With the two Toyota GR010 hybrids using slightly different pit strategies, the lead of the race changed hands several times in the early hours of the morning after the safety car phase after eight hours that put both cars on the track.
Mike Conway took the initiative in the # 7 Toyota when Kazuki Nakajima came off the lead and handed the # 8 car over to Sebastien Buemi in hour 10, but Buemi was able to reduce the gap to around 20 seconds before the gap stabilized.
Conway pitted in hour 11 so that Kamui Kobayashi could take over the car with the number 7, so that Buemi came closer to over 20 within four seconds.
When the clocks struck at 4 a.m. local time, Kobayashi enjoyed a healthy buffer of 1:50 minutes ahead of Hartley, with both Toyotas making 14 pit stops.
The Alpine A480-Gibson continued to circulate in a distant third place and three laps behind the lead, with Andre Negrao taking over from Nicolas Lapierre towards the end of the 10th hour.
After a courageous fight with the # 708 Glickenhaus 007 LMH of Olivier Pla, which is fourth and four laps behind with Franck Mailleux at the wheel, Lapierre had at least fought back to the overall podium.
Romain Dumas’ sister # 709 Glickenhaus was six laps behind the lead and 10th overall behind a clutch of LMP2 vehicles.
# 31 Team WRT Oreca 07 – Gibson LMP2, Robin Frijns, Ferdinand Habsburg, Charles Milesi
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
The battle for the lead in the LMP2 class intensified as the race reached halfway, with the two ORECA-07 Gibsons from Team WRT maintaining their lead.
The number 31 car, which was in the lead almost a minute after the safety car phase, was in the hands of Charles Milesi with just three seconds ahead of Ye Yifei, who had been in the lead since taking over the number 41 from Ex Formula 1. Star Robert Kubica.
United Autosports’ leading car, the # 22 ORECA, finished third in the hands of Fabio Scherer, but still 1 min. 49 minutes behind the top fight, while the # 65 Panis Racing and # 28 JOTA cars made up the top 5.
A spin for Esteban Garcia in the # 70 Realteam Racing ORECA meant that DragonSpeed took the lead in the Pro / Am subclass, with Juan Pablo Montoya at the wheel.
Ferrari retained control of the GTE Pro class, with its two factory-operated AF Corse 488 GTE Evos holding a one-two with Alessandro Pier Guidi’s # 51 machine, which took Sam Bird’s # 52 car 1:47 minutes ahead cited but finished with one less stop.
Jordan Taylor had the # 63 Corvette C8.R, which split the Italian cars despite slowly losing ground to the # 51 Ferrari, but the American car slipped to third place shortly after Taylor handed over to Nicky Catsburg – though Catsburg Birds Ferrari in the fight pushed for second.
The two works 911 RSR-19s from Porsche finished fourth and fifth, Michael Christensen was in the better placed car, the # 92, 23s back from the Bird / Catsburg fight.
The GTE Pro-Class suffered its first official resignation when the WeatherTech-Porsche # 79 was out of action in the 11th hour due to an accident involving Cooper MacNeil in the Ford chicane. Repair attempts were made before Porsche found the chassis was damaged.
Also in GTE Am, Ferrari with Nicklas Nielsen in starter # 83 AF Corse took the lead around one minute ahead of Dylan Pereira in # 33 TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage GTE.
