Between a light shower of rain followed by the return of the sun which at times shines through the clouds of Le Mans, the fourth hour of the endurance race par excellence began with two Ferraris still in the lead. After inheriting the wheel from Robert Kubica who had taken the race during his stint, Robert Shwartzman continues to lead the race with the private Ferrari #83 of AF Corse, although at times his lead has gradually begun to narrow over his more powerful rivals. direct, especially when Antonio Fuoco got up behind him in the #50 Ferrari.
Shwartzman returned to the pits just over 10 minutes into the fourth hour, following whoever was behind him, namely the official Ferrari, which in the meantime also replaced the driver by getting Miguel Molina and the Porsche into the car # 5, who among other things had been the protagonists of a good duel for second position. Shwartzman only stopped to top up with fuel, deciding to continue with the soft tires fitted previously.
The waltz of the pit stops had momentarily brought the #8 Toyota to second place in which Brendon Hartley took over and inherited the wheel from Sebastien Buemi, who had opened the race. However, the Japanese car returned to the pits just a few minutes before the hour mark, as did the Ferrari #51 driven by Pier Guidi and the Jota #12 with Callum Ilott at the wheel. This allowed the #50 Ferrari to move back into second place, although the driver change meant it slipped 40 seconds from the lead.
#50 Ferrari AF Corse Ferrari 499P: Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina, Nicklas Nielsen
Photo by: Nikolaz Godet
Behind the two Ferraris follow the two Porsches #5 and #4 with the young talent Matt Campbell and Tandy Nick respectively at the wheel of the two cars. After the pit stop, the Toyota #8 slipped to sixth place, just ahead of Pier Guidi’s Ferrari #51. At the moment in the top ten there is a Lamborghini, that of Bortolotti who drives the #63, right in tenth position.
The Alpines were further behind, the Peugeots who also suffered a Drive Trough with the #93 due to a contact and the BMWs, who lost the #20 after a contact with the barriers by Robin Frijns probably with cold tires after the stop, while the only Cadillac in the top ten is #2 with Bamber now behind the wheel.
In LMP2 the twist occurred around 7pm, when the Inter Europol #34 with Clement Novalak was forced to return to the pits without the front right tyre, causing a brief slow zone while it was in the top three positions.
#6 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963: Kevin Estre, Andre Lotterer, Laurens Vanthoor
Photo credit: Rainier Ehrhardt
The Vector Sport #10 and the Cool Racing #37 took advantage of this, gaining second place with an excellent Ritomo Miyata, in his first experience at Le Mans after driving for a long time in Japan, where among other things he also won the title in Super Formula.
In fourth position is United #22, which inherited the position almost at the hour mark for the pit stop of AF Corse #183. “Spike” is further behind, i.e. the #14 car of the AO Racing team which started the race from category pole, while now it finds itself in sixth position after a driver change.
In LMGT3 at the moment the BMW #46 of the WRT team is in the lead, having inherited the lead from the Porsche with the #91 in front which stopped in the pits just before the hour mark: the Italian driver has just boarded the single-seater for his first stint at Le Mans, also taking advantage of the good work done by Ahmad Al Harthy who was able to climb to second place with an excellent stint.
The first Ferrari 296 is that of JMW Motorsport, currently in third place, ahead of another Porsche, the #92, which in turn is the Lamborghini Huracan of the Iron Dames, with Sarah Bovy currently at the wheel.
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