Cadillac Storms Into Lead After Six Hours

Cadillac led the 24 Hours of Le Mans at one-quarter distance after Jack Aitken at the wheel of the No. 38 Hertz Team JOTA entry twice passed the No. 20 BMW that was the early leader.

Aitken first grabbed the place in the No. 38 Cadillac V-Series.R in the fourth hour out of the second Mulsanne chicane before the BMW of Sheldon van der Linde moved back ahead in the following round of stops.

But Aitken then made another bold overtake at the start of the fifth hour, diving ahead of van der Linde at the Ford Chicane before pulling clear of the No. 20 BMW M Hybrid V8.

When Sebastien Bourdais took over the Cadillac, he further extended the gap with it standing at just over 30 seconds at the end of the sixth hour with Robin Frijns assuming control of the BMW.

The BMW’s victory bid was hampered by having to make two stops in quick succession at the start of the fourth hour after initially pitting as a brief full-course yellow to retrieve debris was called.

The No. 8 Toyota TR010 Hybrid continued to cycle into the lead periodically after opting to pit earlier than the rest of the field and was third with Ryo Hirakawa at the wheel as the clock hit six hours.

Fourth was the second of the JOTA-run Cadillacs, the No. 12 machine of Norman Nato, while the No. 51 Ferrari 499P was fifth despite being one of two notable contenders that were involved in scrapes with LMP2 cars that hampered their progress.

Alessandro Pier Guidi clashed with the No. 9 Proton Competition Oreca of Jonas Ried at the Dunlop Chicane in the fourth hour, with the No. 51 driver given a drive-through penalty for causing the incident.

Then towards the end of the sixth hour, Dries Vanthoor in the No. 15 BMW that had risen back up the order to sixth place tangled with the No. 3 DKR Engineering machine of John Farano at Maison Blanche.

Unlike Pier Guidi, who escaped serious damage, Vanthoor’s BMW suffered a puncture and he had to limp the car back to the pits where it remained at the end of the sixth hour.

This meant the No. 50 Ferrari of Miguel Molina was up to sixth, ahead of the No. 36 Alpine A424 that had risen up the order while the sister No. 35 car plummeted to ninth amid suspected tire pressure troubles.

Eighth was the No. 101 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac, while the top-ten was completed by the No. 7 Toyota that was delayed by a slow puncture earlier in the race having also adopted an alternate strategy similar to that of the No. 8.

The Duqueine Team No. 30 Oreca 07 Gibson continued to lead the LMP2 division with Julien Andlauer taking over from Doriane Pin at the wheel, maintaining a 24-second advantage over the No. 29 Forestier Racing by Panis entry that Oliver Gray relayed to Louis Rousset.

The No. 37 CLX Motorsport Oreca crewed by a trio of teenagers moved up into third in the fifth hour, aided by the pole-sitting No. 28 IDEC Sport entry of Valerio Rinicella being given a five-second penalty for cutting the Dunlop Chicane.

The pair of Inter Europol Competition machines had used some extreme fuel saving to rise up the order and could become major factors later in the race.

The No. 343 car of Richard de Gerus was up to fourth while the No. 43 of Nick Yelloly that triumphed last year climbed to fifth.

There was a greater change in the top places among the LMGT3 contenders as teams took different strategies about when to use their FIA Bronze-graded drivers.

After Ayhancan Guven guided the No. 91 Manthey Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo into the lead at the end of the third hour, once he handed over to James Cottingham it was the No. 87 Akkodis ASP Lexus RCF GT3 of Jose Maria Lopez that assumed top spot.

But in the sixth hour Zacharie Robichon put the No. 27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin GT3 Evo into the lead until it pitted and Ian James took over from the Canadian.

It was therefore the No. 78 Lexus of Hadrien David that had a minute’s lead but was due a pitstop at a quarter-distance.

The No. 27 Aston occupied second while the sister Lexus with Petru Umbrarescu now at the wheel was third.

The LMGT3 top-five was completed by the No. 91 Porsche and the No. 21 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo, which vaulted up the order with Alessio Rovera at the wheel.

The race’s first retirements also occurred either side of the five-hour mark with the 13 Autosport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R suffering damage to the transponder and scrutineering loom region following early contact, while left-rear suspension woes put the No. 61 Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo out of the running.