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…\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hypercar<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n BMW lead once again at Le Mans after starting from pole for the first time ever, some 42sec ahead of the second-placed #8 Toyota as the sister #7 dropped down with a slow puncture\/ Cadillac still run third and fourth with the #38 and #12, with the latter currently under investigation for a pit-lane infringement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Alpine and Ferrari were the first to pit on the next cycle, as both #36 and #50 changing drivers, Ferdinand Habsburg being relieved in the #35 by Charles Milesi and Nicklas Nielsen being swapped out for Antonio Fuoco in the Ferrari. Out front Rene Rast went longer on his stint, as did Earl Bamber in the #20 and #38 while both Toyotas stuck stubbornly to their alternate strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the first near-miss of the Hypercar category was for Ferrari, with Antonio Fuoco being caught out by Richard Verschoor’s #30 Duqueine LMP2 while chasing the #7 Toyota and spinning at Tetre-Rouge, being lucky to avoid contact from cars roaring through the section and dropping behind Filipe Albuquerque’s #101 Cadillac.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile Milesi, now installed in the #35 was down to fifth, having to fend off the #50 Ferrari of Antonio Fuoco, with the #7 sticking to its strategy of pitting on roughly 20 minutes ahead of the pack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Genesis continued their strong run, with both cars still running consistently in the top ten, and on pace with the race leaders at points. The team had said they were treating this as a test session, having never run a race longer than 6 hours before this weekend but despite this they held an outside shot at an overall win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The #7 then hit a slow puncture, forcing it to pit again and dropping the Toyota to 17th when it re-emerged, just before the race’s first FCY was put out for debris. It forced the top three all coming in for emergency service, meaning the #20, #12 and #101 all had to pit twice within ten minutes, handing the advantage to the #8 Toyota. The track went green just as the #101 pulled into its box, losing it time and track position to the #8 of Brendan Hartley who romped back into the lead after the top three had all made their next stops. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The #51 saw further drama as Alessandro Pier Guidi made a move at turn four up the inside of the #9, but made contact with Jonas Reid’s LMP2 that went sideways before correcting the slide, causing a bollard to be knocked onto the track surface. The #9 was forced to make a rear bodywork change as a result and dropped to tenth, while the #51 was given a drive through penalty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile Jack Aitken had been unleashed into the #38 Cadillac, and in a similar fashion to Ferdinand Habsburg earlier on caught the race-leading #20 of Sheldon Van Der Linde, marking the first proper lead battle of the race, three-and-a-half hours into the race with the two duly swapping places as Aitken’s rapid pace proved too strong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n LMP2<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Duqueine lead at Le Mans in LMP2 meanwhile, with Doriane Pin holding a 21sec advantage over Bijoy Garg’s Pro\/Am leading #343 of Inter Europol. Meanwhlie Ollie Gray snatched third right at the end of the fourth hour in his #29 for Forestier Racing by Panis, just ahead of Adrien Closementil’s #37.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With pitstops complete the #30 finally led the class, with Le Mans rookie Richard Verschoor leading his first ever racing lap of the Circuit de la Sarthe ahead of Paul Lafarge in the #28, with Forestier Racing by Panis’s #29 back up to third with Louis Rousset. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Inter Europol inherited the race lead after extending their next stint with their #43, which was followed by the now Pro\/Am leading #343 of former class winner Bijoy Garg as the #28, #29 and #30 all pitting early in order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first LMP2 to suffer damage was that of DKR Engineering’s #3, with the car running wide and clattering the barriers forcing it into the pits and losing 5 laps to the rest of the field, now 59th overall and dead last in class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n