The 90th running of the Le Mans 24 Hours is underway with one hour of racing completed in front of large crowds and perfect warm and sunny conditions.
Toyota run 1-2 but the No.7 car driven by Mike Conway overtakes No.8 car of Sebastien Buemi after 45-minutes of racing.
Corvette Racing similarly run in formation at front of the LMGTE Pro category as Porsche and Ferrari give chase.
LMP2 sees the most drama with a first corner incident compromising two front runners – the No.31 WRT and No.22 United Autosports USA entries.
Hardpoint Motorsport lead LMGTE Am from Team Project 1 Porsche.
The Headlines from the 90th 24 Hours of Le Mans After 1 Hour….
Hypercar
- Sebastien Buemi leads the field and the early running in the No.8 Toyota GR0101 Hybrid Hypercar
- But Buemi is caught by No.7 car driven by Mike Conway after the three time champion has a big wobble at Porsche Curves
- Conway makes a move after first scheduled stops to head Toyota 1-2 and holds a 3.1s lead after an hour
- Third and fourth position is the two Glickenhaus Racing entries with No.708 driven by Olivier Pla heading Franck Mailleux piloted No.709 car
- Alpine ELF Team place fifth with Nicolas Lapierre driving through first two stints
LMGTE Pro
- Corvette Racing lead the LMGTE Pro class with Hyperpole winner Nick Tandy holding off the sister No.63 car driven by Antonio Garcia by 1.3s
- But Corvette elects to double stint their Michelin tyres whereas Porsche take fresh rubber for second hour
- Porsche race third and fourth as the No.92 911 RSR-19 of Kevin Estre heads sister car of Gimmi Bruni
- AF Corse place fifth and sixth with No.52 heading No.51 by six seconds, Alessandro Pier Guidi and Antonio Fuoco at the wheel respectively
- Riley Motorsports place seventh as Felipe Fraga undertakes a double stint at wheel of US entered Ferrari 488 GTE Evo
LMP2
- JOTA leads LMP2 as No.38 entry driven by Antonio Felix da Costa makes way to front after first scheduled pit stop
- That is at the expense of the No.9 Prema Orlen Team Oreca-Gibson driven by Robert Kubica who surged through to lead after dramatic first corner
- This saw pole-sitting WRT car driven by Rene Rast in contact with No.22 United Autosports USA entry
- Rast handed 60-second penalty for the incident and sees the No.31 car drop down order to 21st in LMP2 and out of contention
- Team Penske place third as Felipe Nasr has clean start to race in USA entered car
- No.22 United Autosports USA starts race in dramatic circumstances as Will Owen is forced off the track even before the first corner and loses two laps as repairs are made
- No.23 United Autosports USA car also hits trouble with a tyre delamination and unscheduled pit stop after 40-minutes of race completed
- Other LMP2 cars in trouble early on are No.47 Algarve Pro Racing car and No.41 Realteam by WRT entry as they spend time in pits
LMGTE Am
- Harry Tincknell snatches lead at start in the No.77 Dempsey Proton Porsche from pole sitting AF Corse Ferrari of Vincent Abril
- Tincknell though is unable to hold off Matteo Cairoli in flying Team Project 1 Porsche and the Italian makes a move at second Mulsanne chicane
- Tincknell drops back further to fifth as No.86 GR Racing Porsche, Hardpoint Motorsport car
- Hardpoint take up the lead of the class after the first scheduled pit stop with Alessio Picariello driving
- Belgian leads Cairoli, from No.79 Weathertech Porsche of Julien Andlauer and the recovering Tincknell
Click HERE for all results
