Le Mans 24 Hours Live Commentary and Updates
Minute-by-minute updates for the 2025 Le Mans 24 Hours
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A strange issue emerges for Button as the drinks system in his Cadillac seems to fail and leaves fluid spraying around the cockpit.
The 2009 F1 champion simply unplug the feeding tube and carries on his way.
This time around the #50 pits but will keep its advantage over the #51.
All eyes turn to whether the #4 will stay ahead of the #311 when emerging from the pits.
The #43 LMP2 Inter Europol lost the lead in class because of a driver error at the last pitstops.
Yelloly pulled into the wrong box after mixing up his team for another.
The #38 Cadillac pits and sees Jenson Button take the wheel as the #51 boxes from second place on the tour after.
Fuel only for Pier Guidi as he returns to the pits. #311, #5 and #99 are all in as well, so Vesti and Wehrlein are split up with the #4 staying out for one more lap.
Wehrlein still has Vesti behind in the battle for what is now seventh on the road. It's some effort from the Formula E world champion in his first Le Mans appearance.
Van der Linde does get a tearoff binned from his BMW as the #7 of de Vries also stops.
The gaps at the top of Hypercar have extended somewhat, with 12 seconds between the #50 and #51 and a further six seconds back to the #83.
The #15 BMW was fourth but makes its pitstop to leave the #6 PPM and #8 Toyota to complete the top five.
Sheldon Van der Linde: "Visibility is really bad dude."
The driver of the #20 BMW is struggling with the 'sun x bug' combination during his latest stint and will likely get a tearoff taken away from the windscreen at the next stop.
The top two in LMGT3 pit at the turn of the hour, as does the #43 from the lead of LMP2.
Such was Inter Europol's advantage that Yelloly comes back out third in class.
With 19 hours remaining, here are the top threes in each category:
Hypercar: #50, #51, #83
LMP2: #34, #48, #9
LMGT3: #46, #21, #92
That traffic gives the #8 Toyota and the #20 BMW the chance to put a lap on the #93 Peugeot, which was delayed by a crash early on.
Looking at the GPS, there's hardly a patch of tarmac without one of the 61-remaining cars travelling on it. Traffic will now be a constant battle, unless a safety car period bunches things back up.
Already five hours have passed and just the one slow zone and one FCY period so far!
The clouds have begun to part slightly and allow the golden sun to peek through onto the circuit as it begins to lower in the horizon. That will bring its own challenges, not least glare as drivers try to spot braking zones through their bug-splattered windscreens.
The Ferrari 1-2-3 in Hypercar is restored as the #94 Peugeot makes its outstanding pitstop.
Wehrlein's #4 Porsche is holding off the #311 Whelen Cadillac for 11th in the closest battle in the class and allowing the #5 to close as it aims to make up for lost time.
The #46 BMW now has Valentino Rossi driving and is enjoying an 11-second buffer to the second-placed #92 Manthey 1st Phorm Porsche driven currently by Riccardo Pera in LMGT3.
But the entire class is host to various different strategies so trying to figure out who is in the driving seat is almost impossible right now!
The #6 pits and remains net-fourth on the road with Matt Campbell now at the helm.
Will Ferrari's advantage continue into the night running? Bad news for Porsche is that the #12 Cadillac has moved past as Campbell gets his new tyres up to temperature.
The #43 Inter Europol now has Yelloly behind the wheel and boasts a seven-second advantage over the #48 VDS Panis entry in LMP2.
The third-placed #9 Iron Lynx-Proton is a further 25 seconds behind.
Kubica's time behind the wheel ends as he hands the #83 across to Yifei Ye - with a five-second time penalty to complete during the stop.
A great battle between the #38 Cadillac, the #4 Porsche and the #311 Cadillac sees Bourdais in the former emerge ahead and in 10th.
Correction: Molina is now in the #50 and he is right in the middle of an unneeded battle with Vandoorne in the #94.
The pitstops continue to cycle through as the #8 and #4 box - Hartley departing the Toyota for Hirakawa.
Now the race leader is in: the #50 changes tyres and Fuoco gets back underway. The #311, #5 and #99 all stop as well.
There are a lot of tyre changes early on in the race as the #94 Peugeot attacks the Ferrari as it tries to get its new rubber up to temperature.
The pitstop cycle for Hypercar is open and the #51, #20 and #7 are all in.
New tyres go on the #51 which was third before Pier Guidi gets going. That leaves the #6 in third but eight seconds down on the #83.
A quick tyre update for the Hypercar class - all cars are in mediums except the #35 Alpine, which is on softs. The #7 Toyota has one soft tyre after Kobayashi's off at Mulsanne earlier.
Expect plenty of quadruple-stints through the evening and into the night.
I wonder how much of Cadillac's struggles can be put down to a pure lack of race pace compared to qualifying, or whether it is purely conditions-dependent. It is cooler than previous days but the #38 is doing much better than the #12.
A short stint from Lynn. This hasn't been a great day for the pole-winning Caddy Jota squad. So far at least.
A switch between Ferraris? No! There's no team orders here despite complaints of a loose rear-end from Kubica in the #83. Giovinazzi is trying everything to take second.
The #43 Inter Europol remains at the head of the LMP2 class despite gearbox concerns made about an hour ago. That's a promising sign for the squad.
For all that we have said about the lack of pace for the Peugeot, the #5 Porsche has just made its way past the #94 for 14th. That's how damaging the drive-through penalty can be at Le Mans.
The #36 Alpine was hit by a drive-through earlier for pitlane speeding but a move from Gounon gets the squad ahead of the #9 Proton Porsche for 12th.
After just over four hours, here are the top three in each class:
Hypercar - #50, #83, #51
LMP2 - #43, #48, #9
LMGT3 - #21, #46, #92
Here comes Kubica again and this time it's a done deal into Indianapolis for the #83.
But it's a five-second penalty for the previous infraction for gaining an advantage off-track, which will be added to the next stop.
The #6 has been swamped by the #51, making it a Ferrari 1-2-3!
Brother Vanthoor, Dries, has completed his first stint in his BMW and has addressed one of the biggest challenges facing drivers over the next 20 hours - bugs:
"It's actually extremely bad. You don't see anything. Basically, you're going to the Porsche corners and you're just guessing where the corners are. Yeah, it's very bad. But it's the same for everyone, you know, everybody has the same issue.
It's annoying, very annoying. But I mean, I don't think anyone can do anything about it, so we have to just live with it."
Somehow, the trio didn't hit each other and the Porsche remains in front.
The next lap sees Kubica lunge up the inside into Mulsanne as they clear traffic and it looked like the #83 goes off-track to make the move after contact. Vanthoor gets back through before Indianapolis anyway. Fantastic racing!
Oh my goodness, Giovinazzi, you do realise there's 20 hours left, right?
The #6 and #83 do battle ahead of the #51 for net-second on the road and the Italian tries to make it three-wide on the run into Indianapolis. That's a crazy risk to take so early in the event and the team radio quickly calms him down.
As expected, the Algarve Pro #25 has been hit with a penalty for hitting the #16 on entry to the slow zone earlier.
Meanwhile, the #15 BMW is under investigation for an unsafe release earlier.
The #83 and #6 finally pit and should give the off-script #94 Peugeot the race lead temporarily. A FCY would be very handy now.
Great work from the PPM crew as the #6 gets out ahead of the #83!
I feel like the bringer of doom with all these issues since taking over. The #60 Iron Lynx Mercedes LMGT3 is moving slowly with an apparent issue in the second half of the lap, but Rueda stays well out of the way en route back to the garage.
It may not be the overall lead at the moment but Kubica takes the lead on the road as he flies past the #6 Porsche.
Vanthoor L then gets hampered by LMP2 traffic as the #83 scampers down the road. Ferrari is looking strong at this stage.
Jaminet just pitted for a driver swap and a new set of tyres, so a double-whammy for new driver Michael Christiensen.
A drive-through to take and a loss of time scrambling around on cold tyres takes the former overall-leading #5 out of the lead battle... for now!
A significant penalty for the #5 Porsche - a drive-through for Jaminet after a slow zone infraction.
The #24 Nielsen LMP2 entry has been given the same fate.
A 12-lap stint for the #50 and #51, the race leader already departing as the third-placed car has only just begun its service. The #15 BMW almost collided with the #7 Toyota on pit exit, though those positions have now swapped.
Potential trouble for the #83 Ferrari driven by Robert Kubica - the Pole is under investigation for gaining a lasting advantage off-track at the Michelin chicane.
He has dropped back a second or so through traffic as Giovinazzi hounds the #6 for second, only to duck into the pits at the end of lap 58.
By: Autosport staff
