Yahoo Autos LM24, Hour 14: Rain continues, but daybreak looms
The good news is that the sun is beginning to peek over the east end of Circuit de la Sarthe. The bad news is that the 24 Hours of Le Mans has been under a Safety Car intervention for the last hour yet again.
Race control has now had to swap out Safety Cars that have run low on fuel. Wet conditions are expected until around 7:00 AM CEST (local time).
With 10 hours left, Brendon Hartley still leads overall in the No.8 Toyota Gazoo Racing GR010 HYBRID, complaining of cramps earlier but still in good enough shape to continue logging laps.
There’s no change or further attrition in the overall running order – the rest of the top five remains the No.6 Penske Porsche 963, No.7 Toyota, No.50 Ferrari AF Corse 499P and No.83 AF Corse Ferrari, as it was at the last interval.
LMP2 also remains static with Francois Perrodo leading the class and the Pro/Am sub-class in the No.183 AF Corse ORECA 07-Gibson.
Perrodo is close to clearing his six-hour minimum drive time obligation. Ryan Cullen has cleared his six hours in the No.10 Vector Sport car, which has just pitted and dropped to fourth.
The No.22 United Autosports car is now second with Nolan Siegel driving, followed by the No.37 COOL Racing car in third – and Lorenzo Fluxa has now ticked over six hours himself.
Aliaksandr Malykhin leads LMGT3 in the No.92 Manthey PureRxcing Porsche from his team-mate Yasser Shahin in the No.91 Manthey EMA Porsche, and both are nearing their six-hour minimums.
United Autosports recently plugged in its Bronze-rated drivers into its two McLarens, so the rest of the top five in class has shuffled a bit: It’s now the No.27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin in third, from the No.85 Iron Dames Lamborghini and No.87 Akkodis ASP Team Lexus.
Heart of Racing’s Ian James has cleared his six-hour minimum drive time and is still in the car.
