The #83 AF Corse Ferrari continues to maintain the net lead in the hands of Yifei Ye after the first six hours of the race, while rain lashed the Circuit de la Sarthe, with Frederic Makowiecki reaching second place at the last minute with the #5 Porsche .
Robert Shwartzman built a lead of more than 40 seconds in the satellite Ferrari after an impressive triple stint, and Ye continued his team-mate’s good work to put AF Corse well ahead of the opposition as night fell at the Circuit de the Sarthe.
Nielsen maintained second position in the best of the factory 499P after taking over from teammate Miguel Molina at the end of the sixth hour, but dropped to fourth position in the final cycle of pit stops after putting together a new set of slick tires just before the last rain.
This left Nielsen fourth, behind the Toyota 8 of Ryo Hirakawa. The first of the Japanese manufacturer’s factory cars was running off the pace with most of the Hypercars, but pitted after just eight laps as the track was too wet for slick tires.
The last of the remaining Ferrari 499Ps, the factory #51, completed the top five at the end of the sixth hour, with Antonio Giovinazzi driving the car that won on its debut in 2023.
The #6 Porsche remains fifth with Laurens Vanthoor ahead of Norman Nato’s customer #12 Jota Porsche and two-time IndyCar champion Alex Palou in the #2 Cadillac.
The #7 Toyota GR010 HYBRID, starting from the back of the Hypercar field, suffered another setback when José María López was penalized with a drive through for a pit stop violation. López rejoined the track in seventh position after serving the penalty, more than three minutes behind the leading Ferrari.
Alpine suffered a double DNF on its return to the 24 Hours of Le Mans, with its two A424 LMDhs officially out of the race ahead of the night at La Sarthe.
The #35 Alpine A424 LMDh was the Hypercar to retire from the race, with Ferdinand Habsburg retiring in the fifth hour with smoke billowing from the rear of the car.
The #36 Alpine suffered technical problems of its own and entered the garage in the sixth hour, before officially abandoning the race.
In the LMP2 class, the #10 Vector Sports Oreca maintains first position after fast stints from Ryan Cullen and Stéphane Richelmi.
The Cool Racing team put up a tough battle against Vector when factory Toyota driver Ritomo Miyata was behind the wheel of the team’s #37 Oreca, but his challenge fell apart when Lorenzo Fluxa, classified in silver, took over.
Third place goes to Bijoy Garg’s United Autosports Oreca, despite the #22 crew receiving a drive-through penalty for an incident in the fifth hour.
MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi led the new LMGT3 category on his debut at Le Mans after extending the lead he had inherited from Alhmad Al Marthy in the #46 WRT BMW M4 GT3.
But WRT decided to swap him for factory BMW driver Maxime Martin just before the end of the sixth hour, putting the #92 Manthey PureRxcing Porsche of Joel Sturm in front. Richard Lietz takes third position in the brother #91 Manthey EMA.
