Despite the arrival of daylight at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, heavy rain forced the race to be neutralized for more than three hours.
As the race entered its second half, incessant rain caused the race director to keep the safety car out for a long period.
The #2 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac V-Series.R – which was third at mid-race – suffered a nose change that caused IndyCar champion Alex Palou to drop to ninth position.
Other than that, there were hardly any major changes to the racing order over the three hours since the conclusion of the 12th hour.
Leader Brendon Hartley (#8 Toyota) was complaining of cramps in his knee while leading at the soggy Circuit de la Sarthe. Kevin Estre was running second in the #6 Porsche, 1.5 seconds behind the car he had been chasing when the rain intensified to the point that the race director made the decision to neutralize the race.
Hartley handed over the lead car to Ryo Hirakawa in the 15th hour, while Estre was relieved of Laurens Vanthoor.
Nyck de Vries was running third in the #7 Toyota after taking the place of José María López, but was being investigated for rejoining behind the same safety car, ahead of the #50 Ferrari 499P of Niklas Nielsen. De Vries had to make an extra stop to rectify the mistake, but that cost him a place ahead of Nielsen.
safety car
Photo by: Marc Fleury
Robert Kubica, who led the race earlier, was fifth in the #83 Ferrari, ahead of Jenson Button in Jota’s #38 Porsche 963.
Alex Lynn is the top Cadillac finisher in the #2 car after replacing Palou, ahead of the #51 Ferrari of Antonio Giovinazzi, the #3 Cadillac of Sébastien Bourdais and the #5 Porsche of Matt Campbell.
Further back, Mathieu Jaminet does not have windshield wipers aboard the #6 Porsche 963, so he has been driving with limited visibility.
The best example of how wet the conditions were was Romain Grosjean’s #19 Lamborghini SC63, which is 14th and leaked.
In LMP2, the #183 AF Corse Oreca where the Argentine Nicolás Varrone competes leads in the hands of Francois Perrodo, followed by the #37 of Cool Racing with Lorenzo Fluxa at the wheel and the #34 Inter Europol of Jakub Smiechowski and the #10 Vector Sport by Stephane Richelmi.
In the LMGT3 class, the #92 Porsche 911 Manthey PureRxing of Aliaksandr Malykhin leads the sister car #91 driven by Yasser Shahin.
Ian James has placed third in the Heart of Racing Aston Martin ahead of the Iron Dames Lamborghini, which has Sarah Bovy at the wheel.
More rain is forecast in the coming hours.
