Toyota Gazoo Racing are in the lead after the first hour of the 88th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, which began Saturday at 2:30 in the afternoon local time.
Mike Conway led from pole position in the #7 Toyota TS050 Hybrid from the drop of the flag, and set the fastest lap of the race early on with a time of 3’19.357. At the 1 hour classification, Conway has completed 18 laps and has a 56-second lead.
Behind them in the early minutes, the #1 Rebellion R13-Gibson of Bruno Senna and the #8 Toyota TS050 of Sébastien Buemi battled for second position on track. Both cars pitted for the first time on Lap 9, and the #8 Toyota came out ahead to take second place.
Five laps later, the #8 Toyota came into the pits for a second time, moving the #1 Rebellion of Senna into second – and the sister #3 Rebellion of Nathanaël Berthon into third as the one hour mark was surpassed, with the #8 Toyota of Buemi fourth. Senna then took the fastest lap of the race with a best lap of 3’19.264 on Lap 4.
The pace of the #4 ByKolles ENSO CLM P1/01-Gibson has settled into a purgatory between the two prototype classes, but the fact remains that the car is still running, fifth overall, in the hands of Tom Dillmann.
In LMP2, the #22 United Autosports Oreca 07 of Filipe Albuquerque leads after completing 17 laps in the first hour, with the Portuguese driver setting the fastest lap in class, a 3’29.709. However, two pre-race contenders are now on the back foot after early troubles in the first hour.
The first was the #36 Signatech Alpine A470-Gibson of Andre Negrão, which came into the pits after the opening lap, suffering from a water leak. It’s a hammer blow for the team that has won LMP2 the last two years, on the heels of their announcement of their imminent move to LMP1.
The #29 Racing Team Nederland Oreca 07 has suffered from cooling problems throughout the first hour, which have necessitated a couple of unscheduled stops in the garage – not the way Giedo van der Garde wanted to start his race.
Both the #36 Signatech and #29 Racing Team Nederland cars are down three laps, as is the #35 Eurasia Motorsport Ligier JSP217, which went to the garage not long after gentleman driver Nobuya Yamanaka spun off into the gravel at the Dunlop Chicane. Both IDEC Sport Racing Orecas are down two laps, having already started on a one-lap delay after their practice and qualifying woes throughout the weekend.
Behind the #22 United Oreca, one could practically throw a blanket over the rest of the LMP2 front-runners!
Le Mans debutant and Toyota Gazoo Racing Driver Challenge prospect Kenta Yamashita was 2nd in the #33 High Class Racing Oreca, just 1.1 seconds ahead of the young Aussie James Allen in the #39 SO24-Graff Oreca in third. Alex Brundle is fourth in the other United Oreca, the #32, which is ahead of the #26 G-Drive Racing Aurus 01 of Jean-Éric Vergne, running fifth.
Anthony Davidson is sixth in the #38 JOTA Sport Oreca, Simon Trummer is seventh in the #25 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca, and after two pit stops, the #30 Duqueine Team Oreca (Tristan Gommendy) and #31 Panis Racing Oreca (Matthieu Vaxiviere) are classified eighth and ninth. The best of the non-Oreca 07 runners after 1 hour is the #47 Cetilar Racing Dallara P217 (Giorgio Sernagiotto) in tenth.
Aston Martin Racing in control early
The #51 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo’s defence of last year’s GTE-Pro class began well as James Calado passed Gianmari Bruni’s pole-sitting Porsche 911 RSR for the lead into the second chicane on the opening lap. Alex Lynn’s #97 Aston Martin Vantage AMR overhauled the Ferrari into Mulsanne Corner though and asserted a lead over the #51 car, which had the #95 Aston Martin breathing down its neck.
Bruni’s Porsche was down to fourth by the end of the second lap and was clearly off the class pace at this point. Both the Porsche GT Team entries seemed happy to sit back from the action at the front as the pit stops began.
Alex Lynn held station at the front after the first round of stops, notably with the #71 Ferrari now into second place with Miguel Molina. Calado had lost out at the stops to resume fourth, but used traffic well to get by the Nicky Thiim driven Aston Martin to take third into the first chicane.
Toni Vilander’s start was an impressive improvement for the Weathertech Ferrari from the back of the of the GTE-Pro grid, running fourth before the stops but now working his way back through the field again having lost out in the pits.
Sebastien Bourdais’ Risi Ferrari had started cautiously at the back of the class, but had improved to fifth in class after the first round of stops, which saw Michael Christensen aboard the #92 Porsche and tailing the GTE-Pro field, covered by half a minute.
In GTE Am, the pole-sitting Luzich Racing Ferrari found itself bogged down at the start, dropping back down the order as the field found its race pace. Matteo Cairoli’s #56 Project 1 led at end of Lap1 from third on the grid, pursued hard by Charlie Eastwood’s TF Sport Aston Martin, up four places after a solid start.
The #61 Luzich Racing car seemed to be struggling for pace as Oswaldo Negri Jr triggered the first Yellow flag of the race: the experienced Brazilian lost the car on the entry to the Dunlop Chicane, rotating the Ferrari and sending Tomas Preining’s #88 Dempsey Proton Porsche backwards into the gravel. The #88 car backed itself into the tyre wall and was still stationary as the first hour closed.
Ross Gunn took the GTE-Am lead into the second chicane on lap 4, the #98 Aston Martin extending a gap from Cairoli’s Porsche, which had Charlie Eastwood in the TF Sport Aston Martin attached to his rear. Eastwood made it an Aston Martin 1-2 into the first chicane.
The Gunn, Eastwood, Cairoli order resumed after the first set of stops though a little more gapped for track position. Julian Andlauer’s #99 Dempsey Proton Porsche sat fourth, chased hard by Giancarlo Fisichella’s #54 AF Corse Matt Griffin’s #55 Spirit of Race Ferraris.
Image courtesy of Rolex
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