Le Mans 24 Hours Live Commentary and Updates
Minute-by-minute updates for the 2025 Le Mans 24 Hours
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Twelve-lap stints there from the two Penske Porsches at the sharp end of the field. Jaminet and Vanthoor, Laurens, jump in as they each get a new set of Michelins. That's the medium compound. Use of the soft is likely to be limited this year courtesy of the high temperatures. Porsche was predicting in the week that the window when the soft will be used during the night will be very narrow indeed.
Estre now comes in from the lead, which cycles Hanson and Jakobsen into the top two. That pair has consistently run longer on each stint, but a well-timed full course yellow that would boost them up the order has not been forthcoming as yet. A long way still to go through, as we feel our way into the third hour of this contest.
In comes Julien Andlauer from the lead, handing over the #5 PPM 963 to Mathieu Jaminet. Estre takes over at the front in car #6 and will be due in shortly, with Phil Hanson's #83 Ferrari, Tandy in the #4 Porsche and Malthe Jakobsen's #94 Peugeot also continuing for an extra lap.
A 20-second stop-go penalty for pit speeding for the #36 Alpine, with Jules Gounon currently at the wheel. That's a painful one.
Pilet's #16 RLR M Sport ORECA is the new leader in LMP2, as Dillmann vacates the #43 Inter Europol example for Kuba Smiechowski, the team's silver. Franck Perera has taken over from Esteban Masson in the #48 VDS Panis ORECA, and runs third with Paul Lafargue fourth in the #28 IDEC ORECA after taking over from van Uitert. Fifth now is Mathias Kaiser in the #25 Algarve Pro machine, while Jamie Chadwick has taken over from Lotterer in the #18 IDEC entry and holds sixth on her Le Mans debut.
Buemi has closed gradually onto the back of the Cadillac train and now has Bamber right in his sights. Aitken, at the head of the bunch, is slowly dropping back from Estre in third. Meanwhile, our leader Andlauer still has 5s in hand over Nielsen.
Hasse-Clot has pitted from the lead in LMGT3, with Derek DeBoer climbing on board the #10 Aston. The American is the bronze in that car, so should be more comparable on pace with Ahmad al Harthy, the Omani staying out to inherit the lead in WRT's #46 BMW.
The next round of stops begins in LMP2, with Pilet peeling off from second position. That's a mouthful to say. Dillmann stays out to lead in the #43 machine which appears to be getting very good fuel mileage.
We've barely mentioned the privateer Proton Porsche 963 so far, but Neel Jani has been dusted up a bit there. The Swiss, a winner here with the factory Porsche team in 2016, loses two spots in one go to Conway and Nick Tandy (in for Nasr in the #4 Porsche). Tandy then doesn't take long to get through on Conway, making use of a fresh set of tyres to claim 13th.
There are just 2.8s between Dillmann and Pilet at the front in LMP2, while 7s behind van Uitert (who has a 5s penalty to serve at his next stop) is only just ahead of Masson in fourth. So a change of position is likely at the next stops.
Considering he's been in the car since the off, it has been a very impressive opening triple stint from Ryan Hardwick in the #92 Manthey Porsche. He's running seventh, with two strong team-mates in Richard Lietz and Riccardo Pera yet to drive.
Fastest lap of the race from Dries Vanthoor in the #15 BMW that has slipped to 12th. A stop of a minute and a half suggests he just got new tyres in the pits. That tallies with what we were hearing from the Bimmer drivers before the race - that they felt they weren't a match for Ferrari, Porsche, Toyota and Cadillac on long-run pace.
"I've got so much washout at high speed, I'll just sit here," reports Stevens over the radio. He's running right behind Aitken, with Bamber behind forming a three-car train of Cadillacs running fourth through to sixth.
We've not seen any more off-track moments for Andlauer, whose lead is back to 8.3s over Nielsen. Estre remains third ahead of Aitken, Stevens and Bamber, with Buemi 20s off the lead in seventh spot. Rast is eighth in the best of the BMWs, followed by Calado and Hanson.
There is trouble further back in the LMGT3 pack as Heriau rotates while going side-by-side with Celia Martin at the right-hand kink before Indianapolis. The Frenchman does well to gather it up and continue. Both drivers have been in from the start, chipping away at their six hours of required bronze drive time.
Hasse-Clot moves ahead of al Harthy into the LMGT3 lead. The Omani is the bronze in WRT's BMW, while the Frenchman is the pro in the #10 Aston and has been aboard since the start, so WRT will get a chance to bite back later.
We understand the extra stop for the WTR Caddy was to check if it had picked up debris. Ricky Taylor remains aboard the #101 machine which props up the Hypercar order behind the #007 Aston that had a slow puncture and #93 Peugeot that clipped the barrier at the Porsche Curves in Paul di Resta's hands.
We've had a few driver changes in the LMGT3 class, with al Harthy now leading the class in the #46 WRT BMW that Valentino Rossi will drive later on. Valentin Hasse Clot is still in the #10 Aston Martin in second place, with Arnold Robin in the #78 ASP Lexus in for Hawksworth. Bernardo Sousa has taken over the #77 Proton Ford which sits fourth (in for Barker), his team-mate Stefano Gattuso (in for Olsen) next up.
With Hanson and Duval coming into the pits, Andlauer returns to the lead. Nielsen is now second, ahead of Estre with Stevens shuffled back to fifth behind Aitken who is now the lead Caddy in fourth.
Five seconds will be added to the next pitstop for Job van Uitert's IDEC ORECA due to an unsafe release.
Estre came in a few moments ago and did rejoin ahead of Nielsen, but is powerless to prevent the Ferrari from blasting back ahead into the second Mulsanne Chicane.
Those were 13-lap stints for the #6 and #4 Porsches. Achieving that will have required not insignificant fuel save. Things are looking good for the German manufacturer: the car is quick, fast in a straightline and can eke out its fuel while maintaining strong pace.
How does the LMP2 order look after the second round of stops? Dillmann continues to lead, with Pilet now up to second in the #16 RLR M Sport ORECA and van Uitert third for IDEC Sport. Masson is fourth, Lotterer fifth, then Pourchaire and Ghiotto. All have been in from the start, with Giorgio Roda next up in the #11 Proton machine started by Bent Viscaal.
Andlauer in the following lap, but Estre keeps going for another tour and now leads. Don't know if anybody was taking lots for how long it would take him to get to the lead, but I doubt 1hr27m would have been on many people's cards. Nasr also stays out longer, along with Hanson and Duval, who you may remember went longer on their first stints too.
Fresh out of the pits, Nielsen easily passes Stevens in the battle for a net second place after the Caddy was baulked inadvertently by a Lexus in the first Mulsanne Chicane.
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.
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.
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).
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."
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.
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.
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.
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.
Andre Lotterer has just been into the pits in the #18 IDEC ORECA in LMP2.
Contact meanwhile in the LMGT3 class at the Ford chicane as Ben Keating spins out Custodio Toledo. That was optimistic at best.
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.
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.
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.
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.
By: Autosport staff
