Le Mans 24 Hours Live Commentary and Updates
Minute-by-minute updates for the 2024 Le Mans 24 Hours.
Live Text
Miyata - who has taken over from Jakobsen in the #37 Cool Racing entry - has now pitted again so may be regretting that change to wets.
Another back in the pits is former LMGT3 leader the Inception McLaren and Millroy has now taken over from Iribe at the wheel.
The wet weather gamble didn't pay off for Buemi. He's come back in for slicks. In too come Giovinazzi, Nasr, De Vries, Derani and the two Peugeots. Staying out on the slicks was the right call after all, it appears.
Unsurprisingly, the earlier clash between the #54 Ferrari of Flohr and the #47 Cool LMP2 entry of Rao is under investigation by the officials. Although that looks like a slam dunk penalty for the LMP2 driver as his mistake sent the Ferrari spinning.
Well, we got that wrong! Flohr has been handed a drive-through penalty for that clash after a very quick investigation!
We've had a change of lead in Hypercar - Nielsen has got back to the front with a move on Kubica. Lotterer, Hanson, Milesi, Bourdais and Lynn all come to the pits meanwhile to get back on the slicks.
Having been among the few LMP2 drivers not to pit for slicks and having built a lead of over a minute in the process, Pilet has now brought the #10 Vector entry in for a scheduled stop.
The Jota Porsche 963 that was still being rebuilt yesterday after its Wednesday prang is now up to third after staying out in that shower. Will Stevens is 26s off the lead, with Michael Christensen's #5 factory PPM two seconds back in fourth.
There are also scheduled stops for some of the LMGT3 frontrunners as Frey and Mies in the second Proton Mustang are among those to visit the pits.
In comes Stevens from third in the repaired #12 Jota Porsche. He was 18th on lap one!
Having built up an enormous advantage in LMGT3, ten Voorde has now brought the JMW Ferrari in for its third stop and that means the yet-to-stop #87 Lexus of Masson now has first place. Ten Voorde has also vacated the car to hand over to Yoluc.
Interesting that the factory Ferrari squad has learnt its lessons from the Imola WEC round back in April. It played the percentages during that rain shower, leaving #50 out on slicks and bringing #51 in for wets. No 'all our eggs in one basket' strategy this time.
The switch back to slicks coincided with a swathe of driver changes in the Hypercar ranks. Nick Tandy is now in the #4 Porsche that runs ninth (behind Buemi who stayed in), right ahead of James Calado in the #51 Ferrari, Kamui Kobayashi's #7 Toyota, Hanson, the #6 Porsche of Lotterer and Jack Aitken now in the #311 Caddy.
Big crash for Flohr in LMGT3! The Ferrari has hit the barriers hard after losing it under braking for the Dunlop Chicane.
Into the pits comes Nielsen from the lead, along with Mortara's #63 Lambo which also benefitted from staying out. Antonio Fuoco jumps into the #50 car, which has a loose rear-view mirror that will surely be a distraction, while Mirko Bortolotti takes over the Lamborghini.
A slow zone is being implemented and Flohr's race is really being ripped up after his earlier penalty, too.
Under the slow zone Kubica takes the chance to pit from the lead, with Christensen's Porsche and the #19 Lamborghini of Caldarelli that were second and third following in too. Caldarelli is unfortunately hindered in coming to his pitbox by the Claudio Schiavone-driven Iron Lynx GT3 Lambo.
Lomko, the last of the main LMP2 runners yet to stop, now pits from the lead during this slow zone. The #34 Inter Europol driver had been in that car since the start and but has now handed over to single-seater convert Novalak and resumes in second place. Pilet assumes the lead for Vector once more.
Meanwhile, race control now says the #88 Proton Ford Mustang GT3 that is currently 14th in class is under investigation for an unspecified technical infringement.
Back at the front and Masson and Al Harthy have pitted from the LMGT3 under this slow zone and Masson has timed it perfectly to continue to lead from Mies in the #44 Proton Mustang and Frey in the Iron Dames Lambo.
Despite his wobbly mirror, Fuoco is on the move and takes Stevens for third. The Briton then loses out to Frijns, who has advanced to fourth in the #20 BMW that made an unexpectedly early second stop due to a slow puncture induced by debris. But the out-of-sync Frijns then immediately pits.
The #65 Panis LMP2 entry that led the race much earlier on but is now 13th in class is the latest car to be under investigation, this time for a possible pitstop infringement.
The yellow privateer Ferrari has hung onto the lead despite its stop courtesy of the slow zone to clear up the mess at the Dunlop Chicane. The pace has dropped to somewhere just over four minutes a lap, so the gain for #83 was more than half a minute. On such vagaries can big endurance races turn.
Stevens was promoted back to fourth by the pitstop for Frijns, but his hold on the position is brief as Buemi comes through. The other Toyota is also on the move as Kobayashi powers past Frijns, fresh from his visit to the pits, to take eighth spot.
Another off for a BMW Hypercar, and this time it's Frijns who is in the gravel at the Ford Chicane. He gives the tyre barrier a hefty clattering with his right-rear corner as the car snapped left dramatically.
Frijns has got the car going again, but smoke is pluming from the right-rear corner as he tries to drag the car back to the pits. The accident couldn't have been at a much worse spot, as he missed the pit entry.
Novalak had only just taken over the #34 Inter Europol LMP2 entry but he has now pitted again to take advantage of this slow zone, while the sixth-placed Manthey Porsche in LMGT3 is also in.
The slow zones at the first and last corners where Flohr and Frijns crashed have now been removed, so we're back to green.
Shortly before the return to green, the flurry of pitstops continued under the slow zones with Buemi, the #12 Jota Porsche now driven by Ilott, Calado, Kobayashi and Lotterer all coming in.
We were seeing a lot of pitstops with those two slow zones in force. It was a no-brainer to pit when the cars were lapping a minute off the pace with two slow zones in force. A free 60s!
Frijns has now made it back to the pits, where his car is wheeled back into the garage. We've also had an update that cars #83, #3 and #35 will face no further action over unsafe releases that were investigated earlier.
The #65 Panis LMP2 car will have to serve an additional five seconds at its next stop for a previous pit infringement. Remember the car was leading earlier but is now in an unlucky 13th.
Shwartzman it was who took over from Kubica at the last pitstop, and the 2019 Formula 3 champion has a 16s lead over the #5 Porsche of Michael Christensen. Fuoco is third, then Tandy and Hanson, who passes Buemi for fifth into Indianapolis.
A car from each class has now been given a drive-through penalty for not following the slow zone procedures. The #94 Peugeot that is currently 17th overall, the #9 Proton LMP2 entry that is ninth in class and the #95 United Autosports McLaren that is 13th have all been penalised.
Meanwhile, the timing screen is suggesting the #54 Ferrari that Flohr crashed at the Dunlop Chicane has become the race's first official retirement.
We haven't mentioned the LMGT3 leaders for a while but Masson in the #87 Lexus continues to hold a near 10-second advantage over the #44 Proton Mustang of Mies, with Frey in the Iron Dames Lambo third and the first WRT BMW of Al Harthy fourth.
Of those that changed to wets and then back to slicks again, perhaps the car that lost out most was the pole-sitting #6 Porsche. Lotterer you may recall had just overtaken the #50 Ferrari and was running ahead of Kubica's #83 machine when he came in. That belated call meant he missed the window when the wets were most needed, then was later in switching back to the slicks too. The three-time Le Mans winner has slipped back to 14th as a result, 2m19s off the lead.
While Pilet has built a lead of 1m30s in LMP2, the second and third placed cars - the #37 Cool entry of Mitoma and the #22 United Autosports car of Garg - have both dived into the pits this time around for their fifth stops.
Shwartzman is keen to put a lap on the Mikkel Jensen Peugeot and flashes his lights furiously before getting through into the second Mulsanne chicane. He's built up a 21-second lead on Christensen, who in turn has 17s on Fuoco in third.
Pilet now pits from the LMP2 lead next time around and his mammoth near three-hour stint comes to an end as Cullen takes over still at the head of the class.
By: Autosport Staff
