeot TotalEnergies 9X8 had to go back to the garage but it was a quick repair and Jean-Eric Vergne is still fifth overall, behind the #3 Cadillac of Renger van der Zande.

The #94 Peugeot has also been taken back to the garage at the top of the hour, to replace the steering rack.

Hertz Team JOTA’s #38 Porsche 963 has spent several hours in and out of the garage and is now trying just to be ready to take the chequered flag.

It’s a bit more spirited in LMP2, where Inter Europol Competition is potentially three hours away from its biggest-ever win as a privateer team – the only LMP2 team in the FIA World Endurance Championship that has no ties to any prospective hypercar programme!

But that win was put into mild jeopardy when the green and yellow #34 Oreca 07-Gibson was given a drive-through penalty for overtaking two cars under the Safety Car.

This cut the lead down from 47 to 15 seconds to the #41 Team WRT Oreca, which is running second and pounding on the door of a come-from-behind victory if it can continue to keep the pressure on the Turbo Bakers’ Oreca.

Fabio Scherer, whose foot was run over after the first pit stop of the race, has gotten out of the cockpit and Albert Costa now leads with Robert Kubica trailing him in the Team WRT #41.

Either way, unless there’s a disaster that strikes either of the top two in LMP2, the racing fans of Poland will have a winner to be proud of – either a national racing hero who’s achieved success at the pinnacle of motorsport, or one of endurance racing’s most spirited and determined underdog teams!

There’s also been a change for third: LMP2 polesitter Paul Loup Chatin has caught and passed Neel Jani, putting the Delage-sponsored IDEC Sport #48 Oreca ahead of the black and green #30 of Team Duqueine, now fourth.

Corvette Racing, once down and out, lead GTE-Am with three hours to go.

A stellar 3:50.439 was Nicolas Varrone’s best lap time as he forged ahead to gap the rest of the GTE-Am field and neutralise any time required for the #33 Corvette’s final fuel stop.

The time was quicker than the fastest GTE-Am qualifying time for the car, a 3:51.8 set by Nicky Catsburg on Wednesday evening. The cycle of the top three runners’ strategy suggested that the Iron Dames Porsche would not require a final fuel stop, but the pace of the #85 Porsche seems simply unable to match that of the charging Corvette.

Having pitted to swap Michael Dinan for Ahmad Al-Harthy, the ORT by TF Aston Martin appears to be the trailing car of the top three, Al-Harthy now working out his minimum seat time – he is quick among his peers, at the very least, but he’ll need to dig deep.

Matteo Cairolli’s Project 1-AO Porsche still runs fourth, and although there is half a WEC round left to run, ‘Rexy’ is looking like she will need some luck now to stand a chance of making the GTE-Am podium.

The rate of attrition in class now extends to Daniel Serra, who parked the fluorescent yellow #57 Kessel Racing Ferrari. It’s not yet classified as a retirement, but it hasn’t resumed since Serra went off.

After a run that seemed to be bullet-proof, the Garage 56 entry has finally succumbed to its first issue.

Jenson Button parked the #24 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 with a suspected gearbox failure. “We have a drive line issue and the team is working to repair it now. The goal remains to finish the race,” said Garage 56 Project Leader, Chad Knaus.

The Hendrick Motorsports team has time to replace the gearbox to make the finish of the race, but it’s taking some time and the car is in the garage for nearly 50 minutes as of this report.

But to make it 20 hours before suffering any significant mechanical drama – that’s to be commended from the Garage 56 NASCAR project!