Stevens Leads Rast With Nine Hours to Go at Le Mans

Photo: Eric Le Galliot/MPS Agency

The No. 12 Hertz Team JOTA Cadillac V-Series.R of Will Stevens led BMW Team WRT’s Rene Rast with nine hours remaining in the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Stevens held a 18-second lead over the No. 20 BMW M Hybrid V8 at the 15-hour mark, a gap that had fluctuated amid sunrise over Circuit de la Sarthe.

A drive-through penalty for a Full Course Yellow infringement dropped the No. 8 Toyota TR010 Hybrid to third, some 40 seconds adrift after previously leading while on an alternate strategy from the opening hour.

The sister No. 7 Toyota of Mike Conway ran fourth, with the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari 499P of Antonio Giovinazzi having completed the top-five.

Like the No. 8 Toyota, the No. 101 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac was also forced to serve a drive-through for a FCY infringement earlier and handed a second penalty for the same infraction.

The No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P of Phil Hanson was also handed a drive-through, which dropped it to sixth, ahead of WTR’s Filipe Albuquerque.

JOTA’s No. 38 Cadillac, which had been out front for portions of the race, initially lost 30 minutes in the garage due to a blown fuse that led to power steering failure during Sebastien Bourdais’ stint.

The car was brought back into the garage shortly after.

LMP2 was led by the No. 30 Duqueine Team Oreca 07 Gibson of Richard Verschoor, ahead of the the No. 343 Inter Europol Competition entry of Reshad De Gerus and teammate Nick Yelloly third in the defending class-winning No. 43 machine.

The No. 33 TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Jonny Edgar was up front in LMGT3, with a 1 minute and 12-second advantage over the second-placed in class No. 27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo of Ian James.

Teammate Gray Newell, in the No. 23 Aston Martin, ran third in class, despite the car also previously serving a penalty.

There was an issue for the lone remaining Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo when Giuliano Alesi had suspension failure on his No. 62 Team Qatar by Iron Lynx entry, but managed to get the car back to the pits.

It was followed by an accident by Dane Cameron in the No. 99 AO by TF Oreca, which went off at Indianapolis and a spin for the No. 3 DKR Engineering machine of John Farano.

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John