Ferrari leads as shower disrupts Hypercar battle

Опубликовано от ASPPA IMAGES ANO



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 Mulsanne straight.

Although the track wasn’t soaked, the shower was substantial enough to result in a noticeable loss of grip, with the #8 Toyota, both Alpines and the #3 Cadillac pitting for wet-weather tyres straight away.

It initially seemed like this strategy might work out as they were several seconds a lap faster than their rivals, and most of the Hypercar class emulated them in the following two laps.

However, the #83 and #50 Ferraris, #12 and #5 Porsche, #19 and #63 Lamborghinis opted to brave those tricky track conditions on slick tyres.

This gamble proved to be the right one as the other cars grudgingly came back in to put slick tyres back on – this was their fourth pitstops when the lead cars were on two.

The only exception was the #20 BMW, which the WRT team decided to keep on track with grooved tyres until its next stop – before Robin Frijns lost control after bouncing off a kerb at the Ford chicane and crashed the car at 6:23pm. The right-rear corner was damaged, and Frijns had to go around the lap at snail’s pace, taking no less than eight minutes to get back to the pitlane.

 

Meanwhile, two Ferraris were battling it out for the outright lead, with Robert Kubica making a mistake at Mulsanne in the #83 car and resisting an assault from Nielsen, with the #50 499P having served a ten-second penalty for an unsafe release with the #3 Cadillac earlier. Nielsen found a way past shortly after, taking first position at 5:59pm.

However, the pecking order evolved further as lead cars pitted during a slow zone, with the #50 losing tens of seconds to the #83 and the #5 Porsche as well.

Robert Shwartzman took the lead at the wheel of the #83 Ferrari, gradually increasing what initially was a meagre gap to Michael Christensen’s #5 Porsche to more than 25 seconds.

On the other hand, Antonio Fuoco has been the faster of the three and brought the gap down to 35 seconds with the lead car in the #50 Ferrari, setting the fastest lap so far in the process – 3m29.208, more than 1.4s quicker than anyone else. He subsequently pitted after the third hour, as did the #5 Porsche.

This temporarily elevated the #8 Toyota to second place and the #51 Ferrari to fourth, with Sebastien Buemi’s car the first of those which pitted for wet-weather tyres, thanks to a remarkable three-hour stint.

Further in Hypercar, the Peugeot #94 had an early second pitstop and subsequently had to serve a drive-through penalty due to a slow-zone infringement by Loic Duval.

In the LMP2 class, Inter Europol’s #34 ORECA took the lead shortly before 7pm after Clement Novalak overtook Vector Sport’s #10 machine driven by Ryan Cullen, with other cars close to a minute behind.

The start of the race was one to forget for Cool Racing’s #47 car as Naveen Rao spun at the Dunlop chicane before colliding with Thomas Flohr’s #54 AF Corse GT3 Ferrari, which the Swiss driver got a drive-through penalty for.

Flohr also crashed out at the Dunlop chicane at 6:09pm, causing the aforementioned slow zone.

 

Although Larry ten Voorde built a comfortable GT3 lead at the wheel of JMW’s #66 Ferrari, the car dropped back somewhat when Salih Yoluc took over, and the #91 Porsche run by Manthey Racing is now in the lead, driven by Morris Schuring.

Le Mans 24 Hours 2024, Hour 3 results

POS # CLASS TEAM CAR LAPS GAPS PITS
1 83 Hypercar H AF CORSE 48 — 3
2 8 Hypercar H TOYOTA GAZOO RACING 48 1:21.477 5
3 5 Hypercar H PORSCHE PENSKE MOTORSPORT 48 1:29.228 4
4 51 Hypercar H FERRARI AF CORSE 47 1:45.238 5
5 (+1) 50 Hypercar H FERRARI AF CORSE 47 1:46.859 4
6 12 Hypercar H HERTZ TEAM JOTA 47 1:47.463 4
7 7 Hypercar H TOYOTA GAZOO RACING 47 1:49.334 5
8 19 Hypercar H LAMBORGHINI IRON LYNX 47 1:55.895 3
9 4 Hypercar H PORSCHE PENSKE MOTORSPORT 47 2:18.120 5
10 6 Hypercar H PORSCHE PENSKE MOTORSPORT 47 2:20.400 5
11 311 Hypercar H WHELEN CADILLAC RACING 47 2:21.446 5
12 38 Hypercar H HERTZ TEAM JOTA 47 2:27.669 5
13 3 Hypercar H CADILLAC RACING 47 2:43.805 5
14 36 Hypercar H ALPINE ENDURANCE TEAM 47 2:47.419 5
15 63 Hypercar H LAMBORGHINI IRON LYNX 47 3:10.543 4
16 15 Hypercar H BMW M TEAM WRT 47 3:17.400 4
17 2 Hypercar H CADILLAC RACING 47 3:23.610 5
18 35 Hypercar H ALPINE ENDURANCE TEAM 47 0.596 5
19 93 Hypercar H PEUGEOT TOTALENERGIES 47 7.093 5
20 94 Hypercar H PEUGEOT TOTALENERGIES 47 1:01.078 6
21 11 Hypercar H ISOTTA FRASCHINI

 

Isotta Fraschini Tipo6-C

 46 2 laps 5
22 34 LM P2 INTER EUROPOL COMPETITION 45 3 laps 4
23 10 LM P2 VECTOR SPORT 45 2:29.317 4
24 37 LM P2 COOL RACING 45 3:21.836 5
25 22 LM P2 UNITED AUTOSPORTS 45 3:24.363 5
26 183 LM P2 P/A AF CORSE 45 21.240 5
27 28 LM P2 IDEC SPORT 45 37.779 5
28 9 LM P2 PROTON COMPETITION 45 1:10.636 6
29 99 Hypercar H PROTON COMPETITION 45 26.827 6
30 24 LM P2 NIELSEN RACING 45 1:40.662 5
31 30 LM P2 P/A DUQUEINE TEAM 44 4 laps 5
32 (+1) 14 LM P2 P/A AO BY TF 44 1:40.662 4
33 33 LM P2 P/A DKR ENGINEERING 44 3:15.447 4
34 65 LM P2 P/A PANIS RACING 44 4.466 5
35 45 LM P2 P/A CROWDSTRIKE RACING BY APR 44 13.666 5
36 25 LM P2 ALGARVE PRO RACING 43 5 laps 5
37 91 LMGT3 MANTHEY EMA

 

Porsche 911 GT3 R LMGT3

 42 6 laps 4
38 46 LMGT3 TEAM WRT 42 5.934 4
39 87 LMGT3 AKKODIS ASP TEAM 42 6.195 4
40 66 LMGT3 JMW MOTORSPORT 42 11.792 4
41 86 LMGT3 GR RACING 42 25.982 4
42 85 LMGT3 IRON DAMES

 

Lamborghini Huracan LMGT3 Evo2

 42 29.199 4
43 59 LMGT3 UNITED AUTOSPORTS

 

McLaren 720S LMGT3 Evo

 42 38.628 4
44 92 LMGT3 MANTHEY PURERXCING

 

Porsche 911 GT3 R LMGT3

 42 39.898 5
45 95 LMGT3 UNITED AUTOSPORTS

 

McLaren 720S LMGT3 Evo

 42 43.422 5
46 77 LMGT3 PROTON COMPETITION 42 45.676 4
47 44 LMGT3 PROTON COMPETITION 42 1:01.747 4
48 88 LMGT3 PROTON COMPETITION 42 1:21.862 5
49 27 LMGT3 HEART OF RACING TEAM

 

Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGT3

 42 48.220 4
50 55 LMGT3 VISTA AF CORSE 42 1:32.020 4
51 70 LMGT3 INCEPTION RACING

 

McLaren 720S LMGT3 Evo

 41 7 laps 5
52 81 LMGT3 TF SPORT 41 1:55.606 4
53 155 LMGT3 SPIRIT OF RACE 41 2:27.196 5
54 31 LMGT3 TEAM WRT 41 2:37.501 4
55 78 LMGT3 AKKODIS ASP TEAM 41 3:00.635 4
56 777 LMGT3 D’STATION RACING

 

Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGT3

 41 3:29.413 5
57 82 LMGT3 TF SPORT 41 3:31.274 4
58 60 LMGT3 IRON LYNX

 

Lamborghini Huracan LMGT3 Evo2

 41 17.380 4
59 20 Hypercar H BMW M TEAM WRT 40 8 laps 5
60 47 LM P2 P/A COOL RACING 39 9 laps 5
61 23 LM P2 P/A UNITED AUTOSPORTS USA 35 13 laps 5
62 54 LMGT3 VISTA AF CORSE 30 18 laps 3



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