Well, here it is. For the 93rd time, the immortal Circuit De La Sarthe will play host to the greatest race in the world. I’ve been twiddling my thumbs watching as much le mans content as I can all day, and now it is finally here. There’s a different feeling over this one, too. Mercedes and Aston Martin are back, the field is only growing and crucially it looks to be a dry race all the way through. But there’s an entire day to go, so who will Le Mans choose to be its victor in 2025? There’s only one way to find out…

Pit stops opened the hour, with the #94 reaching the higher placings again due to going longer than the cars around it. For the first time the race leaders went longer, with the #50 and #6 extending their stints as long as possible. LMP2 and LMGT3 had seen very little change for a while now, except with VDS Panis #48 now running second and RLR M Sport up to third with their #16 Pro/Am car.

There was LMGT3 drama in a race with very little attrition. Having led the class earlier, the #10 Racing Spirit of Leman Aston Martin pitted under mysterious circumstances and stayed there, already having lost nearly three laps in a race where losing even one could spell the end of a race. Eduardo Barichello managed to get it back out shortly after, but it was well down the order. LMGT3 seemed to be bringing the drama, as shortly after the #88 Proton Ford had a huge moment at Tetre Rouge, spinning into the barriers at high speed, right in front of the battling pair of Mathieu Jaminet and Antonio Giovinazzi, running third and fourth. Had Giovani Levorato’s accident happened at any other moment two of the biggest contenders could’ve been in strife, but like true racing drivers they kept on battling as if nothing had happened. If their race did flash before their eyes, they certainly didn’t show it. Thus came out the race’s first proper intervention – a slow zone at the scene of the Ford’s accident. There was also damage to the #25 Algarve Pro LMP2 on its front left bodywork, the car smoking down the Mulsanne with risk of a puncture. But for the #88 Ford, the damage was too great and it became the first retirement of the 2025 24 Hours of Le Mans.

BMW had been catching the #8 Toyota for some time, and to bolster that challenge they swapped Vanthoor and Frijns around, who were running eight and ninth. They’d been as low as eleventh and seemed to be slowly but surely coming into the race, before the built up debris along Tetre Rouge saw the race’s first Full Course Yellow called out. After picking up a penalty earlier in the race, the #36 Alpine received its second drive through penalty of the race. Pit lane speeding infringements also cost the #sister #35 car a further five seconds at its next stop. Alpine have struggled all the way through so far, yet to crack the top ten and it was another blow to their charge. The fifth pit stops were also underway, as BMW pitted the #15, swapping Vanthoor out for Rafaelle Marciello.

There was the first drama to come for the leaders, as the #5 Porsche was pinged for a breach of slow zone procedure and was given a drive through penalty, having already lost the lead with Jaminet complaining about the braking and handling. He wouldn’t have to serve it though as, pitting before he it was taken, he was swapped out for Micheal Christensen. Having already lost significant time with the #4, it meant Porsche were pegged back as Ferrari were coming to the fore. The #5 lost around 50 seconds serving its drive through. Also given the same penalty was the #24 Nielsen Racing LMP2 of Naveen Rao.

LMGT3 continued its attrition increase, with the #60 Iron Lynx Mercedes of Fran Rueda slowing on the Mulsanne with a suspected puncture, losing significant time as it trundled round the twelve mile long circuit on its way into the pits. When it arrived the Mercedes was sent into the garage. Another LMP2 was pinged for slow zone infringements, this time the #25 of Algarve Pro Racing picking up a drive through penalty for an earlier incident with the #16 RLR M Sport that was in contention for the overall race and the Pro/Am category.

Robert Kubica proved the race’s biggest revelation this race, as he had clawed his way from the midfield into the lead battle and now after the pit stops challenge the #6 of Laurens Vanthoor and #51 Ferrari for third overall.. Meanwhile, after the drive through penalty the #5 was down with its sister #4 car, running in a lowly sixteenth place after having led in the early phases. A real disappointment for Porsche on their third attempt at winning Le Mans with the 963. The #83 also received a 5 second penalty at its next pit stop for overtaking off track into Mulsanne corner.

Ferrari meanwhile were still looking stronger than ever, holding a 1-2-3 on the road with the #51 and #83 duelling over second as the #50 led out front before the next set of pitstops which threw the order around for a few more laps. One result of this was a battle between Peugoet and Ferrari, not seen on this stage since the 2023 race. the #94, being driven by Stoffel Vandoorne found itself off sequence with around 30 percent energy and in a battle with the #50 Ferrari that had just come out of the pits. The #94 had been running a lap or two longer than everyone else during the stops, in an attempt to backtime the race from the very start. And it was working, they were up to fourth a lap or so later and keeping pace with the #50.

The gaps overall in Hypercar were closing with many under a second as the sun began to set. LMP2 and LMGT3 meanwhile were again, barely changed and had been running metronomically for a good while now. WRT’s #46 led from Francois Heriau, now back in the #21 AF Corse Ferrari while Ricardo Pera’s #92 Manthey Porsche was third. LMP2 saw Nick Yelloly in control up front, the #43 Inter Europol LMP2 leading ahead of VDS Panis’s #48 of Ollie Gray. Iron Lynx-Proton’s #9 now ran third ahead of AO Racing’s #199 Spike, with IDEC Sport’s #28 ahead of the sister #18 car, completing the top six.

As Ferrari led 1-2-3, the next best car was actually Alex Lynn in the #12 JOTA Cadillac, who in the beginning of the evening running seemed to have great pace on newer tyres. Behind him also was the #15 BMW of Rafaelle Marciello, but the Swiss driver would eventually assume fourth position as the Cadillac was off sequence.

The race settled down for a while during golden hour, as the lead was swapped around by the Ferrari’s and remaining #6 Porsche that was in contention, with a couple of incidents in between, Firstly, it became apparent the #38 JOTA Cadillac’s water bottle system was leaking and the race leading LMP2, that of Nick Yelloly’s #43 Inter Europol machine missed its pit box during a scheduled stop. LMGT3 meanwhile was in the hands of Manthey’s #92, now having moved ahead of the #46 WRT and #78 Lexus of Finn Gehrsitz. Francois Heriau was also in the mix in fourth with his #21 AF Corse Ferrari. Also, the #7’s team principal Kamui Kobayashi was called to the stewards, for an as yet undisclosed reason.

Frederik Vesti had been piloting the #311 Whelen Cadillac for some time and spent most of it stuck behind the #4 IMSA Porsche, but eventually found himself in a sandwich between the #4 and Micheal Christensen’s delayed #5. The trio were stuck battling for tenth place, struggling to make up time to the leaders. The trio’s squabbling then allowed Jenson Button’s #38 Cadillac and the Toyota #7 of Nyck De Vries to make it a five-way fight for tenth place. Button quickly scythed past the #4 Porsche, and established himself in the battle pack.

Another big penalty would come the way of a car that really didn’t need it, the #7 Toyota picked up a 50 second stop and go for a presumably large pitlane speed limit breach which would only delay them further in what was turning out to be a very difficult Le Mans for the five time winners of this race. Meanwhile, the BMW pair kept on sneaking their way up the order, now running an impressive fifth and sixth overall, #15 ahead of #20. They’d run a pretty flawless race so far, just without the pace of their rivals but were putting themselves in a great position going into the later stages of Saturday. At the front it was still a Ferrari 1-2-3, the order being #50, #51, #83 with fourth place being taken up by the Matt Campbell #6 Porsche. The race had stayed relatively attritionless for at least two hours, allowing the race to unfold naturally.

And of course the moment I write this, the #95 McLaren LMGT3 that had been running tenth stopped on track along the Mulsanne by a marshall post. The car showed no signs of visible damage, more so it seemed to be a mechanical issue, causing the race’s second full course yellow as the McLaren didn’t move. Meanwhile, having entered the garage a long time ago the #60 Mercedes was still no healthier and was now some 25 laps down. The full course yellow was thankfully a very short one, Darren Leung out of the car and perfectly ok after his McLaren’s mechanical issue which was reported to be a rear axel failure. It became the race’s second retirement overall.

As we closed out the hour, it Ferrari held a twenty second lead over the #6 Porsche. Meanwhile, LMP2 was now in the hands of Ollie Gray and VDS Panis Racing’s #48 car, with the Inter Europol #43 sitting tightly in fourth as ahead lie the AO Racing #199 of Spike – that also leads the Pro/Am category – and Iron Lynx’s #9, Reshad De Gerus aboard that car. LMGT3 is still a battle between the #46 WRT BMW of Kelvin Van Der Linde and Ryan Hardwick’s #92 Manthey Porsche, with Finn Gehrsitz in fourth for Lexus’s #78 entry. Also behind him is the sister #87 car of Petru Umbarescu, with the remaining Ford Mustang #77 of Bernardo Sousa completing the leading runners.

So we’re now past quarter distance at the 2025 24 Hours of Le Mans and at the moment it’s Ferrari domination, but for how long will that last? Can BMW or Toyota really make an impact, or will Porsche overcome their recent struggles? And most importantly of all, who will be left as we enter the night of Le Mans…

thumbnail credit – Lukas Raich, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons