Heavy rain neutralises race behind safety car
As the race entered its second half, incessant rainfall meant that the race director kept the safety car out for an extended period. Each of the three safety cars being used had to be refuelled, and were swapped out with fresh ones on the start/finish straight. The #2 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac V-Series.R – which […]
Porsche battles against Toyota at the halfway point
After all the rain and safety car drama of the previous couple of hours, the track dried out completely as it ticked past 1am local time on Sunday morning. All eyes were initially on Antonio Fuoco (#50 Ferrari) and Earl Bamber (#2 Cadillac) swapping fourth place in a pulsating battle in the very small hours, […]
Toyota leads Porsche after Kubica penalty for causing crash
After nine hours of frantic action, Toyota’s Ryo Hirakawa led in its #8 car after erstwhile leader Kubica was given a 30s stop/go penalty for causing a huge crash on the Mulsanne Straight. Hour seven began with a brief but hard rain shower as darkness fell, with Kubica’s #83 AF Corse Ferrari leading the #5 […]
Le Mans-leading Ferrari slapped with big penalty for Kubica’s BMW clash
AF Corse driver Robert Kubica was trying to put a lap on Dries Vanthoor in the seventh hour of the race when he side-swiped the BMW at the end of the Mulsanne straight, sending the car head-on into the barriers. The contact with the armco sent Vanthoor spinning to the other side of the track, […]
Ferrari in front in Hypercar as rain returns
The #83 AF Corse Ferrari continues to hold the net lead in the hands of Yifei Ye after the opening six hours of the race as rain hit the Circuit de la Sarthe, with the Frederic Makowiecki grabbing second late on in the #5 Porsche. Robert Shwartzman was able to pull out a lead of […]
Ferrari leads as shower disrupts Hypercar battle
The World Endurance Championship race has been shaped by a sudden shower at 5:38pm, before which the Nicklas Nielsen’s #50 Ferrari led Laurens Vanthoor’s #6 Porsche, Antonio Giovinazzi’s #51 Ferrari and Sebastien Buemi’s #8 Toyota. The Italian and the Swiss had previously overtaken Sebastien Bourdais’ Cadillac, respectively round the outside at Mulsanne and on the […]
Ferrari, Porsche locked in tight battle at the start
Nielsen was running fractionally ahead of the #6 Porsche of Laurens Vanthoor after one hour of racing, but must serve a 10-second penalty at his next pitstop for an unsafe release. The three Ferrari LMH cars made blistering starts as the 92nd running of Le Mans 24 Hours got away at 4pm local time, with […]
Kubica tops warm-up, Toyota’s De Vries crashes
As most teams elected to give drivers pitstop practice in live conditions, only 12 of the 23 Hypercar entries set a time during the short 15-minute session that precedes the World Endurance Championship’s blue-riband event, with Kubica heading a Ferrari 499P Le Mans Hypercar 1-2 in his customer #83 AF Corse example. His 3m29.260s lap […]
Estre’s «exceptional» pole lap «not 100% representative» of Porsche Le Mans pace
The Porsche Penske factory team barely got one 963 into Hyperpole with an initial eighth time in the first qualifying session for Estre, before the #7 Toyota lost its laps due to causing a red flag, promoting Jota’s #12 Porsche into the top eight. Driving the #6 car, Estre went on to snatch pole position […]