Safety Car Remains Out With Nine Hours Left

With nine hours to go, the 24 Hours of Le Mans remains under safety car for continuous rainfall with Toyota Gazoo Racing in the lead.

The safety car emerged shortly before the halfway mark as rain worsened over the Circuit de La Sarthe and has remained on track ever since.

The No. 8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid ran in first place with Ryo Hirakawa at the wheel, ahead of the No. 6 Porsche 963 driven by Laurens Vanthoor.

Ferrari AF Corse completed the top three with the No. 50 Ferrari 499P in the hands of Nicklas Nielsen, while the second Toyota ran in fourth with Nyck de Vries driving.

The No. 7 crew avoided a penalty for a pit stop error when De Vries rejoined the wrong safety car train after taking over the car from Jose Maria Lopez.

De Vries subsequently came back into the pit lane to slot into the appropriate train, with a Toyota spokesperson confirming that that was done “as agreed with race direction and stewards.”

Robert Kubica held fifth in the No. 83 Ferrari, having dropped back after serving a 30-second stop and go penalty for the incident that involved the No. 15 BMW M Hybrid V8 of Dries Vanthoor.

AF Corse’s No. 183 Oreca 07 Gibson sat at the head of the field with Francois Perrodo behind the wheel, ahead of Cool Racing’s Lorenzo Fluxa and the No. 34 Inter Europol Competition car driven by Jakub Smiechowski.

Porsche leads a 1-2 in the LMGT3 class, with most teams opting to install their Bronze-rated drivers in order to complete drive time under safety car.

Alex Malykhin, piloting the No. 92 Manthey PureRxcing Porsche 911 GT3 R, sat ahead of the No. 91 sister car driven by Yasser Shahin.

Ian James and Sarah Bovy held third and fourth aboard the No. 27 The Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo and No. 85 Iron Dames Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2, respectively.