2023 LM24, Hours 13-16: Ferrari Leads Into Daylight

As the sun finally breaks through the overcast morning at Le Mans, it is Ferrari who leads into the sunshine at Le Mans.

The #51 AF Corse Ferrari 499P of James Calado, Antonio Giovinazzi and Alessandro Pier Guidi has worked hard through the night, reeling in the #8 Toyota Gazoo Racing GR010 Hybrid over the course of the last four hours, making the pass in the pit lane with 8 and a half hours remaining.

This was despite a Slow-Zone interrupting the battle between the two during the night, opening up the gap by over 40 seconds at around 6 A.M. local.

The two cars have been in lockstep on pit sequence throughout the night, but a difficult stint for Ryo Hirakawa – who hit a squirrel in the darkness – forced the Toyota team to change the front splitter and a rear tyre which had punctured, giving the AF Corse squad the opportunity to jump the Toyota in the pits. Currently, the #51 holds a ten-second lead over the #8.

Third is still the #2 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R, at the hands of Alex Lynn. The #2 has been just out of reach of the leaders overnight, sitting over two minutes behind the lead pair.

Just over a lap back on the #2 is the battle for fourth place, held for most of the night by the #6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963. However, a five-second penalty for a technical infringement during a pit stop has dropped the #6 behind the #3 Yellow Cadillac V-Series.R. Sebastian Bourdais is remaining resolute in defence of the position, just ahead of Kevin Estre.

The top 11 cars are all Hypercars, with the bottom half of the top 10 suffering various degrees of delays over the course of the race. The #93 Peugeot TotalEnergies 9×8 is a lap down from 5th place, with the pair of Glickenhaus SCG 007s sitting in seventh and eighth, a further lap down each. Porsche, Ferrari and Peugeot are the next Hypercar runners, with their cars recovering from early race problems.

LMP2 has seen the #34 Inter Europol Competition Oreca 07-Gibson rise to the top thanks to the great work of Fabio Scherer and Albert Costa overnight. The #34 was fourth at half distance, just behind the battle for second in class between the #47 Cool Racing and #41 WRT Cars. When Reshad De Gerus came unstuck in the Porsche Curves, delaying Louis Deletraz, Albert Costa passed both, and then worked their way past the leading Duqueine #30 car to take the lead.

Next in line is the #41 WRT car, which led briefly before sunrise. The #41 picked up a ten-second time penalty overnight for an incident between itself and the #3 Cadillac Racing Hypercar in the Ford Chicane, which saw the #3 spin. In taking the penalty, Kubica returned to the track only seconds ahead of Fabio Scherer, who took a lap to square up the Polish driver, before making a move around the outside of the second Mulsanne chicane just before 7 A.M. local.

The top five features half-race leaders Duqueine in the #30, followed by the #48 IDEC Sport and #65 Panis Racing cars. They are currently the only cars on the lead lap in LMP2.

The #47 Cool Racing Oreca was in the mix at the half-race point, before a wide moment in the Porsche Curves for Reshad De Gerus forced the retirement of the car. De Gerus made the gravel on the exit of the first right-hander, collecting the tyre wall and spearing across the track into the outside wall. Despite being able to limp to the pits, the car was too badly damaged to continue.

LMP2 Pro-Am is in the hands of the #45 Algarve Pro Racing car, currently 10th in LMP2. The #45 is almost the last-car standing in LMP2 Pro-Am, after a massive incident for the class-leading #80 AF Corse Oreca with 9 hours and 20 minutes remaining.

Ben Barnicoat was looking to pass traffic through the Porsche Curves, moving to the inside in the last left-hander. He decided to pull back into line, but collected the kerb on the inside, pitching the car into an uncatchable slide and hard into the barrier.

The 20-minute Slow Zone to cover the #80’s recovery overlapped with the end of a Slow Zone for 40 minutes earlier to repair barriers on the entry to Indianapolis after a big accident for the #88 Proton Porsche, and 10 minutes prior to that to recover the #777 D’Station Aston Martin which ground to a halt on the way out of Mulsanne. All in all, almost the entire 15th hour of the race was under Slow Zone somewhere on the circuit.

Overnight there have also been the confirmed retirements of the #32 Inter Europol Competition Pro-Am team, after suspension issues pitched it into the wall at the Daytona Chicane, and the #4 Floyd Vanwall Racing Team Vandervell 680, which ground to a halt smoking furiously at the Porsche Curves with just under nine hours remaining – continuing the ByKolles outfit’s miserable run at Le Mans without a classified finish.

The #57 CarGuy yellow Kessel Racing Ferrari 488 GTE EVO maintains a sturdy lead of over two minutes in GTE-Am. Different pit strategies and driver rotations have created an alternating state of flux for the GTE-Am field, but solid work by Daniel Serra and Scott Huffaker has kept the car out of trouble with a steady, purposeful pace.

Gentleman driver Takeshi Kimura is currently at the wheel, with 197 laps completed.

Michelle Gatting is currently second for Iron Dames, the pink #85 Porsche 911 RSR-19 still very much in the fight having managed Bronze-rated Sarah Bovy’s seat well during the night’s treacherous conditions.

Nicky Catsburg had been on a rapid charge in the #33 Corvette Racing C8.R, the car recovering from its early delays for suspension work that had dropped it several laps.

Hauling the deficit back had not been easy, the car falling foul of an oversight by race control with a Safety Car that could not be undone, wiping out some of the progress that had been achieved. Nicolas Varrone and Ben Keating had turned solid stints before dawn broke to bring the #33 car back on the lead lap, Catsburg’s pace now picking off targets to put the car third.

Project 1-AO’s Porsche has just caught and passed AF Corse’s #54 Ferrari, this is now a regular feature of their race: Long out-of-sync strategy which has kept the car in GTE-Am contention. Thomas Flohr is managing his Bronze seat time, now having better track conditions and daylight, circulating two and a half minutes off the class leader.

With a flapping bonnet, ORT by TF’s Aston Martin Vantage is sporting a liberal application of tank tape that has clearly held the car together overnight, but remains well poised. Its recovery from minor mechanicals early in the race has brought them hovering seven seconds behind Thomas Flohr’s Ferrari, Ahmad Al-Harthy the quicker of the two Bronze drivers, before the Corvette’s pace changed the order at the top of the hour, pit stops again about to change the sequence.

Tomonobu Fujii’s D’station Aston Martin pulled up on the Mulsanne straight just before dawn, electronic issues suspected – then confirmed by the team. Unable to re-fire the engine, the car was towed to a position of safety, and the Japanese driver got out of the car. This is the only mechanical retirement in the GTE-Am class so far.

Jonas Ried would add to the tally of casualties, his #88 Proton Competition Porsche made heavy barrier contact to drivers’ right at Indianapolis as dawn broke. The car had started to rise through the ‘Am order having survived the night, but the young rookie and son of team owner Christian would lose the car under braking – not even someone of Jonas’ genes can master Le Mans out of the box.

This leaves 11 runners in GTE-Am, ten cars having retired.

The delightful fan-favourite #24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 has endured tough night-time conditions but has come through, now inside the top 30 and turning decent laps in the 3:52’s.

In a class of its own there was no need for heroics but surviving the unpredictability of the conditions has challenged its drivers, none of which lack experience. The car went a lap down under the safety car but has clawed that back overnight and has just re-established its place ahead of the GTE-Am field.