LE MANS, France — As the sun begins to set in France and the 84th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans pushing forward at full song, a pit stop and driver change paved the way for Kamui Kobayashi and Toyota to take the race lead at the six hour mark of the international endurance classic.
While Mark Webber and the No. 1 Porsche 919 Hybrid commanded the majority of the fifth hour, appearing to have the edge as the race approached quarter distance, Webber pulled the car into pit lane 15 minutes prior to the six hour mark and gave up the seat to Porsche stalwart Timo Bernhard — surrendering the lead and dipping to second in the overall running order as a result.
The top seven overall runners at the six-hour mark are LMP1s, led by the No. 6 Toyota Gazoo Racing entry with Kobayashi at the controls and co-driven by Mike Conway and Stephane Sarrazin.
Bernhard and the No. 1 Porsche sit second, followed by the sister No. 5 Toyota of Anthony Davidson and co-driven by Sebastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima in third.
Fourth is the pole-winning No. 2 Porsche 919 Hybrid of Romain Dumas, Marc Lieb and Neel Jani; with the No. 8 Audi Sport Team Joest machine (Oliver Jarvis, Lucas di Grassi, Loic Duval) rounding out the top five and the lead lap cars to date.
The LMP2 battle is currently led by the No. 46 Thiriet by TDS Racing Oreca 05-Nissan of Ryo Hirakawa, Pierre Thiriet and Mathias Beche. That machine sits seven laps back of the overall lead.
The rest of the current class podium are the No. 36 Signatech Alpine A460-Nissan (Gustavo Menezes, Nicolas Lapierre, Stephane Richelmi) and the No. 47 KCMG Oreca 05-Nissan (Tsugio Matsuda, Matthew Howson, Richard Bradley) in second and third, respectively.
A furious GTE-Pro manufacturer battle continues to rage, and while Chip Ganassi Fords qualified in four out of the top five positions and run solidly in the top five all race long, it was the No. 82 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE that topped them to lead at the six-hour benchmark.
Sebastian Bourdais (No. 68) and Scott Dixon (No. 69) trailed closely behind, though, holding down second and third for Ford CGR’s Team USA-branded effort. A third Ford GT — shared by Billy Johnson, Olivier Pla and Stefan Mucke — rides fourth for the Ganassi Team UK branch.
The fourth Ganassi Ford, the No. 67, encountered trouble before the green flag ever waved and was stuck in the garage being repaired at the start of the race. It eventually did get out on track, driven by Andy Priaulx, but rides last in class and second-to-last in the overall rundown.
The top Corvette Racing entry, the No. 64 of Oliver Gavin, Tommy Milner and Jordan Taylor, is currently eighth in GTE-Pro and one lap down to the class leaders.
Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing’s No. 88 Porsche 911 RSR, co-driven by Khaled Al Qubaisi, Patrick Long, David Heinemeier Hansson, leads the GTE-Amateur class battle over a fellow Porsche 911 RSRR — the No. 78 KCMG entry (Christian Ried, Wolf Henzler, Joel Camathias).
About the Writer
Jacob Seelman is the Managing Editor of Race Chaser Online and creator of the Motorsports Madness radio show, airing at 7 p.m. Eastern every Monday on the Performance Motorsports Network.
Seelman grew up in the sport, watching his grandparents co-own the RaDiUs Motorsports NASCAR Cup Series team in the 1990s.
The 22-year-old is currently studying Broadcast Journalism at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, S.C., and is also serving as the full-time tour announcer for the Must See Racing Sprint Car Series.
Email Jacob at: [email protected]
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