The factory #6 Porsche Penske 963 of Laurens Vanthoor was circulating a few seconds clear of the #8 Toyota GR010 HYBRID driven by Ryo Hirakawa after 18 hours of racing at Le Mans, with marshals still replacing the barriers at Indianapolis under the caution period.

Heart of Racing driver Daniel Mancinelli was being lapped by the #51 Ferrari LMH car when the Italian lost control of the #27 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 on his own and slammed heavily into the barriers, with his car going airbone and landing upside down on the track.

Mancinelli walked away unscathed from the crash, but the SC had to be deployed to recover the car and replace the tyre barriers at the inside of the banked left-hander.

The #6 Porsche of Vanthoor was leading the race by 18s when the SC bunched the field back up, having jumped the #8 Toyota in the previous round of pitstops.

Ironically, it was a crash for the sister #4 Penske car that had helped Vanthoor circle into the lead, with the Belgian pitting under a slow zone caused by Felipe Nasr losing the rear-end of his 963 on slick tyres into Indianapolis. The incident put the additional Penske IMSA entry out of the race.

The #8 Toyota had been leading the Hypercar class until that point, with Hirakawa having made a clean restart in the 17th hour after the racing finally resumed after a four-hour safety car period.

#8 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 — Hybrid: Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley, Ryo Hirakawa

Photo by: Alexander Trienitz

Hirakawa had pitted a few laps before Nasr’s off in green conditions, which allowed Vanthoor to jump into the lead, but was still running a comfortable second ahead of the sister #7 car driven by Nyck de Vries. 

De Vries was the first Hypercar runner to switch to slick tyres as he was already due to make a pitstop, having been running out of kilter with its rivals. However, that also meant that he had to return to the pitlane under the safety car for more fuel, which dropped him down the order.

The #2 Cadillac was the main beneficiary as Earl Bamber assumed third place, but he is yet to complete his pitstop. Fourth place is being held by the #5 Porsche of Frederic Makoweicki, who fended off Robert Shwartzman in the #83 AF Corse Ferrari before the safety car period.

The #50 Ferrari of Antonio Fuoco was running right behind the duo and continues to hold sixth, ahead of the #7 Toyota now driven by de Vries’ team-mate Kamui Kobayashi.

The LMP2 class featured a number of changes in the last three hours, as the order shuffled during every pitstop phase.

At the end of hour 18, Ben Barnicoat was back in front in the #183 AF Corse ORECA-07, ahead of the #22 United Autosports car now driven by Oliver Jarvis.

Vector Sport also made headways after putting platinum-rated Patrick Pilet in the car, while the #37 Cool Racing dropped to fourth as Lorenzo Fluxa took over.

In LMGT3, the class-leading #92 Manthey PureRxcing Porsche 911 GT3 R dropped out of contention with gearbox issues, as Klaus Bachler brought the car into the garage shortly after the race went green again. It took 24 minutes for the German squad to fix the problem, which meant it lost five laps and in the lower regions of the top 20. 

The sister #91 Manthey EMA Porsche of Richard Lietz took over the baton from Bachler, but dropped to third late in the 18th hour after making a pitstop.

That put Gregoire Saucy in front in the #59 United Autosports McLaren 720S GT3, ahead of the #87 ASP Lexus RC F GT3 of Jack Hawksworth.

Results after Hour 18:

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 factory Porsche by over 45s. Kubica pitted for wets, as the factory Ferraris stayed out on slicks, and such were the conditions that Kubica even lapped the #51 Ferrari as it slithered around waiting for the track to dry.

A full-course yellow was soon required when the #60 Claudio Schiavoni spun his Iron Lynx Lamborghini GT3 car firmly into the barrier at the second Mulsanne chicane.

Kubica reported a gearbox temperature alarm but was told to press on with his wet tyres, now well ahead of Hirakawa in Toyota #8. Kubica switched out his wets after seven laps for soft slicks but retained his lead as the #8 did likewise, putting the #50 Ferrari back to second – and Niklas Nielsen then carved into Kubica’s lead having made a net gain by staying on slicks.

The race’s first full safety car was required when leader Kubica clashed at high speed with the delayed #15 BMW Dries Vanthoor, who slammed heavily into the barriers at the end of the Mulsanne Straight, the Belgian complaining of foot pain as he hobbled away. 

Vanthoor was attempting to stay on the lead lap and they were both lapping the #92 Manthey Manthey PureRxing Porsche 911 GT3 car at the time – “he was racing me and pushing me to the wet,” complained Kubica. 

After a lengthy safety car period for barrier repairs of over 90 minutes, during which a dog got loose on the track, the rain returned for the restart towards the end of hour eight. The race went green with most cars on slicks, with the #5 Porsche of Fred Makowiecki and #311 Cadillac of Pipo Derani staying out to lead while most others dived for the pits to take wets.

The wet-shod Kubica quickly picked off Derani and chased down Makowiecki, passing him just before the end of the following lap. But Kubica was assessed a 30s stop/go penalty for the Vanthoor clash.

He extended a 6s advantage over Hirakawa, who inherited the lead when Kubica took his penalty. 

At the hour nine point, Laurens Vanthoor ran second in the #6 Porsche, 15s behind Hirakawa and 10s ahead of the #7 Toyota of Nyck de Vries.

Kubica rejoined in sixth behind the #2 Cadillac of Alex Lynn; Makowiecki tumbled to 11th on his slicks after his stubborn gamble failed terribly.

Lynn passed the #50 Ferrari of Antonio Fuoco for fifth, pushing the earlier dominant Ferrari back to a 5-6-7.

In LMP2, the #10 Vector Sport Oreca of Stephane Richelmi lost his class lead during the safety car phase, which promoted the #37 Cool Racing car to the lead – despite the fact that Lorenzo Fluxa had earlier spun coming into the pits during the rain. The #22 United Autosports and #24 Nielsen Racing entries also benefited. 

More turmoil occurred when the #30 Duqueine Team car caught fire on the Mulsanne Straight in Jakub Smiechowski’s hands.

At the hour nine point, Malthe Jakobsen led in the #37 from Fabio Scherer in the #24 and Ben Barnicoat in AF Corse’s #183 – with the #10 chasing them in fourth. 

In the new LMGT3 class, there was early drama at the start of hour seven when Maxime Martin in the frontrunning #46 BMW he’d just taken over from Valentino Rossi clumsily punted Ben Hanley’s much-delayed #23 United LMP2 car into a spin. Martin got away with a warning for the incident and led the #92 Manthey PureRxing Porsche, which had a grandstand view of Vanthoor’s huge shunt.

The polewinning #70 McLaren then went into the garage in a cloud of steam after Brendon Iribe had clearly hit something solid.

At the restart following the long safety car, Klaus Bachler spun the #92 Porsche coming into the pits and dropped way down the order.

That handed the advantage to the sister #91 Porsche of Richard Lietz, who had stayed out on slicks, but Bachler atoned by charging back to the front of the class, leading Dennis Olsen’s Proton Ford Mustang. Jordan Taylor is also in the mix in Spirit of Race’s Ferrari 296.

Just before the end of the hour, Ahmad Al Harthy spun off at the Esses in the #46 BMW – taking it completely out of the battle for honours.