Giovinazzi Ahead of Hartley With Two Hours to Go

Photo: MPS Agency

Antonio Giovinazzi was ahead of Brendon Hartley with two hours to go in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, shaping up for a down-to-the-wire battle between Ferrari and Toyota.

The Italian held a 9.459-second gap over the No. 8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid following several swaps for the lead, in which saw the gap as high as 15 seconds at times.

Giovinazzi’s co-driver James Calado increased the gap to six seconds over Hartley, who was then under pressure from the No. 50 AF Corse Ferrari 499P of Miguel Molina.

The pair of Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac V-Series.Rs continued to run third and fourth, with the No. 2 car of Richard Westbrook having remained on the tail end of the lead lap.

Trouble for both of the Peugeot 9X8s, including a lengthy trip to the garage for the No. 93 car of Mikkel Jensen, which had a hydraulic issue, dropped it down the order, behind the pair of Glickenhaus 007 Pipos.

It promoted the No. 50 Ferrari to fifth, with the No. 5 Penske Porsche 963 having slipped to sixth.

Inter Europol Competition continued to lead LMP2 despite Albert Costa having served a drive-through penalty for a pit lane infringement.

Costa held a 21-second gap to second-placed Robert Kubica in the No. 41 Team WRT Oreca 07 Gibson.

GTE-Am has seen Corvette Racing take over the class lead, thanks to impressive stints by Nico Varrone, who since handed over to Nicky Catsburg to likely take it to the finish.

The No. 85 Iron Dames Porsche 911 RSR-19 ran second, ahead of the No. 25 ORT by TF Aston Martin Vantage GTE.

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