Only one hour left until the end of the 2024 edition of the 24h of Le Mans; yet, nothing can be taken for granted. Precisely with the arrival of the rain around the stroke of the twenty-second hour it turned the cards on the table and the scenarios upside down. In a few minutes the situation has completely changed and from a Ferrari in the lead we have gone to a potential Toyota first position, among other things not even of the #8, the one that for a long time had seemed to be able to compete for the success of the most prestigious endurance race, but the #7, which with Jose Maria Lopez was able to make the most of Ferrari’s problems and errors to find itself in the lead.
In fact, shortly after the twenty-second hour, the Ferrari #50, in the lead at that moment, suffered a technical problem, given the difficulties in closing the right-hand door which had remained open. Since it was essentially impossible for Nicklas Nielsen to be able to close the door, as indicated by the race direction he was forced to return to the pits to fix the situation, where he also refueled without changing the wet tires mounted a few minutes earlier.
Pier Guidi had tried to keep Lopez behind in order to guarantee his teammate the margin to stop and rejoin near his Toyota rival in case he actually had to return. However, despite a duel that saw the two exchange positions, the Italian was unable to contain the Argentine who, when the #50 stopped, then took the lead.
#50 Ferrari AF Corse Ferrari 499P: Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina, Nicklas Nielsen
Photo by: Alexander Trienitz
This caused the #50 Ferrari to initially slip to fifth place, not only behind the #7 Toyota as previously mentioned, but also behind its #51 sister car, as well as the #6 Porsche driven by Laurens Vanthoor. Furthermore, having also topped up the fuel, the Maranello car now found itself on a potentially different strategy compared to its rivals, which is why it then returned to first position at the stroke of the 23rd hour. Instead it ended with a “no further action” a possible unsafe release of the #50 right at the moment of the stop to close the door.
Missing from all this is the Toyota #8, only sixth at the moment, but this is due to a contact between the Ferrari #51 and Pier Guidi when Hartley was in second position after the stop. The New Zealander thus ended up spinning, losing several seconds which had an important impact. For this reason, the race judges decided to penalize the maneuver with a five-second sanction which Pier Guidi immediately served a few moments after the commissioners’ communication.
At the moment, therefore, the situation sees the #50 in the lead with a different strategy compared to its rivals, as it should probably be in the situation of having to make a “splash” for the last part of the race, which is why hope now is to push hoping to earn as much as possible at this stage. Second is the Toyota #7, over forty seconds from the top after an error in the first sector at the 23rd hour: the Japanese car then has a 25 second advantage over the Ferrari #51 in third position. This was followed by the #6 Porsche which recovered a few positions to rise to fourth place ahead of the #8 Toyota with Sebastien Buemi who inherited the wheel from Hartley after the spin.
#6 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963: Kevin Estre, Andre Lotterer, Laurens Vanthoor
Photo by: Marc Fleury
In sixth position is the Cadillac 2 with Palou back in the cockpit, followed by a Porsche hat-trick made up of the #5 and the two Jotas. Closing out the top ten is the Peugeot #94 with Stoffel Vandoorne ahead of the Lamborghini #63 driven by Daniil Kvyat.
In LMP2 the battle continues, with several cars stopping around 20 minutes before the hour mark, with United Autosport #22 maintaining the lead with a solid advantage of around 50 seconds over the #34 of Inter Europol, who gained another position in his personal comeback. Third at the moment is the #28 of IDEC Sport, protagonist of a duel with blow after blow (of errors) with the #34. In fourth place is the AF Corse #183, first among the Pro/Am. This is followed by Cool Racing, Vector Sport and “Spike”, the little dragon car from AO.
In LMGT3 the situation remained essentially unchanged, with the #91 Porsche still in the lead ahead of the WRT team BMW about 33 seconds away, in which Augusto Farfus got on board taking Sean Galael’s place. Proton’s two Ford Mustangs follow, which in turn predict the Iron Dames on the Lamborghini. The first Ferrari is the #86 of GR Racing, while the first Lexus is that of Akkodis #78 with Kelvin Van der Linde at the wheel.
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