Le Mans 24 Hours Live Commentary and Updates
Minute-by-minute updates for the 2025 Le Mans 24 Hours
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Full course yellow. That came just as Bourdais was electing whether or not to pit.
That was all rather messy, as Bourdais attempts to bail on his pit visit by crossing the white line, but then returns to the lane via the grass. Could be a penalty coming the Jota team's way for that.
After that brief interruption for debris, we're back to green again.
Dillmann has pitted from the P2 lead, and hands back to Nick Yelloly. He has 13s in hand over Masson's VDS Panis machine, in this fight which has rumbled on for hours now.
Pier Guidi continues to gap Ye at the front, with the gap now out at 23s. The dice earlier on between Calado and Hanson, when they ran nose-to-tail, seems a long time ago now.
In the P2 pro-am class, AO by TF's #199 machine still has the upper hand and remains on the lead lap, albeit only just. Louis Deletraz is fifth overall in P2 running directly ahead of outright class leader Nick Yelloly on the road. His nearest class rival is the #34 Inter Europol car of Luca Ghiotto, although the Italian is in turn almost a full lap behind Deletraz.
Riccardo Pera has taken over the #92 Porsche that still leads in LMGT3. As he exits the pits, Simon Mann brings in the #21 Ferrari that holds second place for Alessio Rovera to clamber aboard. Rovera, GTE Am winner here in 2021, should be quicker than Pera, the silver in the 911. But Pera is no slouch it should be said and has a GTE Am class podium to his name from 2020.
In from third comes Molina. No tyres for the #50 Ferrari, who is sent on his way again.
Estre hasn't been able to make much of an impression into the Ferraris ahead. He remains 61s off the lead, a gap that has been fairly constant since he entered the fray in the #6 PPM Porsche 963 in fourth spot.
Damage on the #78 Finn Gehrsitz Lexus, which is coming back looking smokey at the back. The left-rear is indeed broken, and it looks like there has been some hefty contact somewhere. Full course yellow is out.
The car is wheeled into the garage. It had been lying inside the top six in LMGT3 before the German tripped through the gravel at the Porsche Curves and clapped the barrier. Unfortunately for him, the contact was much heavier than the one Paul di Resta had earlier in the race, hitting firmly enough to spin the car around and clip the front bodywork too. The rear suspension is broken.
The handshakes in the garage suggest that is going to be an official retirement.
We are back to green flag conditions as broken pieces of Lexus have been cleared from the Porsche Curves.
Bourdais has been handed a drive-through for that scrappy pit entry when the FCY was briefly called. Crossing the white line is a no-no.
Now we have representative gaps again, we can tell you that Pera has a 59s lead on Rovera in the LMGT3 class. Can the Ferrari man whittle that down to give us a proper fight at the front?
Trouble for the leader! Pier Guidi has spun!
Pier Guidi comes in too hot in the chicane that leads to the pitlane, clips the kerb and rotates his #51 Ferrari. It briefly comes to rest in the gravel, facing the wrong way, and he does well to get it back out. But that could be a potentially costly error in this race.
From the lead, Pier Guidi has been shuffled down to third and is now only just ahead of Estre in fourth. Ye takes the lead, 22s ahead of Molina, with an irate Pier Guidi now 25s behind in third.
"Now we fight with the #50," Ye is told over the radio. It is game on again, suddenly, for the #83 crew.
Well, who saw that coming? Suddenly there is a real sense of collective moving forwards on your seat to be closer to the monitor. And to top it all off, look at Kevin Estre. He's just 30s off the lead now. Could Porsche yet throw a spanner in the works for Ferrari?
It's far from over in the classes either. Yelloly is 17.6s clear of Masson in the LMP2 classification, which is just slender enough that any slight hiccups for the yellow and green machine in the closing four hours could have significant consequences.
Pier Guidi is really pushing on in #51 as he seeks to make up for his mistake. He's 3.3s behind Molina, who doesn't quite seem able to take chunks out of Ye's 19s advantage.
The race hasn't gone to plan for the Jota Cadillac team, but Bourdais has just set a new fastest lap of the race at 3m26.063s.
As the margins between Pera and Rovera at the front in LMGT3 continue to ebb and flow, Charlie Eastwood has solidified TF Sport's control over third in the #81 Corvette. He had 90s in hand over Mattia Drudi's HoR Aston before coming into the pits for a service.
We've just had another round of stops in LMP2, with Yelloly emerging still in front of Masson to the tune of 18s. Deletraz has also pitted in the AO by TF car which continues to lead the pro-am sub-category in fourth overall.
We still have eight Hypercars on the lead lap, but the #38 Jota Caddy is no longer among them. Regarding his fastest lap, Bourdais has just been asked why he's been unable to produce that sort of pace more often and said it is due to a combination of factors, including traffic and fuel. In short, it needed these grippier track conditions to arrive sooner. He concedes that its hopes of a fightback have long since passed.
Pera has just been into the pits from the LMGT3 lead, with Rovera following him in as the Porsche returns to the track. We've now got Rui Andrade back behind the wheel of the #81 Corvette to give Charlie Eastwood a breather, which shuffles Mattia Drudi back into third place aboard the HoR Aston - but we expect that back in shortly too for Zach Robichon to be installed.
The gap between the lead Ferrari of Ye and best of the rest Estre in the #6 Porsche is pretty much stable round 34/35s. But when was the Porsche at its most competitive during this race? The opening couple of hours is the answer. The mercury is heading up toward the temperatures we were saw after four o'clock yesterday, so could the 963 hit the sweet spot again?
How is Ye's advantage looking? It is holding steady for the time being at 17s. Pier Guidi's mini push to get back on terms with Molina has stalled for the time being at 5s.
The best Hypercar battle on track is for ninth place, with Frijns pressuring Jaminet's Porsche. BMW reckon a triple stint can help him jump the #5 machine that led early on yesterday.
Molina has pitted from second, and hands over to Nielsen. Ye is expected in next time around.
The sole surviving United Autosports McLaren is currently in the garage having an alternator problem fixed. It hasn't been a specular run for the British-run cars; remember, Darren Leung was left stranded by the side of the road with a drivetrain problem that also impacted the fuel delivery, and so was a retirement yesterday evening.
In comes Ye now from the lead. He stays in and just takes fuel, which should mean an extended lead when he rejoins.
Crumbs, that's an unusual one. Hirakawa, fresh in the #8 Toyota, spears off the road exiting the pits and goes through the gravel. His left-front was not properly tightened it seems. Disaster for Toyota!
Hirakawa is having to crawl back to the pits, which is going to take a while and may even take the #8 Toyota out of contention for points. Replays suggest the wheel nut came off as he put load on the tyre, which has now punctured.
In comes Pier Guidi, with Calado taking over the #51 Ferrari. He won't want to rewatch footage of his spin entering the pits which put his crew on the back foot. An emergency service had been required moments before, due to the FCY brought out for debris from the Lexus shunt at the Porsche Curves, and in his haste to return to the pits Pier Guidi made what could turn out to be a race-defining error.
Not taking tyres at his last stop means Ye now has a 35s advantage in the #83 Ferrari over Nielsen, with Calado 47s back in third. Laurens Vanthoor has just climbed back into Porsche #6, which is back to being 57s off the lead.
Yelloly versus Masson in LMP2 remains an incredibly close fight, the two leaders split by 14s last time by. Does the VDS Panis car have anything for Inter Europol Competition in the remaining four hours? Both are regulars in the European Le Mans Series, which has races of four hours in duration, so still plenty of chances for drama to materialise. Just ask Alessandro Pier Guidi...
With three wheels on his wagon, Hirakawa has brought the car back to the box. The #8 GR010 HYBRID is wheeled back into the box, and is now surely out of the running for points. A bitter shame for the crew that had been circling on the outskirts of the top five.
Nielsen's fresh tyres are working nicely, which has helped the Dane to set the #50 Ferrari's fastest lap of the race so far. However, he remains 31s back from Ye, whose call to keep the same tyres at the last stop looks a masterstroke.
By: Autosport staff
