The Grand Prix of Endurance is back, the City of Le Mans preparing to become motorsport’s ultimate battleground for the 95th time. Having defeated the defacto Kings of Le Mans and banished Porsche to the USA, Ferrari seek a fourth consecutive crown for the first time since 1964. Yet with the field having closed the performance gap and arriving hungrier than ever, it will be no easy task for the Scuderia – but it never has. Who will emerge from the Porsche curves at 4.00pm on Sunday? It’s time for the oldest endurance test of them all to begin… 

Hypercar

With the safety car brought out early in the eighteenth hour, it gave the #8 Toyota a chance to carry out further repairs to the front brakes. The upshot was the Toyota #7 moved ahead of the sister car while behind yet more drama occured.

The #50 Ferrari without warning pulled into a martial post and stayed stationary by the side of Mulsanne at a marshal post, ending it’s already troubled Le Mans 2026 and bringing the 499P’s 100% finishing record to an end after four years. Now only the #83, placed fifth, and the sixth-placed #51 had a real shot at victory with both on the lead lap along with the seventh placed Alpine #36 of Ferdinand Habsburg.

Habsburg would soon pass over the car to Makowiecki, but then the #36 would be pulled into the pits and went into the garage, losing over a lap and dropping to tenth to change an front anti-roll bar and fix electrical issues, while the sister #35 closed back up the the front of the Hypercar train.

Up front, Frijns held his advantage over the #12, with both now running on virtually the strategy and would get the field back underway and stay ahead, crucially with the chasing Toyotas just 8sec back, Ye Yifei’s #83 a further 10sec back as everyone navigated the traffic.

With both Toyotas rapidly closing on the now leading Cadillac, after Robin Frijns had peeled his #20 into the pits after a minor excursion as the next pit stop cycle with just under four and a half hours remaining.

After the stops were completed, Norman Nato held a slim lead over both Toyotas, with #8 ahead of #7 with the #20 back in fourth as a result of the skirmish into the gravel trap earlier on. The top four cars were separated by just 5sec, but by the time the stint had worn on Frijns had been dropped from the lead battle. Up front, the #12 still led – only just – ahead of the chasing #8 and #7 Toyotas, lapping significantly quicker but unable to find a way through.

LMP2

Meanwhile in LMP2, five cars ran on the lead lap, with Julien Andlauer’s #30 heading the #343 and #43 of Inter Europol in second and third, with Esteban Masson’s #29 and Vector Sport’s #26 the only cars left on the lead lap.

With the safety car neutralising the race, it meant the #30 Duqueine’s once-held advantage of nearly two minutes was wiped out.

Incredibly after attrition affected the majority of the field there were still only three cars on the lead lap, those being the aforementioned #30, and both Inter Europol cars, #343 Pro/Am leader ahead of #43.

In fourth was still the Vector Sport #26, with Forestier Racing having also fallen off the lead lap, now in fifth with Esteban Masson at the wheel.

On the restart the Vector Sport #26 received a drive through penaltym dropping it to fifth, as the top four were separated by barely 5sec, with #30 leading the way ahead of the #343 and #43, with the #29 of Forestier Racing By Panis.

LMGT3

With four hours to go in LMGT3, there were now six cars on the LMGT3 lead lap. The TF Sport #33 led the way by just 6sec over the #23 Aston Martinm with the two Akkodis ASP Lexuses, #78 ahead of 87 with the #34 Corvette, #21 Ferrari and Sean Gelael’s #32 BMW completing those still on the lead lap

The next LMGT3 retirement would be confirmed as the #77 Ford Mustang with break issues, as the next car to hit trouble was the #91 of Ayhcanacn Guven, who hit the tyre wall out of the Mulsanne chicanes, the car wrecked and out on the spot, crucially bringing out a safety car.

Among other things it meant the lead the #33 once had was now totally evaporated, with the #27 in second and sister #23 in fourth, sandwiching the #78 Lexus of Hadrien David.

Dennis Marschall was the best placed of the Ferraris in the #74, as the field closed up before the safety car restart.

On the restart the order remained the same, with the #32 BMW being handed a drive through penalty.

image credit: T GOUREAU, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons