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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Injured foot or no, Scherer is extending his lead over Kubica in LMP2 which now stands at 29s. Only nine cars are still on the lead lap, and there's a frenetic battle for eighth between Maldonado (Panis) and Lapierre (Cool).
Penalty
Car #32 earns a 15-second stop-go for a pitlane speeding penalty. InterEuropol's cars almost bookend the LMP2 field, in first and 21st. Anders Fjordbach is 13 laps down, ahead only of the DKR ORECA.
The Vanwall has now been retrieved from the gravel and is back on its way, it's eight laps down after its earlier woes.
This has been quite the storming stint from Cairoli, who has pulled away from Gatting to the tune of a minute out in front. Fun fact: one of the key engineers behind that Project 1 car, Richard Selwin, is maybe better known as one of the key players behind the iSport GP2 team.
After losing two laps, Pierson is back out of the pits in the #23 United car that had to make that out of sequence stop.
We've also heard that Scherer, who is now back in the lead for InterEuropol, has an injured foot. The team says it doesn't know the extent of the problem. He is 24s ahead of Kubica out in front.
Crash
Another one in strife is the Vanwall as Guerrieri has spun off at the Esses and is stuck in the gravel.
Also problems for the #93 Peugeot as the car is reported to have its door open and sure enough it pits.
Crash
We're informed that Blomqvist informed his United Autosport team he had no brakes and had front and rear damage prior to coming in. His #23 ORECA is still in the pits having lost two laps. A nightmare development for the erstwhile leader.
After all the drama, it's surprising that's the first Hypercar retirement of the race, considering there are eight across the other classes.
Pit stop
An intriguing message pops up on the timing screens - car #23 is requested to enter the pitlane and the driver to be sent to the medical centre. LMP2 leader Blomqvist duly complies, just two laps after he'd made his last pit visit.
Mechanical problem
And those troubles for the #75 seem to be terminal as there are reports that the Porsche has a fuel pressure problem and is out of the race.
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It seemed a fairly innocuous crash, but the 72 TF Sport Aston has been retired after Arnold Robin's brush with the barriers at Porsche Curves.
Quote
Here are a few thoughts from early leader Sebastien Buemi about the chaotic first chunk to this year's race: “I have never seen so many incidents at the start of Le Mans before. Our first priority was to stay on track and out of trouble, because you don’t win the race in the first hour. It was important to keep it clean and not make any mistakes.”
Pit stop
Richard Lietz has just pitted from fourth in GTE Am, and stays aboard. A steady pair of hands if ever there was one, as these certainly aren't ideal conditions to plug in the inexperienced Michael Fassbender.
Pit stop
Next up to pit is the #7 Toyota as the strategies are starting to converge a little in the Hypercar class following the stops for wets. The #8 also stops further back.
Pit stop
Now the lead Ferrari pits as Pier Guidi dives in for the #51, while further back both the #5 and #6 Porsche are also in.
After those stops the Toyotas are now second and third, although the #8 of Hirakawa is now two-and-a-half minutes behind the leading Ferrari.
Blomqvist comes out ahead! With a fresh set of slicks on, the Brit emerges ahead of Scherer's InteEuropol car. They're joined in the its by Kubica and Rasmussen who had moved up to fourth in the Jota car delayed by its brush with the barriers at Tertre Rouge.
Pit stop
And just as we big up Duval's efforts, he now dives into the pits and is joined by the #2 Caddy that was running fourth.
Pit stop
That lead change may have to wait as into the pits come Scherer and Blomqvist from first and second.
We may have a lead change imminent in LMP2 as Blomqvist is just 2s behind Scherer.
Duval is continuing to lap far quicker in the Peugeot than Pier Guidi in the lead and has now got the gap down to less than a minute.
The rain has abated and the track is noticeably less wet now but it's still far from what can be described as dry.
And the reason for the Nielsen stop is a move to slicks - this is a chance for the second Ferrari to act as a guinea-pig for Pier Guidi in the lead. Seems a bit of a gamble at this stage though.
Pit stop
The #50 Ferrari has now pitted again with Nielsen at the wheel, remember he had already made an extra stop earlier.
Ugran's Prema ORECA finally leaves the pits after its extensive repairs to the right-rear corner hit by Yoluc in the downfall at Indianapolis. It was a 39-minute spell in the pits for the Romanian.
Blomqvist is really making inroads into Scherer's lead in LMP2. The gap between them is down to 16s.
Jaminet has now finally got the Porsche back moving but it's only at the slowest of tortoise crawls and it will be remarkable if this can get back to the pits.
After all the spins and crashes, this seems to be a mechanical problem for Jaminet in the Porsche that was running in seventh.
Lead change in GTE Am. It's been coming, and Cairoli's 'Rexy' Project 1 Porsche now takes Gatting's Iron Dames example for the lead.
Mechanical problem
And there's trouble for the #75 Porsche of Jaminet! He's stopped at Tertre Rouge.
The pressure tells on Caldwell - he runs deep at Mulsanne Corner and loses fourth in LMP2 to Barnicoat. Not helpful was the #66 JMW Ferrari overshooting the corner just ahead of him.
Johnson's struggles in the wet means he's lost another spot in the overall rankings to Tomonobu Fuji's d'Station Aston - who is lapping around 8s per lap faster.
Now it's Duval who is the fastest among the Hypercar runners as the times are coming down. The Peugeot driver is the first to break four minutes.
Caldwell is doing a good job of holding off Barnicoat in their battle over fourth. The Alpine rookie isn't making this easy for his much more experienced compatriot - who it must be said is making his P2 debut at Le Mans after two previous outings in GTE Am.
Pier Guidi may be flying out front in the #51 Ferrari and extending his lead over the Peugeot, but fastest man on the track is Jaminet in the #75 Porsche. He's just posted a couple of 4m02s in a row
As if these conditions weren't challenging enough, it appears this is Hirakawa's first experience of wet weather in the WEC so it's no surprise to see him lapping slightly slower than some of the other Hypercar contenders in the #8 Toyota.
Scherer has stabilised his lead over Blomqvist in LMP2, with the gap around 28s between them. Kubica is a further 10s behind Blomqvist, while Barnicoat is applying pressure on Caldwell for fourth 82s off the lead.
We've not talked about the Garage 56 NASCAR for a little while, but Jimmie Johnson is back aboard the Camaro which is still (just) on the first page of the timing screens in 41st position. He has seven GTE Am cars ahead of him, and is currently lapping around 18s per lap slower than Cairoli who is the fastest GT driver on track right now.
By: Autosport Staff
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