Ferrari in control as night falls at Le Mans

Text & Images: Rick Kiewiet

As Saturday rolled into Sunday at the Circuit de la Sarthe, the 93rd running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans settled into a gripping rhythm under cover of darkness—with Ferrari firmly in control but under growing pressure from Porsche.

At the eight-hour mark, Ferrari’s Hypercar trio remained the benchmark, led by the #83 AF Corse 499P of Phil Hanson, which had inherited the top spot after a sequence of efficient pit cycles and strong stints from Yifei Ye. Behind him, the factory-entered #51 car driven by James Calado loomed large, having rapidly reeled in his teammate before executing a clean team-ordered position swap just as the traditional midnight fireworks erupted above the track.

While the red cars continued to run at the front, the picture behind shifted. A drive-through penalty for a yellow flag infringement dropped the #50 Ferrari—at the time in the hands of Nicklas Nielsen—from third to fourth. That handed the final podium position to the #6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963, with Kevin Estre chipping away at the Ferrari advantage, sitting 25 seconds back at the eight-hour milestone.

Toyota remained within touching distance, the #8 GR010 Hybrid in fifth with Sébastien Buemi pressing on after a solid triple stint from Ryō Hirakawa. Peugeot, BMW and Cadillac continued to feature inside the top ten, albeit shuffled by a wave of penalties stemming from yellow flag violations. Among those caught out were the #311 Cadillac, #93 Peugeot, and #20 BMW, the latter of which fell behind both remaining factory-entered Porsches.

A single on-track flashpoint in the Hypercar ranks occurred between Paul-Loup Chatin’s #35 Alpine and Loïc Duval’s #94 Peugeot at the first Mulsanne Chicane. The stewards deemed Chatin responsible and handed out a drive-through, compounding a tough evening for the Alpine squad.

In LMP2, the #48 VDS Panis Racing entry continued its command of the class, Esteban Masson lapping with consistency and pace to open a near-minute gap to the #43 Inter Europol Competition car. Despite a brief miscue earlier in the race, Jakub Smiechowski kept the Polish outfit in contention. Third belonged to IDEC Sport's #28, with Job van Uitert holding off pressure from a resurgent Iron Lynx Proton crew and fan-favourite AO by TF’s purple-liveried #199 ORECA, the latter also leading the Pro-Am sub-category with PJ Hyett aboard.

There was a sense of calm at the head of the LMGT3 field, where the #46 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 retained its grip on the class. Valentino Rossi handed the car back to Ahmad Al Harthy, who continued to stretch the lead over the chasing #92 Manthey 1st Phorm Porsche, now in the hands of Richard Lietz. Simon Mann’s #21 Vista AF Corse Ferrari held third.

Further back, Akkodis ASP’s twin Lexus entries ran fourth and fifth, ahead of the pole-sitting #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin, which had slipped to sixth in the hands of Mattia Drudi. Attrition began to nibble at the class, with the #60 Iron Lynx Mercedes and #95 United Autosports McLaren both falling by the wayside due to technical trouble.

Eight hours in, the pace has been relentless, the race uninterrupted by a single safety car. With two-thirds of the race still to run, Ferrari’s position at the head of the field looks commanding—but anything can still happen in the dark at Le Mans.