The headlines after 12 Hours at Le Mans
Hypercar
The 94th 24 Hours of Le Mans reached the halfway point amidst an increasingly close and captivating fight for supremacy between Cadillac and Toyota
The #8 Toyota TR010 Hybrid Hypercar quadrupled its set of medium-compound Michelin tyres via Sébastien Buemi and Brendon Hartley; the Kiwi inherited a 13-second advantage following some mighty laps by his Swiss team-mate when the race returned to ‘green’ status, after the only safety car so far ended just after midnight
But Hartley lost that advantage at 01:20am when he out-braked himself at Mulsanne Corner, losing that hard-won gap; he rejoined just ahead of the Will Stevens-driven #12 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA in second, with the pair subsequently circulating nose-to-tail for several laps
The Toyota was put under significant pressure not only by Stevens, but also by the #38 Cadillac, which changed hands from Earl Bamber to Jack Aitken at 01:30am
A short-fuelled pit-stop put Aitken ahead of the #8 Toyota to ensure the Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA pair ran one-two, until 02:30am, when Hartley fought back and found his way past the #12 Cadillac again
But the Toyota was unable to stop Aitken from extending the lead at the front, with the British driver building a 22-second gap over the sister #12 Cadillac as the race hit the 12-hour mark
The #20 BMW held fourth position for most of the early hours of Sunday morning after fading slightly from the absolute sharp end of the lead battle, although Sheldon van der Linde stayed in touch with the pace-setting trio
The #7 Toyota, piloted by Kamui Kobayashi, managed to pull off a fine on-track move on the fifth-placed #101 Cadillac WTR V-Series.R at Mulsanne Corner just before the midway point arrived
The #50 Ferrari AF Corse 499P dropped out of contention when it pitted just after the green flag flew in the ninth hour; a requirement to change the fire extinguisher in the car meant the 2024 race-winner lost eight laps and fell behind the much-delayed #15 BMW at the tail-end of the Hypercar order
A fantastic debut performance by Genesis Magma Racing played out over the first half of the race, but issues struck for the #19 GMR-001 driven by Paul-Loup Chatin, who stopped on the Mulsanne Straight to trigger the third Full Course Yellow at 03:25am; the Frenchman managed to re-start the Korean prototype and return to the fray, albeit having conceded four positions
LMGT3
Mattia Drudi and Zacharie Robichon built up a small gap at the front of the LMGT3 category, delighting the legions of Aston Martin fans at Le Mans
The #27 Heart of Racing Team Vantage ran ahead of the pair of Akkodis ASP Team Lexuses, as Jack Hawksworth and José María López endeavoured to chase down the Aston in the #78 and #87 cars respectively
But the order regularly shuffled as a variety of tyre and fuel strategies played out throughout the field in a typically tight fight amongst the remaining 23 entries
The LMGT3 battle is by no means restricted to just Aston Martin and Lexus, though, as the #33 TF Sport Corvette crewed by Jonny Edgar, Ben Keating and Nicky Catsburg begins to come to the fore after a strong mid-phase of the race
Staying in touch with the Corvette is the #62 Team Qatar by Iron Lynx Mercedes, making it four different manufacturers inside the top four positions in the LMGT3 class
There was trouble for the #150 Richard Mille AF Corse Ferrari in the 12th hour, however, with the car losing time in the pits due to needing a new door
LMP2
The advantage in the LMP2 category fluctuated during the early hours between the long-time leading #30 Duqueine Team Oreca-Gibson driven by Doriane Pin, Julien Andlauer and Richard Verschoor and the #343 Inter Europol Competition car of Nico Müller, Bijoy Garg and Reshad de Gerus
At 04:00am, it is the Duqueine car (Pin) that holds the advantage over the Inter Europol Competition entry (Garg), with the second of the Inter Europol Competition cars, the #43 prototype piloted by Tom Dillmann, in third
Le Mans rookie Enzo Trulli brought out the second Full Course Yellow period at 03:17am after locking up and skating off at Arnage; the #25 Algarve Pro Racing entry had to be pulled out of the gravel trap by rescue workers, but re-joined the action and currently runs 16th in class
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Text: WEC
Image: @crédit : DPPI
