Andlauer Leads Opening Hour for Porsche

Porsche Penske Motorsport led the opening hour of the 93rd 24 Hours of Le Mans as Julien Andlauer surged into the lead on the opening lap ahead of the two Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA cars that had locked out the front row.

Will Stevens led the field to green aboard the pole-winning No. 12 Cadillac V-Series.R ahead of teammate Earl Bamber, but it was Andlauer, who had started third in the No. 5 Porsche 963 who was on the move.

Taking advantage of the 963’s superior straight line speed, Andlauer was already ahead of Bamber by the time the field arrived at Tertre Rouge and then swept ahead of Stevens on the approach to the first Mulsanne chicane.

Further back, Felipe Nasr made short work of the No. 15 BMW to grab fourth in the No. 4 Porsche, while Kevin Estre came through from 21st and last in Hypercar to sit 14th on the opening lap in the No. 6 car that had been excluded from qualifying.

Andlauer extended his advantage throughout his first stint, building a five-second cushion before making his first pit stop on lap 12, with the two JOTA Cadillacs pitting a lap prior.

Nasr was one of three drivers to pit on lap 13, taking two right-side tires at this stop.

Andlauer maintained the advantage and led by 5.3 seconds at the top of the hour, with Stevens and Bamber second and third ahead of the No. 50 Ferrari 499P of Nicklas Nielsen.

Estre had climbed all the way to fifth ahead of Jack Aitken in the No. 311 Action Express Racing Cadillac.

Best of the BMWs was the No. 20 car of Rene Rast in seventh, with Kevin Magnussen slipping behind James Calado’s No. 51 Ferrari and Sebastien Buemi in the No. 8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid to sit tenth on the opening hour.

Peugeot’s race got off to a bad start as Paul di Resta wet off at the Porsche Curves and hit the barriers as he tried to lap a Ferrari LMGT3 car, dealing rear-end bodywork damage to the No. 93 9X8.

Di Resta was able to get back to the pits and was sent on his way after a 1:32 stop.

Inter Europol Competition led the LMP2 class with Tom Dillmann at the wheel of the No. 43 Oreca 07 Gibson by five seconds.

The early stages of the race were led by the LMP2 Pro-Am cars of Mathias Beche of TDS Racing and Louis Deletraz of AO by TF, but both drivers handed over to their respective Bronze-rated drivers, Rodrigo Sales and PJ Hyett, at the first stop.

That allowed Dillmann to grab the advantage shortly after the stops, with Job van Uitert making his way up to second at the wheel of the No. 28 IDEC Sport car.

Patrick Pilet ran third in the No. 16 RLR MSport car, best of the Pro-Am entries, with Hyett slipping to ninth and Sales to 11th by the end of the first hour.

United Autosports driver David Heinemeier Hansson caused the first notable incident of the race when he made contact with the Ziggo Sport Tempesta Ferrari at the Dunlop chicane, with the Danish driver escaping with a warning.

In LMGT3, Jack Hawksworth led the opening hour at the wheel of his No. 78 Akkodis ASP Lexus RC F GT3.

Mattia Drudi led the early laps from pole in the Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo, but the team opted to change drivers at the first stops, with Ian James taking over at the wheel of the No. 27 machine.

Hawksworth meanwhile had made his way up from fourth to second on the road, assuming the lead after the stops, while Kelvin van der Linde held second in the No. 46 BMW M4 GT3 having been Drudi’s nearest challenger early on.

Valentin Hasse-Clot had the Racing Spirit of Leman Aston Martin up to third ahead of Ben Barker’s No. 77 Proton Competition Ford Mustang GT3 and James’ Aston.