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WEC - Dramatic Start to the 89th 24 Hours of Le Mans
After heavy rain saw the race start behind the Safety Car, there was drama at the first corner as the #708 Glickenhaus 007 LMH hit the #8 Toyota Gazoo Racing GR010. There were plenty of spinners and gravel trap moments as the tricky conditions caught drivers out.
After 60-minutes of racing the no7 Toyota of Mike Conway is leading overall. Corvette lead in LMGTE Pro, while Antonio Felix da Costa stars in the #38 JOTA in LMP2, while #83 AF Corse Ferrari is ahead in LMGTE Am category.
Hypercar
- #7 Toyota Gazoo Racing Hypercar driven by Mike Conway leads majority of first hour and holds comfortable lead
- Conway leads 61 car field after safety car start due to wet conditions for 89th running of the great race
- Dramatic start to race as Sebastien Buemi is hit by Olivier Pla and spun down the field
- #8 Toyota then stops for a systems re-set and also has excursion at Arnage amid difficult start to race
- But Buemi fights back and is able to run in second place in Hypercar albeit 57-seconds behind teammate Conway in #7 Toyota GR010-Hybrid
- Alpine ELF Matmut of Nicolas Lapierre initially places second but spins at Indianapolis on second lap. Lapierre re-joins and is able to lead briefly during pit stops. But he soon follows suit and after first hour before he sit in third position
- Despite damage from first corner incident #708 Glickenhaus 007 LMH places second but damage to front right of car
- Pla also forced to take a 10-second penalty for the accident when he makes first scheduled stop and slips back to fifth in Hypercar
- #709 Glickenhaus driven by Richard Westbrook places fourth after cautious start to race
- But British driver spins at final corner just as first hour ends. He re-joins but drops back behind sister car of Pla
LMGTE Pro
- Corvette took initiative at start of race but drop back to allow charging AF Corse Ferraris to run 1-2 with No.51 car driven James Calado holding off #52 Miguel Molina
- After pit stop shake-out to take on slick tyres as track dries out the Corvette re-assume the lead as #64 car driven by Tommy Milner leads #52 Ferrari driven by Molina
- James Calado has off-track excursion at Esses just before end of first hour and slips back fifth position in LMGTE Pro
- WeatherTech Porsche sits third as Laurens Vanthoor sits on tail of second place Ferrari
- Tough start for Porsche GT Team as Kevin Estre has two incidents in re-built #92 911 RSR-19. This drops him down to seventh place
LMP2
- Antonio Felix da Costa leads from pole and is quickest car on track after starting on Goodyear intermediate tyres
- But JOTA driver relinquishes the lead as he pits to slick tyres and the #26 G-Drive car driven by Nyck de Vries takes over temporary lead
- After an hour da Costa re-assumes lead and enjoys a sizeable 20-second lead over de Vries and places second overall
- Third in class is #41 Team WRT car driven by Robert Kubica who fought closely with de Vries in first laps of the race
- Racing Team Nederland places fourth as Giedo van der Garde cuts through the field and ensures Dutch car also leads Pro/Am class and closes on Kubica
- #23 United Autosports USA entry hits trouble on opening lap as Nico Jamin spins but re-joins to continue
- #25 G-Drive car of Roberto Merhi loses two laps after beaching car in Esses gravel just before end of first hour
LMGTE Am
- Julien Andlauer leads from pole in the No.88 Dempsey Proton Racing Porsche
- But Cetilar Racing Ferrari 488 GTE Evo of Antonio Fuoco surges to the front
- But #83 AF Corse Ferrari comes through the field to take lead after first stops as Niklas Nielsen enjoys 8-second lead over Andlauer’s Porsche
- #80 Iron Lynx Ferrari of Matteo Cressoni impressive as he places in third position
- In the Innovation class Matthieu Lahaye has trouble free stint to place encouraging 23rd overall in adapted car he races with Takuma Aoki and Nigel Bailley