LM 24 Hour 3: Ferrari surges ahead | RACER
Antonio Fuoco and Ferrari now lead Le Mans, after the Italian finished the charge Nicklas Nielsen started.
Was this the hour when everything changed? Antonio Fuoco and Ferrari now lead Le Mans, after the Italian finished the charge Nicklas Nielsen started, steering the No. 50 499P past Porsche's Mathieu Jaminet for the lead in the run down to Indianapolis.
The 2023 and 2024 winning marque is now out front again heading into the fourth hour of the race, with all three of its Hypercars showing real pace in the current conditions on fresh Michelin mediums.
Making matters worse for Jaminet, who complained that the rear of the No. 5 was âall over the placeâ on the radio after losing the lead. He then dropped to third shortly after Fuoco went by. The Frenchman was balked by the Kessel Racing Ferrari while navigating the Porsche Curves, handing Laurens Vanthoor in the No. 6 sister Porsche a chance to breeze past.
Outside the top three, after the fourth round of stops, the No. 51 Ferrari has made progress and is up to fourth, while the No. 83 499P is fifth.
As the hour ended, the No. 94 Peugeot technically sat fourth after Malthe Jakobsen found a way to stretch his stint out, but he owes a stop and will fall down the order once he pits.
Further down the order in Hypercar, it was a tough hour for Alpine. Both A424s were handed stop-and-go penalties for speeding in the pit lane.
The No. 35 was given a five-second penalty, and the No. 36 will need to serve a 20-second penalty. Currently, both cars are outside of the top 10 and are set to drop to the bottom of the pile soon.
The two Hertz Team JOTA Cadillacs, meanwhile, have also struggled to regain the ground lost early on. The No. 38 is 11th and the No. 12 is 13th.
âI think we had a good start, obviously a clean start,â Will Stevens said after his triple stint to start the race. âWe were standing out well with the Porsches at the start, and on our third stop, we lost a little time with some traffic that came out of the pits in front of us, and that got us stuck in traffic.
âNow we kind of need to reset and get back into the rhythm we were in and we should be fine. Tire deg feels OK. I think the main thing is today is just avoiding flat spots, because when you get them it is a big knock-on effect.â
Still, all 21 Hypercars remain on the lead lap as we begin to approach the quarter mark of the race.
Inter Europol Competition ORECA of Nick Boulle, Jean-Baptiste Simmenauer and Luca Ghiotto controls LMP2 early. Jakob Ebrey/Getty Images
Inter Europol is in control of the LMP2 class with its No. 43 ORECA, which now has Kuba Smiechowski aboard following a superb start to the race for Tom Dillmann.
VDS Panis Racing is up to second thanks to a fine effort from LMP2 rookie Franck Perera.
Bronze-ranked Michael Jensen is now aboard the RLR M Sport LMP2 Pro/Am leading ORECA, and is holding onto third, but with a train of Silver graded drivers behind him, he looks likely to tumble down the order soon.
Team WRTâs #46 BMW is out front in LMGT3, though that may change soon as Ahmad Al Harthy has Platinum-ranked factory ace Alessio Rovera behind him in the No. 21 Vista AF Corse Ferrari.
Richard Lietz is now in the No. 92 1st Phorm, Porsche and is pushing hard in third.
HOUR 3 STANDINGS