24 Hours of Le Mans: H+6: still crazy and Ferrari takes back its property!
What a series of twists and turns in this race's early stages! Ferrari and Porsche engaged in a fierce duel. However, the cars from Stuttgart encountered some issues: a puncture and a track exit! What a scenario!
After the off-track excursion of the Peugeot No. 93, the crowd at Le Mans got a few chills. The crane took the car towards the Mulsanne roundabout. The word “abandonment” was on everyone’s lips. But, the car driven by Jean-Éric Vergne finally set its wheels back on the tarmac of the circuit.
Once back, the safety car released the beasts. The Porsche 38 took the lead, while the Peugeot stopped at the pit lane. Behind them, the two Ferraris and the Porsche number 5 were side by side on the Hunaudières straight. A slight move to the right, a move to the left. Contact and off-track excursions everywhere… It was intense! The number 5 emerged as the winner of this battle.
Porsche-Ferrari Fight
The slippery track caused some damage. The Alpine number 36, with Julien Canal on board, kissed the barrier at the exit of the second chicane on the long straight. The Porsche number 5 had a scare in the S corners. A off-track excursion and a dangerous return cost them a position, which was taken by the Ferrari 50.
The drivers continue to get caught in the chicanes of the Hunaudières straight. The Kessel Racing #74, Toyota #7, and the Duqueine Team’s LMP2 dangerously approached the protective walls.
Porsche loses its head and the rear hood of the car
The leading Porsche in the race, number 38, driven by Yifei Ye, lost control in the S Porsche, and the entire rear hood went off in the impact. The Chinese driver also lost control of his Hypercar while bringing it back to the pits. The car suffered. The two Ferraris ended up in the lead.
After making a pit stop, the Ferraris handed over the lead of the race to the Porsche 75. The Peugeot 94 temporarily found itself in second place before giving way to the Toyota number 8. The lion’s car then headed towards the pit lane.
In LMP2, it was Team WRT with car #41 that dominated the category. In GTE-AM, the Iron Dames stayed in the race for the podium, holding a temporary third place but with one less pit stop compared to AF Corse #54 and Proton Competition #911.
Traps, traps, and more traps
The Porsche number 5 had the same issue as its sister car: a puncture… In just a few minutes, the German manufacturer suffered a great loss. The Ferraris regained the lead after car number 75’s pit stop.
DKR Engineering has accumulated a series of mishaps. After experiencing reliability issues at the beginning of the race, the car driven by Tom Van Rompuy ended up in the gravel trap at the first chicane of the Hunaudières. At the same time, in the S Porsches, the Aston Martin 72 from TF Sport spun out and narrowly avoided a disaster.
After six hours of racing, the Porsche number 75 was leading. The LMP2 Jota 28 was leading, while the JMW Motorsport’s 66 was in first place in the GTE-AM category.
The Glickenhaus 709 experienced an issue with the left front, the wheel was probably not tightened properly after the pit stop.
