The Grand Prix of Endurance is back, the City of Le Mans preparing to become motorsport’s ultimate battleground for the 94th 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 just two hours to go in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Will Stevens leads in the #12 Cadillac with Nyck De Vries 29sec back in the #7, with Sheldon Van Der Linde running third with Sebastian Buemi installed aboard the #8 and chasing the top three.

With four hours to go the lead battle still raged on, with Norman Nato’s #12 still holding on from Hirakawa’s #8 and Kamui Kobayashi’s #7, Robin Frijns stuck 10sec back from the lead fight, who were next into the pits with Frijns going a lap longer than Hirakawa.

On pit exit Nato held on until the full course yellow, but eventually the pressure from both Toyotas was too much and he fell back behind Nyck De Vries within a lap, Toyota now leading 1-2 for the first time all race. Nyck was on a charge, and pressured Hartley for the lead barely a lap later. The two cars would freeze positions until the next stop.

Nyck De Vries pitted just after the full course yellow was brought out, getting almost his entire stop done under yellow flag conditions but needing another stop with the #12 needing to do the same. It was advantage #8 and #20 BMW, both having not stopped and thus not needing the to spend more time in the pits.

After the #7 and #12 had made their legal full service stops, Sheldon Van Der Linde moved up to second with the #12 down to fourth, Will Stevens now aboard the Cadillac.

LMP2

After the Duquiene #30 retired with broken suspension Inter Europol lead 1-2 and are on course for their third class podium in as many years, the #343 leading the #43 by just 3sec.

As the lead battle in hypercar raged, so did the LMP2 fight, as in the next round of stops Rashad De Gerus’s #343 jumped the #30 of Duqueine in the pits, and with the other Inter Europol #43 in third there was a real shot of Inter Europol scoring their third podium in as many years. Further back, the trio of 19-year-olds in the #37 were up to fifth for CLX Motorsport.

Having been in contention since the very start the of the 24 Hours, the #30 Duquiene came to a stop on the Mulsanne with a brake disk failure ending the team’s race and almost nailing on an Inter Europol class win as a certainty, and bringing out a full course yellow. Promoted to third in class was Ollie Gray’s #29, as the #30 became incredibly the first LMP2 retirement with just 3 hours and fourteen minutes remaining in the race.

At the next stops, both Inter Europol cars entered the pits one after the other, with the order remaining unchanged. Tom Dillmann took fresh tires on his stop, and though the #29 had passed the #43 in the pits Dillmann wasted no time in gaining the place back, restoring the Inter Europol 1-2.

The order remained the same at the next round of pitstops.

LMGT3

In LMGT3 Johnny Edgar leads in the TF Sport #33 by just 5sec ahead of Heart of Racing’s #23 Aston Martin with two hours to go, in a finish set to be LMGT3’s answer to the GTE Pro finish of 2017.

TF Sport continued their lead with four hours left, ahead of the #78 and the two Astons, #23 ahead of #27 with the #21running consistently fifth. After the next round of stops Zacharie Robichon emerged barely a second ahead of the TF Sport #33 of Johnny Edgar, with Eduardo Barichello leading the class in the #23.

Edgar subsequently set a new personal best no his charge back up to the leading Aston Martin, but then the #27 sister Aston Martin stopped on the Mulsanne, it’s day done after a drivetrain issue, promoting Johnny Edgar to the race lead in class and meaning that Aston would now only have one horse in the race, just like Corvette. A full course yellow was called out to deal with the stricken car.

Behind, the #32 BMW spun at the Dunlop chicane, narrowly avoiding contact with the and entering the garage on its return.

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