Lopez Leads Toyota 1-2 After Three Hours

Jose Maria Lopez led a one-two for Toyota Gazoo Racing after three hours at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, while one of the cars from rival Glickenhaus had a brief trip into the garage.

Lopez held a lead of 10 seconds aboard the No. 7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid, with Brendon Hartley following suit in the No. 8 sister car.

Romain Dumas’ No. 708 Glickenhaus 007 Pipo sat in third, 50 seconds off the lead, but ahead of Alpine’s Matthieu Vaxiviere.

Dumas posted the fastest lap of the race towards the end of the race’s third hour, setting a 3:28.110 on the 44th lap.

Vaxiviere, meanwhile, is set to serve a drive-through penalty after co-driver Nicolas Lapierre was caught speeding through a slow zone in the No. 36 Alpine A480-Gibson.

While the Frenchman holds a spot in the top three, Glickenhaus’ sister car has encountered a delay after a brief trip into the garage.

Franck Mailleux brought the car in and had the No. 709 car wheeled into the garage, although it emerged again in a matter of minutes as the team addressed what was reported to be a sensor issue.

Richard Westbrook has now taken the car out and runs in fifth overall, but a lap down on the leading Hypercars.

JOTA continues to lead LMP2 after leaping to the front in the first hour, with Will Stevens having taken over the No. 38 Oreca 07 Gibson at the head of the class.

The Briton leads the No. 5 Team Penske Oreca of Dane Cameron, who in turn has moved ahead of Prema’s No. 9 car.

The Italian squad held second after losing the lead to JOTA, but with Lorenzo Colombo behind the wheel, the car has dropped back to third.

Yifei Ye sits in fourth for Cool Racing, with the top five rounded out by Panis Racing ahead of JOTA’s Ed Jones and Team WRT’s Dries Vanthoor.

The No. 32 Oreca ran as high as second in the hands of Mirko Bortolotti, but has dropped back to the lower end of the top ten after Vanthoor took the car over.

Corvette Racing leads GTE-Pro, but the car at the front has changed as the No. 63 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R of Jordan Taylor now sits at the head of the field.

The No. 63 car assumed the lead with Antonio Garcia at the wheel when the Spaniard was able to take an advantage from mishap from teammate Nick Tandy in the sister No. 64 machine.

Tandy encountered an issue downshifting under braking into Mulsanne, which forced him to take to the roundabout prior to returning to the track, costing him the class lead.

Taylor now leads ahead of Tommy Milner, who assumed the position by passing the No. 91 Porsche 911 RSR-19 of Gianmaria Bruni after he briefly fell behind the Italian at the beginning of the third hour.

Bruni has since lost another position to the sister No. 92 Porsche of Michael Christensen, while Davide Rigon completes the top five for AF Corse.

The No. 51 Ferrari 488 GTE Evo, the defending class winners, have dropped back to the back of the class after Alessandro Pier Guidi was forced to serve a drive-through penalty for abusing track limits.

Daniel Serra is now at the wheel of the car, which sits in sixth only ahead of the No. 74 Riley Motorsports Ferrari driven by Sam Bird.

In GTE-Am, Porsche continues to lead a strong grip on the top positions in class as Thomas Merrill leads aboard the No. 79 WeatherTech Racing Porsche.

Merrill took over from Julien Andlauer, who took the lead on the road by passing Alessio Picariello’s No. 99 Hardpoint Motorsport Porsche of Alessio Picariello at Indianapolis.

Behind the American, Sebastian Priaulx sits in second position for Dempsey-Proton Racing, with David Pittard third aboard the No. 98 NorthWest AMR Aston Martin Vantage AMR.