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.
Both of the Toyotas and the #93 Peugeot are on soft tyres, with the other Hypercar machines on mediums. So that perhaps explains why the Toyotas were looking so racy against the Ferraris at the start.
We're now getting pictures of the barrier repair work under way on the Mulsanne following that hit from Aitken's Cadillac with plenty of marshals frantically working away.
Replays of the start show just how aggressive Buemi was in the Toyota into the first chicane before backing out of a move on the Ferrari just in time. Waiting until further around the lap clearly paid dividends.
Kvamme's ORECA is being recovered from the gravel at the first Mulsanne Chicane after skating straight off the road, and we also seem to have lost the TF Aston that Charlie Eastwood started from second in GTE Am.
From pole in GTE Am, Nicky Catsburg retains the lead in the Corvette C8.R ahead of a trio of rapid Ferrari drivers. Davide Rigon is second in the #54 AF Corse entry, Daniel Serra third in the #57 Kessel example and Alessio Rovera fourth in the #83 AF with Richard Mille 488 GTE.
So, amid this pause let's have a quick rundown of the order and it's the #8 Toyota leading the #50 Ferrari with the #7 Toyota getting ahead of Calado int he second Ferrari. Next up is the #75 Porsche before the best of the Cadillacs, the #2, is sixth.
The InterEuropol LMP2 team was the only one to start with a bronze, and its gamble hasn't paid off with Mark Kvamme in the gravel. He's stuck firmly which appears to be another factor behind the safety car.
Paul-Loup Chatin retains the LMP2 lead for IDEC Sport at the end of lap one, with Daniil Kvyat leaping up to second in the Prema car that he started fourth.
Huge damage to the Cadillac V-Series.R as it battles round the track but we have a change of lead! Buemi has dived ahead of the Ferraris at Indianapolis!
#48 IDEC Chatin #28 Jota Fittipaldi #41 WRT Kubica #47 Cool de Gerus #63 Prema Kvyat #14 Nielsen Beche #9 Prema Correa #10 Vector Aubry #45 Algarve Pro Allen #22 United Albuquerque #923 TF Vanthoor #65 Panis Van Uitert #34 InterEuropol Scherer #23 United Blomqvist #31 WRT Gelael #37 Cool Lapierre #80 AF Corse Nato #35 Signatech Negrao #30 Duquiene Jani #32 Kvamme Kvamme #39 Graff Van der Garde #36 Signatech Milesi #13 Tower Taylor #43 DKR Martin
The Ferraris maintain the lead at the start but there's some bunching further behind as several drivers lock-up but all the leading contenders emerge unscathed.
We've been seeing pictures of a distinctly dry pitlane, but it's really rather more slippery around the back of the circuit into the first Mulsanne chicane.
It's not been a good start for Glickenhaus. The #708 car missed the window to leave the pits. And the #43 DKR LMP2 is also stranded on the pit straight having apparently failed to fire up.
Our group national editor is one of several here ending a Le Mans hiatus this year. Stephen hasn't been away nearly as long as this year's Daytona 24 Hours winner Colin Braun though - the Algarve Pro Racing LMP2 driver is starting the great race for the first time since 2007!
Emotional scenes around the Corvette Racing entry down on the grid. Lots of hugging among the mechanics. This will be the Pratt & Miller-run team's last appearance at a race it has only missed once since 2000. Next year when LMGT3 replaces GTE Am, factory operations will not be allowed.
The timing screens have flashed up to say that the track has been declared wet. But the conditions don't look anywhere near the stage that wet tyres will be required.
Starting drivers are starting to clamber aboard their cars. The official race starter who will send the cars on the formation lap is NBA star Lebron James. Like your correspondent, we are informed, he too is a Liverpool fan.
Ahead of it is a snarling pack of Gibson V8-powered ORECA 07s, marking the first time that Hugues de Chaunac's company has supplied the entire LMP2 pack. It was finally confirmed on Friday that LMP2 will be dropped from the WEC next year, although at least 15 spaces on the grid will be reserved for LMP2 at Le Mans in 2024.
Such has been the pace of the Garage 56 entry that the ACO has changed the rules and it will now start ahead of the GTE Am pack from 39th overall with 2010 Le Mans winner Mike Rockenfeller aboard.
Garage 56's NASCAR has been a fan favourite all week, with its distinctive V8 rumble. The Chevrolet Camaro's performance has surpassed expectations of its Hendrick Motorsports team and is growing on its drivers. Jenson Button even went as far as admitting he briefly thought joining the NASCAR Garage 56 Le Mans programme was the "biggest mistake of my life" but now "loves" driving the car.
We've got soldiers abseiling down from a helicopter and various things up above us. Some kind of airshow should be obligatory at major motor races, to my mind. My best memory is of a Harrier jump jet at Brands Hatch at the 1980 British GP blowing down a tent in which you could get a pint of Skol lager, which, of course, was the Fittipaldi team's sponsor that year.
