Le Mans 24 Hours Live Commentary and Updates
Minute-by-minute updates for the 2023 Le Mans 24 Hours.
The eagerly-anticipated centenary edition of the Le Mans 24 Hours is the first in which cars built to the new-for-2023 LMDh ruleset have been eligible to compete.
Toyota is seeking a sixth consecutive victory at the world's most famous endurance race, while Ferrari on its first factory effort in the top class in half a century and fellow returnee Porsche are gunning for their 10th and 20th victories respectively.
A field of 62 cars, including the Garage 56 NASCAR entry and 21 GTE Am machines on the category's Le Mans swansong, will take the start at the Circuit de la Sarthe at 4pm local time and race through the night.
Join us here for live updates throughout the race.
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While there's been plenty of action in the lead of the other classes, the gap in Hypercar has remained fairly static with Calado's advantage still just under 20s over Hirakawa.
Pit stop
Driver change in the LMP2-leading InterEuropol car which pits one lap after Andrade took over from Kubica. Former Lambo factory driver Albert Costa is installed and rejoins 12s up the road.
Live timing suggests that Smiechowski has now done his six hours, so it will be Costa and Scherer all the way from here. Whisper it quietly, but it's looking good for InterEuropol.
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In reference to that lead battle in Hypercar, Hartley feels the #8 Toyota doesn't quite have the pace of the #51 Ferrari. “It’s great to be battling for the lead but there’s a long way to go," he says. "Even though we’ve led a lot of laps, I don’t think we have the ultimate pace."
Unsurprisingly, Costa is putting the hammer down and pulling away from Andrade. He's now 15s up on the Angolan, with Binder 82s down in third.
Pit stop
The #3 Caddy and the #5 Porsche are the latest drivers to stop from the Hypercar runners.
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We've had an update on Corvette's strategy from Ben Keating: "The plan was to wait until it got light on Sunday morning to use Nicky and Nico back-to-back-to back to get our lap back because when the sun comes up, I can be quicker than I can be quicker than I can at night. So it wasn't ideal but we did what we needed to do."
Crash
And we have a spin for the #708 Glickenhaus of Pla! It's down at Arnage and he just put a wheel into the gravel, which spun him around into the barriers on the outside. He's now got the car going but it was a fairly significant hit.
Well, perhaps we were a bit quick to say Pla has got going again! All he's managed to do is drag the Glickenhaus across to the other side of the track and he's still trying to fire it up properly.
While that Glickenhaus was busy spinning, the Porsche crew have been busy readying the #6 machine and Estre has now got it back out on track after 43 minutes in the pits but it is 12 laps down on the leaders.
Pla has got the Glickenhaus going again but it's crabbing badly as he slowly makes his way back to the pits.
Pit stop
Frey has just pitted from second in GTE Am, lifting Catsburg back up to second for Corvette. She rejoins fifth, with Cairoli still leading, Kimura into third and Eastwood to fourth.
Pit stop
There's a flurry of stops during this slow zone for the struggling Glickenhaus including the two leaders along with the #2 Caddy from third.
Long-time GTE Am leader Kimura is rapidly closing on the end of his six-hour drive time aboard the Kessel Ferrari, so expect to see him in soon with Serra (searching for a third Le Mans class win) and Huffaker closing out the race.
The Glickenhaus has now made it back to the pits after that bump with the barriers. It's currently classified seventh but has now been put into the garage so will likely drop further back.
There were some driver changes during those stops for the leaders with Calado making way for Giovinazzi and Buemi now taking over from Hirakawa in the #8 Toyota.
The Toyota lost out during that slow zone and has now fallen 28s behind the Ferrari so lost about 10s during that spell.
It was a quick fix for the Glickenhaus as it is now wheeled out of the garage and could be soon returning to action.
As predicted, Kimura comes in at the conclusion of his six-hours of drive time. It's been a super effort from the Japanese bronze to keep the Kessel Ferrari in the mix, with most of its GTE Am class rivals needing to use up over an hour.
At this point in the race, we're down to just three cars on the lead lap. The two leaders are split by 30 seconds with the #2 Caddy - now with Westbrook at the wheel - a further two minutes back.
LMP2 leader Costa has had a little gravelly moment at Mulsanne Corner. He's clearly pushing to build a gap on Andrade, and now spews stones all over the road as he comes back on.
Pit stop
Eastwood now comes in from fifth in GTE Am. The TF Aston is another close to concluding its bronze drive time with Ahmad al-Harthy only needing to do one more stint.
The timing screens state that the 57 Kessel Ferrari had a 3m07s stop to hand over to Huffaker.
Yellow flag
We're heading into full-course yellow now to retrieve some of the debris and dust from the track.
Fuoco has just set fastest race lap. He's got down to 3m28.104s in what is a pretty forlorn fightback after the #50 car's earlier delay. Giovinazzi has also been into the 3m28s in these favourable early-morning conditions. Buemi's last lap was a 3m31s by way of comparison.
The gap up front has gone out to a minute. Giovinazzi didn't take tyres at that last round of stops and Buemi did. That added 12s to his deficit.
Wow, there was a huge lock-up for Buemi in the second-placed Toyota into the first chicane just now! Plumes of smoke as he stamped on the anchors and will have flatspotted those tyres.
A spin for Jakobsen at Mulsanne Corner delays the 37 Cool ORECA which was already nine laps down on the LMP2 leaders. It is however second in the pro-am sub-division which is led by Algarve Pro.
There's a kind of clean-up operation going on under this FCY, presumably the reason it was called. There are marshals out there with leaf blowers getting ride of gravel and sundry debris from the circuit. Normally I would object to the use of such devices so early on a Sunday morning...
Pit stop
Cairoli pits the GTE-Am leading Project 1 Porsche under the full course yellow and is followed in by Catsburg. Frey is third for Iron Dames, ahead of Castellacci and Eastwood.
Green flag
We're back to green flag running with six hours and 40 minutes remaining.
The gap between the top two is now up to more than 40s. Buemi lost a dozen or so seconds in that FCY having already been done over by the Slow Zones when the leaders were making their stops. The tide is really turning in Ferrari's favour here. The big question is whether Toyota has the pace the catch up.
The Project 1 and Corvette cars that were running first and second have come back into the pits again. Both have bronzes installed with Hyett and Keating climbing in. Frey assumes the lead as a result.
Neel Jani is back aboard the Duqueine ORECA after that spell aboard for Rene Binder. The 2016 Le Mans winner has completed the fewest laps of any driver in that car, with both co-drivers Pino and Binder having now managed six hours.
LMP2 leader Costa is making his Le Mans debut this year. He banked on joining a privateer team in P2 when it became clear he wasn't part of Lamborghini's plans for its LMDh roster next year, and the gamble so far is paying off for the 2009 Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup champion.
It's as you were at the front after that FCY with the #51 Ferrari continuing to lead the #8 Toyota with the #2 Cadillac in third as the last of the cars not to be lapped. Next up is the sister #3 Caddy, which had an eventful start to the race after being hit by GTE Am cars and then a spin in the wet, while the #93 Peugeot is fifth and the first Glickenhaus, the #709 if Malleux, is sixth.
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Jordan Taylor isn't racing this year at Le Mans, but is taking an advisory role within the Hendrick Garage 56 set-up. With the Camaro now ahead of the GTE Am pack, Taylor says: "When we saw that we were in the hunt to be leading the GT class is when we switched from a bit of ‘let’s just cruise here’ to ‘alright we can actually race a lot of these guys.’
"It feels like even though we’re not fighting them for a position it’s kind of nice to have that carrot to chase and a goal to beat them. This is when you see all the guys at Hendrick come to life."
"It feels like even though we’re not fighting them for a position it’s kind of nice to have that carrot to chase and a goal to beat them. This is when you see all the guys at Hendrick come to life."
It's a bit of a two-horse race in LMP2 at the moment with InterEuropol and WRT going blow-for-blow. Next up is the Panis car which is three minutes behind albeit still on the lead lap, Duqueiine's Jani 16s behind Job Van Uitert in fourth.
Pit stop
The #3 Caddy is currently having a bit of a solitary race in terms of battling for position as Bourdais is a lap ahead and a lap behind the third and fifth-placed cars. It now comes into the pits with Bourdais handing over to Dixon.
Costa's latest pitstop on his 230th lap means van Uitert in third has closed to 1m48s behind the leader. Jani is still 16s in arrears with Paul Lafargue dropping 36s back from the Swiss in fifth. Charles Milesi is just on the lead lap in the 36 Signatech car.
By: Autosport Staff
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