BMW Leads, Advantage Toyota After Three Hours

Photo: Julien Delfosse/DPPI

BMW’s No. 20 car led after three hours in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, but Toyota continued to hold the strategic advantage as an ill-timed full-course yellow prevented leader Sheldon van der Linde from completing a scheduled routine stop.

After moving to the head of the Hypercar order in the opening hour following an early pit stop for Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley continued to make the most of its early strategic gambit aboard the best of the Japanese marque’s upgraded TR010 Hybrids.

Buemi had got the advantage over Rene Rast in the No. 20 BMW out to 20 seconds after the second round of pit stops, and continued to pull away to the tune of 28 seconds before he handed over to co-driver Hartley at the third round of stops.

Rast meanwhile handed over the No. 20 car to van der Linde, who was due to come in for a pit stop just beyond the three-hour mark but was forced to take just five seconds of fuel for the FCY before coming in again the following lap.

Second at the three-hour mark was the No. 12 Cadillac V-Series.R of Louis Deletraz that faced the same issue as the No. 20 BMW, followed by Hartley’s No. 8 Toyota and the No. 101 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac that also pitted under FCY.

An earlier stop for the No. 38 Cadillac had Jack Aitken running fifth after three hours, followed by Charles Milesi’s No. 35 Alpine A424 and the two factory Ferrari 499Ps, the No. 51 of Alessandro Pier Guidi leading the No. 50 of Antonio Fuoco.

There was a scare for the No. 50 when Fuoco spun at Tertre Rouge, coming close to contact with the LMP2 class-leading Duqueine Oreca in the process, but he was able to continue without major issues.

Rounding out the top ten were the pole-winning No. 15 BMW, which continued to struggle after Kevin Magnussen’s early woes, and the No. 17 Genesis GMR-001.

In the LMP2 class, Le Mans debutant Richard Verschoor led comfortably in the No. 30 Duqueine Team Oreca 07 Gibson, gaining the advantage as some of the French squad’s rival teams switched to their FIA Silver-rated drivers.

The pole-sitting IDEC Sport Oreca led early on with Job van Uitert at the wheel, but lost ground when Paul Lafargue took over at the third round of stops, Forestier Racing by Panis making the change from Esteban Masson to Louis Rousset a stop earlier.

Rousset then worked his way up to second in class ahead of Lafargue, trailing Verschoor by 21 seconds.

Bijoy Garg ran fourth in the No. 343 Inter Europol Competition car, while completing the top five was Jonas Ried in the Seven x Seven-backed No. 9 Proton Competition entry.

In LMGT3, Porsche driver Ayhancan Guven raced into the lead as Manthey put the Turkish driver at the wheel of the No. 91 Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo while many of the early front runners elected to switch to their FIA Bronze-rated pilots.

The No. 91 was among a minority of cars to have its Bronze driver in for the start, James Cottingham, before the Briton handed over to Guven.

Tom van Rompuy took over the leading Akkodis ASP Lexus RC F GT3 from Jack Hawksworth, and maintained his advantage at the head of the field until pitting more or less right on the three-hour mark, at which juncture Guven took the lead.

Making similar rapid progress up the field was the Team Qatar by Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, with Julian Hanses running second in that car, ahead of Eric Powell’s No. 77 Proton Competition Ford Mustang GT3 EVO.

Van Rompuy dropped to fourth in class ahead of Anthony McIntosh in the best of the Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 EVOs.

Source: Sports Car 365