Le Mans 24 Hours Live Commentary and Updates
Minute-by-minute updates for the 2025 Le Mans 24 Hours
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Nielsen is giving Nasr a bit of a work over in the battle for fourth. Porsche's IMSA car isn't pushing on at the Caddys as Andlauer did on the opening tour, perhaps hinting at a split of strategies.
Another position change at the sharp end in LMGT3, as this time Hawksworth gets through on van der Linde to take third in the ASP Lexus.
There is nothing wrong with the straightline speed in that Lexus. Now Hawksworth breezes through on Martin to take second away.
Estre has taken P11 in the Hypercar class from Hanson, and is chasing after Buemi's Toyota as lappery begins. We'd better get used to this over the remaining 23-and-a-bit hours.
A slow puncture was the cause of Tincknell's early stop. The #007 Aston is now behind the LMP2 pack in the overall order.
It's as you were in LMP2, with Beche still leading Deletraz, Dillmann, Jarvis and van der Zande. All cars are identical and very evenly matched, and there is very little to choose between this bunch of top pros.
Like a hot knife through butter, Estre is continuing his inexorable progress as Buemi, Calado and Rast become his latest victims. Up to eighth, from 21st, constitutes a remarkable recovery from the weight infringement that resulted in being booted out of qualifying and dumped to the back of the grid.
No sooner do we finish typing that, Estre takes Magnussen for seventh. How wide will Aitken make his Action Express Caddy as the #6 Porsche looms in his mirrors?
Andlauer still holds a 7s lead over Stevens, with Bamber, Nasr and Nielsen next up. Then it is Aitken in sixth and the flying Estre, with Magnussen, Rast and Buemi rounding out the top 10.
Beche has relinquished the LMP2 lead by peeling into the pits after nine laps. Several others from the class follow suit, but five manage to stay out for another tour. That bunch includes Dillmann, Blomqvist, Vaxiviere, Viscaal and Catsburg. A few pro-am teams have installed bronzes, including Rodrigo Sales in for Beche, which could shake up the order a bit.
Over in LMGT3, Eastwood is the latest driver to pull a move on the WRT BMW, which doesn't appear to have much in the tank to defend with. The TF Corvette man moves up to fourth into Indianapolis, as Drudi's HoR Aston continues to lead Hawksworth (Lexus) and Maxime Martin's Mercedes-AMG.
Heriau continues to lead the race within a race of the bronze drivers in the LMGT3 class, but has Porsche drivers Ryan Hardwick and Celia Martin right on his case.
Pitstops begin for the LMGT3 class, with Drudi handing over the lead car to Ian James. Hawksworth cycles to the lead. Also in is Luca Stolz, with Stephen Grove taking over the Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG. Remember, the bronze-graded Australian has been banned from racing during the night hours due to not completing enough practice laps after his FP1 shunt, so the team will have to get his hours completed either side of that.
Hawksworth, Martin, Eastwood and van der Linde all circle in on the following tour, but Dennis Olsen stays out to lead in the Proton Ford from Daniel Serra's Kessel Ferrari and the TF Corvette of Dani Juncadella.
Hypercar pitstops commence now too, with Andlauer in from the lead after a 12-lap stint. He's followed by virtually the entire pack, aside from Nasr, Hanson and Duval.
Following their first round of stops, the P2 order has changed a bit. Dillmann stayed aboard the #43 Inter Europol ORECA and now leads from PJ Hyett, who relayed Deletraz in the #199 AO by TF car. Up to third has come Job van Uitert, who also stayed aboard the IDEC #28, while Rodrigo Sales (in for Beche) has slipped back to fourth. Remember, Hyett and Sales are the bronze drivers in their respective pro-am entries.
Mayhem at the first chicane. David Heinemeier-Hanson clangs into Chris Froggatt's Ziggo Tempesta Ferrari and causes both to rotate, then in his haste to rejoin in the #22 United ORECA almost takes out the advancing VDS Panis machine. Good avoidance by Esteban Masson, but you'd not be surprised to see the Dane pick up a penalty for that whole skirmish.
The trio who stayed out an extra lap have all lost places. Nasr drops from fourth to 12th, while Hanson is now 15th in the #83 Ferrari. Duval's Peugeot is 19th, ahead only of the two Astons.
Andlauer's lead has come down a bit through that first round of stops, with Stevens now under 5s behind. Bamber remains third, with Nielsen up to fourth ahead of Estre, who has demoted Aitken.
Slow stop there from the #4 Porsche. Ten or so seconds more than the rest of the Hypercar pack.
Following the LMGT3 stops, Hawksworth stays in and now leads from Hasse-Clot's #10 Aston, with Kelvin van der Linde third and Ben Barker's Ford up to fourth. The freshly-installed Ian James is next up in the pole-sitting HoR Aston. He's the bronze in that crew, so will understandably be giving up a bit of laptime to the pros that started the race and are going into their second stints.
Last year, Kevin Estre was the hero of qualifying with that lap of laps that got him the pole. This time, he's the star of the opening hour. He's up to fifth from the back of the Hypercar grid and he lost very little coming through the field. He was 9s behind team-mate Andlauer at the end of the opening lap and is now 12s in arrears.
Three-wide action in the P2 class as sometime IndyCar racer Luca Ghiotto storms past Alex Malykhin and Rodrigo Sales into the first Mulsanne Chicane. That's ninth place for the second Inter Europol Competition machine bearing the colours of a Polish bakery company, which also leads courtesy of Tom Dillmann.
Toyota hasn't enjoyed a stellar opening hour, and Mike Conway is a bit stuck trying to get past Nasr for 12th. He has been alongside a few times, but without success. His team has informed the Briton over the radio that he has some bodywork damage to contend with too.
Off the road goes Paul di Resta at the Porsche Curves. He clangs the tyre barrier after skittering over the gravel and removes the rear bodywork on the #93 Peugeot.
Di Resta was coming in hot to the first right-hander in the Porsche Curves after taking a Corvette, and then found a Ferrari on his line. Nowhere to go for the Scot, and momentum took him into the tyre barrier. Now the Peugeot team will have to assess the rear damage.
Kelvin van der Linde is back on the front foot now, and moves past Valentin Hasse-Clot to take second in the LMGT3 category. Quite a few bronzes are aboard the GT cars now, but Heriau and Hardwick have stayed in. The latter has moved ahead of the Ferrari driver and is the first of the bronzes running a second stint.
Estre is latching onto the tail of the battle for third, which changes hands as we type. Nielsen dispatches Bamber into the second Mulsanne chicane, the defending event winner now freed up to chase after Will Stevens in second.
Time for an LMP2 update, and as expected the drivers that have stayed in for a second stint have crept to the top of the leaderboard. Dillmann heads van Uitert, Pilet, Viscaal, Masson, Lotterer, Pourchaire and Ghiotto. Hyett is the first of the bronzes in ninth, ahead of Sales and the recovering Heinemeier-Hansson.
Nasr has finally broken away from Conway after a few laps of hard defending, and now takes Makowiecki for 11th. We should note for housekeeping that di Resta is back on track after that brush with the wall.
Contact meanwhile in the LMGT3 class at the Ford chicane as Ben Keating spins out Custodio Toledo. That was optimistic at best.
Andre Lotterer has just been into the pits in the #18 IDEC ORECA in LMP2.
Nielsen is pulling away from Bamber, but Estre for the time being isn't able to do much about the Caddy. He must have put his Michelins through a real hammering in his charge up the order.
Andlauer has had a trip through the run-off at the first Mulsanne Chicane, which may give Stevens a bit of encouragement in his pursuit of the lead. It doesn't appear to have cost the Porsche man a big chunk of time, that being said.
Further down the order, the WTR Caddy has been into the pits three times already. Things not going to plan so far for the American squad, which is now at the tail end of the lead lap.
Contact in the Ford Chicane in the LMP2 ranks may be looked at by the stewards. Malykhin rather divebombed Sales, causing both to take to the run-off. Their battle is interrupted by the second round of P2 stops, although leader Dillmann stays out ahead of Viscaal.
Daniel Juncadella isn't too chuffed with how things are going after his first stint in the TF Corvette.
"We are participating at Le Mans because competing is another thing. It's pretty clear we are 8-10 kph down on the straight. We can't overtake any cars. The car is super-quick in the corners and the guys did a great job to give us a super-fast car in corners. It's just really disappointing because that's been the trend the last couple of races."
The second round of LMGT3 pitstops is underway too, with Kelvin van der Linde handing the #46 BMW over to Ahmad al Harthy. Hawksworth goes for another lap, along with team-mate Clemens Schmid (third) and the two Fords of Barker (second) and Olsen (fourth).
Nielsen is right on the tail of Stevens in the battle for second in Hypercar. Both are due in at the end of this lap.
With 22 laps complete, Andlauer continues for another lap, as does Estre, while Stevens and Nielsen come in before exiting in the same order. Further back, Conway's entry to his pit box is hampered by a car in the adjoining stall, so he has to be repositioned at a cost of several seconds.
By: Autosport staff
