Calado Leads Eventful Race at Halfway for Ferrari

Ferrari AF Corse driver James Calado led the 24 Hours of Le Mans at the halfway mark followed by Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Sebastien Buemi and Cadillac’s Richard Westbrook.

Calado, who shares the No. 51 Ferrari 499P with Alessandro Pier Guidi and Antonio Giovinazzi, held a two-second lead over Buemi in the No. 8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid after 12 hours of action-packed racing.

Ferrari took the lead by electing not to change tires during its 14th pit stop whereas the Toyota crew equipped Buemi with a fresh set of Michelin soft slicks.

The No. 51 Ferrari rebounded from an off-track moment for Pier Guidi at the eight-hour mark, with the time loss being negated shortly after by a safety car period caused by a multi-car accident at Tertre Rouge that took out the No. 7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid.

That kept the top five in Hypercar close together and the two Ferraris driven by Pier Guidi and Fuoco battled past Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac driver Alex Lynn at the restart, in pursuit of the leading No. 8 Toyota and the No. 94 Peugeot 9X8.

The No. 50 Ferrari of Fuoco dropped out of the lead battle in the 10th hour when a stone damaged one of the car’s radiators, costing five laps.

Peugeot’s highest-placed LMH car also suffered a major setback when Gustavo Menezes crashed into the tire barriers at the Daytona Chicane during the 12th hour, putting the French manufacturer’s erstwhile leading machine eight laps off the top spot.

The No. 2 Cadillac carried out a reliable opening half of the race to sit third, just under a minute behind the No. 8 Toyota.

Porsche Penske Motorsport’s best-placed Porsche 963 ran fourth, although Andre Lotterer was more than two minutes away from the Cadillac that is built to the same LMDh regulations.

The No. 75 factory Porsche retired due to fuel pressure issues, while the No. 5 car lost five laps in the garage as mechanics worked to solve a leakage in the cooling system.

The No. 3 Cadillac completed the top five, although its eventful run took another turn in the 11th hour when Sebastien Bourdais and LMP2 driver Rui Andrade came together at the Ford chicane, causing the Frenchman to spin.

Peugeot’s No. 93 car sat in sixth after delays in getting it back on track following a Jean-Eric Vergne spin during the early stages, while the best non-hybrid Hypercar machine was the No. 708 Glickenhaus 007 Pipo in seventh.

In LMP2, Neel Jani led the way for Duqueine Team after overtaking Inter Europol Competition driver Jakub Smiechowski, whose co-driver Fabio Scherer had led despite his foot being injured in a pit lane incident with the No. 33 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R.

The No. 41 Team Oreca 07 Gibson was also in the mix for category honors, along with the No. 47 Cool Racing and Panis Racing entries.

Matteo Cairoli helped to bring Team Project 1-AO to the fore in GTE-Am before Gunnar Jeannette kept the ‘Rexy’ liveried Porsche 911 RSR-19 at the front of the class.

Bronze-rated driver PJ Hyett had around six seconds in hand to AF Corse Ferrari driver Thomas Flohr after 12 hours of racing, followed by Kessel Racing’s Ferrari 488 GTE Evo and the Iron Dames Porsche.

The modified Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 from the NASCAR Garage 56 program continued to run smoothly, with Jenson Button at the wheel in 35th overall at the halfway mark.