Verstappen Crashes Out of Lead in Hour 10

Image: rFactor2

Max Verstappen has crashed out of the lead of the virtual 24 Hours of Le Mans after experiencing server glitch issues in the tenth hour.

The Formula 1 star, driving the No. 20 Team Redline Oreca 07, made contact with the barriers at Arnage followed by a high-speed spin at the Porsche Curves after apparent damage sustained from the first incident.

It dropped the pre-race favorite LMP entry down the running order to 13th overall after initial repairs were made during the Dutchman’s pit stop.

Verstappen’s incident has handed the lead to the No. 1 Rebellion Williams Esport entry of Raffaele Marciello, who holds a ten-second lead over the 2 Seas Motorsport car of Oliver Rowland in second.

The No. 20 Redline entry was in the midst of a heated three-way fight for the lead earlier in the race, which saw the pole-sitting No. 4 ByKolles Burst Esport entry of Jesper Pedersen take over the lead from Verstappen’s co-driver Greger Huttu in the seventh hour.

An apparent hardware failure for Pedersen saw the Dane sim racer go into the barriers shortly after.

Verstappen took over the lead in the ninth hour after getting past the No. 16 Veloce Esports 2 car of Eamonn Murphy, which had also led in the hands of Stoffel Vandoorne before getting involved in an incident with a GTE car.

The issues for the previous front-runner has promoted the No. 13 Rebellion Williams Esport entry to third, ahead of Pedersen, who has rebounded to fourth overall.

Jean-Eric Vergne currently runs in fifth in the No. 24 Veloce entry.

Porsche remains in control of GTE, led by the No. 93 entry of Tommy Ostgaard, who has nearly a one-minute lead over the No. 92 Porsche 911 RSR of Mack Bakkum and Neel Jani in third in the No. 91 car.

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