2023 LM24, Hour 12: Halfway Home, Ferrari Leads Toyota
We’ve reached half-time in the Centenary Edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Three lengthy Safety Car interventions caused by several accidents, and some powerful rain showers, have pretty much put an end to any chance of setting a new distance record with 154 laps completed from our overall leader thus far.
What we have seen is an eventful, and gruelling battle of attrition which could produce a memorable finish as the second half of the race begins from here.
Right now, it’s the #51 Ferrari AF Corse 499P that leads the #8 Toyota Gazoo Racing GR010 Hybrid – the former, trying to win Ferrari’s first Le Mans outright trophy in 58 years, the latter, going for six wins in a row and one to silence a sea of negative narratives.
The lead changed after the Ferrari team opted for fuel only on the #51’s last pit stop, which helped get James Calado out ahead of Sebastien Buemi. Before the stop, the #8 Toyota was leading with Buemi holding off Calado’s pursuit. Calado’s lead grew to as much as around ten seconds at a point, but Buemi has cut it down to just under four seconds.
Alex Lynn has been relieved from his long stint aboard the #2 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R, replaced by Richard Westbrook who inherits third place aboard the “blue deuce”.
The #6 Porsche Penske Motorsports 963 is a lap behind in fourth with Andre Lotterer trying to claw back the deficit from a puncture earlier in the race. He’s followed by Scott Dixon, who’s now in the gold #3 Cadillac.
Sadly, the heroic charge of the #94 Peugeot TotalEnergies 9X8 has come to a devastating halt after Gustavo Menezes slid off at the first Mulsanne Chicane, and into the tyre barriers. Menezes was able to pull away and begin the drive back to the pits with his damaged car shedding bodywork after the front-left tyre came apart.
Paul di Resta now runs seventh in the #93 Peugeot, which is two laps down. The best of the privateers is currently Glickenhaus Racing and its two SCG 007s, running eighth and ninth – Olivier Pla in the #708 ahead of Esteban Gutierrez in the #709. Now five laps down is the #5 Penske Porsche of Dane Cameron after its cooling system issue after midnight.
The #7 Toyota and #75 Penske/Porsche are the only two retirements in Hypercar so far – the #75 Porsche dropping out from a lack of fuel pressure, and the #7 Toyota, a casualty of a bizarre crash approaching a slow zone when Kamui Kobayashi was hit from behind by two cars at once.
With 147 laps completed, the #30 Team Duqueine Oreca 07-Gibson currently leads the LMP2 class.
2016 Le Mans winner Neel Jani is aboard and currently leads by 21 seconds from the second-ranked #65 Panis Racing Oreca, currently being driven by Job van Uitert.
COOL Racing is running third overall with Reshad de Gerus in the #47 car. Team WRT also runs inside the top five with Louis Deletraz piloting the #41 Oreca, in fourth, ahead of the #34 Inter Europol Competition Oreca now driven by Albert Costa.
A long pit stop put Costa further back than expected after leading the class but Inter Europol is still in the window for its greatest LMP2 result to date.
Laurents Horr runs sixth in the IDEC Sport #48, Ferdinand Habsburg has recovered to seventh in the Team WRT #31 and is just a lap behind, while Charles Milesi in the Alpine Elf Team #36 runs eighth.
Matthias Kaiser in the Vector Sport #10, and David Heinemeier-Hansson in the JOTA #28, round out LMP2’s top ten at half-distance.
AF Corse leads LMP2 Pro-Am despite a gearbox issue sending the #80 Oreca back to the garage for a few minutes. Right now Norman Nato runs 11th out of all the LMP2s, and he’s a lap ahead of the #45 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca, which lost a wheel just as Menezes crashed in the #94 Peugeot. George Kurtz is now running at night.
LMP2 has had four accident-related retirements. The most recent was Prema Racing’s #63, after Daniil Kvyat crashed at the Porsche Curves. Salih Yoluc sliding into a stationary car in the wet led to issues that would force Racing Team Turkey to retire its #923, while in the second hour, separate crashes from Ricky Taylor and Rodrigo Sales took Tower Motorsports’ #13 and Nielsen Racing’s #14 out.
Strategies have begun to diverge and spread the field in GTE-Am, with pit sequences and drive-time decisions playing out during the dark hours in the middle of the night.
The #56 Project 1-AO Porsche 911 RSR-19 currently holds the lead, despite being passed on track three times in the last 20 minutes. PJ Hyett took over the car just after the stroke of the last hour and has found a consistent rhythm, but has been unable to match the pace of the Pro-rated drivers installed in the cars around him.
Second is currently the #54 AF Corse Ferrari of Thomas Flohr who has also been passed on track by a number of the pro drivers. Scott Huffaker in the #57 Kessel Racing Ferrari sits in third as the highest ranked professional.
The Kessel Racing Ferrari was setting a hot pace during the night at the hands of Daniel Serra, who reeled in a 25-second gap to Hyett within ten minutes earlier in the hour, passing Rahel Frey in the #85 Iron Dames Porsche in the interim. After taking the lead, Serra brought the car into the pits, handing over to Huffaker. The gap now between the #57 and #56, is only 13 seconds.
The Iron Dames were the next to pass the #56 on track, with Frey slowly reeling the gap in, taking the lead just after the eleven-and-a-half-hour mark. Once again, Frey brought that car into the pits, and handed over to Sarah Bovy, now sitting in fourth.
Most recently, Charlie Eastwood took the lead and immediately pit in the #25 ORT by TF Aston Martin. Incredibly, Eastwood overhauled an 80-second gap between himself and Hyett over the course of 40 minutes, before pitting and handing over to Michael Dinan, and returning to the track in fifth.
Both the #88 Proton Porsche and #86 GR Racing Porsche have managed to sneak their way back onto the lead lap with Harry Tinknell and Ben Barker respectively. They currently sit in sixth and seventh, with the #911 Proton Competition Porsche of Michael Fassbender in eighth place.
Just off the lead lap is Ben Keating in the #33 Chevrolet Corvette, setting lap times rivalling the Pro drivers at the head of the field. If the pace continues, don’t be surprised to see the Corvette back on the lead lap before sunrise. Just outside the top 10 is the Northwest AMR #98 Aston Martin with Alex Riberas at the wheel.
The Chevrolet Camaro #24 is now making its way through the GTE-Am field, ahead of the #911 Porsche at this point. Rocky has just brought that car into the pits, handing over to Jenson Button.
Our next in-race update will be available in just a few hours!
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