Le Mans 24 Hours Live Commentary and Updates
Minute-by-minute updates for the 2024 Le Mans 24 Hours.
Live Text
Chatin's hold on tenth is looking a little tenuous as Earl Bamber's #2 Caddy is looming large in the Alpine driver's mirrors. The Kiwi is a two-time winner here with Porsche, in 2015 and 2017.
That battle will now be resolved in the pits as the two blue cars pit together.
Some of the LMGT3 frontrunners are also now in including the #44 Proton Mustang, the #85 Iron Dames Lambo and the #66 JMW Ferrari that were in the top six. While Yoluc continues at the wheel of the Ferrari, Hartshorne now takes over the Ford and Bovy the Lambo.
If there was any doubt that the soft Michelin tyre is the compound to be on, Fuoco has removed it by posting fastest lap of the race - a 3m29.2s. Ferrari split its strategy again at the last round of stops - Calado is out on mediums and lapping a second or so slower.
Buemi sits 1m22s behind leader Shwartzman in fourth as the first of the bunch that switched onto the wets before changing back again. His buffer at the head of that grouping stands at 24s over Calado, who has a more meagre 2.6s gap to Ilott.
We have a change of lead in LMP2! Novalak in the #34 Inter Europol car has blasted past the #10 Vector machine with Cullen now at the wheel on the Mulsanne Straight. Although the new leader is due a pitstop fairly soon.
In now comes Fuoco from third place. The Frijns BMW has meanwhile rejoined after its 24-minute visit to the pits.
The LMGT3 leader is now in as Masson pits with a 30-second lead in the Lexus. And he is immediately followed by the second-placed BMW of Al Harthy.
Having rejoined just behind, Fuoco makes short work of retaking fifth from Ilott on his outlap.
Worth noting that Kimura has now taken over the formerly class-leading Lexus from Masson during that stop. It's the #91 Manthey Porsche of Schuring that is now the leader with the Lexus and BMW second and third.
One lap later than Fuoco, in comes Christensen from second spot. He rejoins third, losing just one spot to Buemi. But what is this? The timing screens report rain is on the way in 10 minutes...
So with three hours gone, the order in the Hypercar class looks like this:
1. #83 Ferrari - Shwartzman
2. #8 Toyota - Buemi
3. #5 Porsche - Christensen
4. #51 Ferrari - Calado
5. #50 Ferrari - Fuoco
6. #12 Porsche - Ilott
7. #7 Toyota - Kobayashi
8. #4 Porsche - Tandy
9. #6 Porsche - Lotterer
10. #311 Cadillac - Aitken
And here's the LMP2 order:
1. #34 Inter Europol
2. #10 Vector
3. #37 Cool Racing
4. #22 United Autosports
5. #183 AF Corse
6. #28 IDEC Sport
Over in LMGT3, it's:
1. #91 Manthey Porsche
2. #46 WRT BMW
3. #87 Akkodis ASP Lexus
4. #66 JMW Ferrari
5. #86 GR Ferrari
6. #85 Iron Dames Lamborghini
Shwartzman has pitted from the lead in Hypercar, but rejoins still ahead of Buemi, who is a little out-of-sync. Meanwhile Kobayashi is on the move, clearing both Ilott and Fuoco to move into fifth.
Ilott isn't hanging around either, and follows the Toyota past Fuoco into Indianapolis to claim sixth.Now seems as good a time as any for our next pair of hands to take over the live text. Welcome to Haydn Cobb and Richard Asher. The floor is yours!
Hello everyone! Straight away we have a change of the lead - as the #8 Toyota driven by Buemi bolts by the #83 AF Corse - but he is due to pit at the end of the lap.
Thanks and happy to relieve James Newbold on the GT3 and LMP2 action! Big moment not far off for that #46 car in GT3, as a certain Valentino Rossi can't be far away from his first Le Mans race stint.
Buemi duly pits and hands over the #8 Toyota to Hartley, which hands the lead back to the #83. Then in comes the #51 Ferrari and the #12 Jota Porsche also pit and shuffle back in the pack.
As the pitstops shake out, the #83 Ferrari leads by around 15s from the #5 Porsche - while coming out of the pits the #51 Ferrari driven by Pier Guidi slides through the opening corners coming out on new soft tyres.
A little update on the relative driver pace at the sharp end of LMP2. Ryan Cullen's best lap since taking over from Patrick Pilet is over four seconds slower than the Frenchman's. Ritomo Miyata in the Cool Racing #37 car is slower than Malthe Jakobsen (many are...) but not by nearly such a margin. But the gap between the two is 47s, with the United Autosports #22 car just five seconds further back, with Biljoy Garg at the wheel and doing comparable times to Jakobsen.
Al Harthy has taken the lead in GT3 as the Manthey Porsche pits! He'll set quite the stage for Rossi if he can stay there till the stops.
Here's the latest report update following the opening three hours of racing.
#83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P: Robert Kubica, Robert Shwartzman, Yifei Ye
Photo by: Nikolaz Godet
The rain has returned, with a light sprinkling reported in the pitlane. Just another variable to keep everyone on high alert.
News from the LMP2 garages is that the #23 United Autosports entry remains in one of them, where it's been for quite some time. It's an alternator problem. That's the car escorted into the gravel by Ben Keating earlier in the race
Most of the teams are forecasting a light shower which will move away in a few minutes and be replaced by sunny conditions for the evening. That'll be nice, but you can never be sure around here.
Riccardo Pera is way quicker than his rivals at the head of GT3. In fact, his GR Racing Ferrari has just moved into second place, and Al Harthy is in immediate danger.
The #93 Peugeot has been slapped with a drive-through penalty for an incident with the #95 United Autosports McLaren. Jensen, currently in the car, is running in 16th overall so that's another blow to its ambitions of climbing the order.
The first, but a very brief, full course yellow has been called in this race. It appears to be caused by the #34 Inter Europol that's missing its front-left wheel coming into the pits.
That's not a great moment for the Europol car as it tries to repeat its 2023 class victory! We've not yet seen what happened to the Polish entry, but can confirm Clement Novalak was at the wheel
Back to green flag racing, so off we go again. The #83 AF Corse Ferrari driven by Shwartzman has extended its lead to 20s, as the #5 Porsche is defending second from the #50 Ferrari.
Cullen and Miyata both pit during the mini-shower/mini-FCY. The #22 United Autosports car also called in a few minutes earlier, with Nolan Siegel taking over from Garg.
The #50 Ferrari driven by Fuoco gets by the #5 Porsche for second place. Those Ferraris are speedy in these early stages once they stay out of trouble with penalties.
The Pera charge is over in GT3 as the Italian's 30-lap stint comes to an end. Bronze driver Michael Wainwright is now charged with keeping the Ferrari in the hunt.
Now the second full course yellow is called for, just seven minutes after the first one, but we're yet to understand what has triggered it. It might just be a track cleaning job due to gravel spilled on the track from a few offs in the last hour.
Our assumption for gravel looks likely, as the green flag is waved again. That restart has reignited the fight for second place between Fuoco and Christensen.
Fuoco has shrugged off Christensen's advances to build a gap again in second. The full course yellow didn't really hang around long enough for anyone in the pack to fully exploit it as the pitstop cycles continue.
The defending LMP2 class winners are back in the race - presumably with four wheels on the car now. It's listen in 10th place on its out lap, and well over a lap down.
Not a moment's peace for Europol...the team manager has been summoned to race control. It doesn't sound like he'll be getting a pat on the back...we'll keep you posted.
Leader Shwartzman discusses his pace with his engineer and they agree he's going quick enough to go for another stint on these tyres. Behind him, the #50 Ferrari and the #5 Porsche pit which cycles the #8 Toyota into second place.
By: Autosport Staff
