Rebellions Hit Trouble; Toyota Advantage Extended

Photo: MPS Agency

The pair of Rebellion R13 Gibsons have hit trouble in the early morning hours at Le Mans, as the 24 Hours of Le Mans reaches the two-thirds distance mark.

Both of the ORECA-chassied LMP1 cars lost nearly ten minutes in the garage with seperate technical issues.

An issue with the floor forced the No. 3 car of Gustavo Menezes into the garage at the 13-hour mark, where it lost several laps due to repairs, as well as third overall to the sister No. 1 entry.

However, the positions swapped back several hours later when Neel Jani made a trip to the garage, reportedly for the same issue.

The issues for the pair of Rebellions have padded Toyota Gazoo Racing’s lead to nine laps, with the No. 8 Toyota TS050 Hybrid of Kazuki Nakajima now in front ahead of teammate Kamui Kobayashi.

It marked the first lead change since the sixth hour.

G-Drive Racing remains out front in LMP2, with a one-lap lead in the class, while Porsche runs 1-2 in GTE-Pro with the pair of Manthey-run Porsche 911 RSRs.

The No. 77 Dempsey Proton Racing Porsche of Christian Ried, meanwhile, leads GTE-Am, ahead of the No. 85 Keating Motorsports Ferrari 488 GTE currently driven by Luca Stolz.

Trouble struck the No. 84 JMW Motorsport Ferrari of Jeff Segal, who spun off into the gravel in the 16th hour.

It came just moments after an accident for the No. 82 MTEK BMW M8 GTE of Alexander Sims, who lost control of his GTE-Pro contender on potential oil that was laid down at the Porsche Curves.

Sims, which had been running inside the top-10 in class, has been retired due to heavy rear-end damage.

The No. 47 Cetilar Villorba Corse Dallara P217 Gibson also suffered an accident in the same time period.

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