GTE Pro was the class which saw the most action in Hour 7 at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, with the sun now set at La Sarthe. Two cars hit trouble in the hour, the first being the No. 64 Corvette.

Nick Tandy was running in second when the car hit trouble, the Briton had to bring it in for a right-rear brake change. The team, remarkably, opted to change all four brakes and did so in just over two minutes. It’s critical lost time, but the No. 64 is only down to fifth in class. The No. 63 Corvette still leads over the No. 92 Porsche, while No. 91 has climbed back into the top three following the No. 64’s brake change.

Later in the hour, the No. 52 AF Corse Ferrari also hit trouble, but it was more of a hammer blow.

Early in the hour, Fred Makowiecki in the delayed No. 91 had to fight his way past Miguel Molina in the No. 52 following his penalty for track limits. The Frenchman made a move round the outside of Indianapolis. The battle continued for a few more laps, but then Molina made contact with a prototype at Tetre Rouge.

“I didn’t see them, it was in my blind spot,” he said.

The contact caused a right-front puncture, and forced him to complete most of a lap at limping pace. This issue has dropped the No. 52 to a distant sixth.

Up front, the No. 8 Toyota LMH is back ahead of the No. 7, leading the race once again with Sebastien Buemi at the wheel, ahead of Mike Conway. Oliver Pla in the No. 708 remains third, just over three minutes off the lead.

In LMP2, PREMA now leads, the No. 38 JOTA car losing the top spot at the 12th round of stops. Antonio Felix da Costa is now 2.6s off Lorenzo Colombo. A battle for the lead should be on very soon!

The No. 28 JOTA machine is third, with the No. 65 Panis Racing example fourth. Manu Collard is fifth, finally installed in the Penske ORECA for his first stint of the race.The Penske 07 Gibson is still in contention, but did lose time to a nose change in the pits after contact during Felipe Nasr’s most recent time in the car.

GTE Am’s lead margin has now shrunk. The WeatherTech Porsche still leads the race, but Nicki Thiim and later David Pittard have reduced the No. 79’s lead from almost a minute to just 16s. With Cooper MacNeil now out of the car and Julien Andlauer back in, the pressure is on for him to create a comfortable gap once again.

Third is the No. 77 Dempsey Proton Porsche, which is still very much hanging in there, as is the No. 33 TF Sport Vantage in fourth.

HOUR 7 STANDINGS