Le Mans.- After the storm, a calm that lasted less than desired. After a night with more than four hours of Safety Car Due to rain and the slow procedure of the current format (explained here), the fans were enjoying a titanic battle for the victory and the victory of the 24 Hours of Le Mansuntil an accident again neutralized the test.
The Heart of Racing #27 of Alex Riberas, with his teammate Daniel Mancinelli at the wheel, lost control in the Indianapolis area, and slid at high speed into the barriers, with a terrible impact that caused the car to overturn. Fortunately the driver came out under his own weight, but that was the end of the options, and again there was a Safety Car.
Video: terrible accident on the morning of the 24 Hours of Le Mans
The marshals, who had a big scare when they found themselves near the tire barrier, are working on repairing the protection barriers, and meanwhile the drivers will have to split their Safety Car until they all join together behind the main Safety Car.
That brought together even more a platoon that was very even, and in Hypercar, fighting for the overall victory, the #6 Porsche and the #8 Toyota that have been fighting for hours to win, had been joined very little from behind by a beautiful battle between the Toyota #7 and the Ferarri #50 (from Molina, with Fuoco at the controls).
Before Hour 18, the Ferrari made its stop, leaving third place in the hands of the #7 Toyota of Nyck de Vries. The biggest rival now for the Japanese team’s double podium became the #2 Cadillac of Alex Palou, with Earl Bamber at the wheel after a great performance by Alex Lynn.
The accident with Riberas’ LMGT3 came after another with Porsche #4 that left him out of action.
After the long neutralization at night, more than four hours in a safety car because the rain and the night prevented proper visibility, all the drivers changed from rain tires to dry tires, when the track was no longer so wet, and Up to 11 Hypercars were on the lead lap and therefore still with a chance to win.
With six hours to go until the checkered flag, there are still 11 cars on the lead lap, although shortly after Hour 18, the two leaders stopped to change drivers and returned to the track sixth and seventh, now with Kevin Estre and Sebastien Buemi at the controls.
The LMP2 category saw a number of changes over the last three hours, as the order of the table changed during each pit stop phase.
At the end of Hour 18, Ben Barnicoat was back in front in the #183 AF Corse ORECA-07, ahead of the #22 United Autosports car, now in the hands of Oliver Jarvis.
Vector Sport also advanced after putting Patrick Pilet (platinum driver) in the car, while the Cool Racing #37 dropped to fourth place when Spaniard Lorenzo Fluxa took control. Dani Juncadella’s #82 TF Sport is 14th in its category.
In LMGT3, an exciting fight is expected in the last six hours, because the top five were all together on the track. The #92 Porsche 911 GT3 R Manthey PureRxcing, class leader, abandoned the test due to gearbox problems, and Klaus Bachler had to take the car to the garage shortly after the race returned to the green flag. It took the German team 24 minutes to solve the problem, which caused them to lose five laps and be in the lower areas of the top 20.
The #91 Manthey EMA Porsche of Richard Lietz took over from Bachler, but dropped to third position at the end of the 18th hour after making a pit stop.
That put Gregoire Saucy ahead in the #59 United Autosports McLaren 720S GT3, with the #87 ASP Lexus RC F GT3 of Jack Hawksworth close behind. The #85 of Iron Dames once led with Gatting, but a driver change to Rahel Frey dropped them to fifth place.
