Toyota continues to lead the Le Mans 24 Hours at the end of the fourth hour, cementing its advantage over BMW and Cadillac in the Hypercar class.
After an undercut catapulted the #8 Toyota TR010 at the head of the pack in the opening hour, Sebastien Buemi quickly pulled away from the chasing pack, building an advantage of nearly half a minute through his triple stint.
Hartley took over the driving duties at the beginning of the third hour and carried on the work of his team-mate Buemi, with the gap continuing to hover around the 30s mark as the clock struck 8pm in France. However, the #8 Toyota remains on a different strategy to most of the Hypercar field.
Jack Aitken propelled Jota’s #38 Cadillac V.Series.R to second, passing the #20 BMW M Hybrid V8 of Sheldon van der Linde at the second Mulsanne chicane halfway through the fourth hour. However, the #20 BMW surged back ahead during the final pitstop before the hour.
The other Jota Cadillac driven by Louis Deletraz remains fourth, despite having briefly got ahead of the sister car in the second hour.
All three cars behind the leading Toyota were caught out by the timing of a virtual safety car at the beginning of the fourth hour. After coming in for emergency service, the trio were forced to bring their cars back to the pits for full service. The two Jota cars, along with the other Caddy entered by Wayne Taylor Racing, remain under investigation for the emergency stop.
Behind, Charles Milesi ran fifth in the #35 Alpine A424, while Antonio Fuoco remained fifth despite suffering a spin in the #50 Ferrari 499P.
Rafaelle Marciello held seventh in the #15 BMW ahead of Ricky Taylor in the #101 WTR Cadillac and Victor Martins in the #36 Alpine.
The #51 Ferrari dropped to 10th place after Alessandro Pier Guidi picked up a drive-through penalty for causing a collision with the #9 Proton LMP2 car of Jonas Reid. The #83 AF Corse Ferrari copped up a five-second penalty for an unsafe release in a tough start to Scuderia’s title defence.
In LMP2, Duqueine moved to the front when Richard Verschoor took over the driving duties in the third hour. As the designated gold-rated driver in the #30 Oreca 07, Verschoor extended his advantage at the front, before handing over the car with a comfortable advantage to Doriane Pin.
Bijoy Garg propelled the #343 InterEuropol car to second, with the Polish team able to go a lap longer on fuel than most of its rivals.
Meanwhile, Manthey snatched the LMGT3 lead from ASP as reigning DTM champion Ayhancan Guven stormed through the field on an offset strategy in the #91 Porsche 911 GT3 R.
Guven has built a significant lead over the #87 ASP Lexus RC F GT3 of Jose Maria Lopez, while Mattia Drudi propelled the polesitting #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 back to second place after the car dropped down the order in the hands of gentleman driver and team owner Ian James.
The #92 Porsche suffered an early setback, losing three laps due to a broken tie rod in the second hour.
Le Mans order after four hours
POS
NO
TEAM
CLASS
LAPS
GAP
INTERVAL
1
8
Toyota Racing
HYPERCAR
67
2
20
BMW M Team WRT
HYPERCAR
67
29.834
29.834
3
38
Cadillac Hertz Team Jota
HYPERCAR
67
33.19
3.356
4
12
Cadillac Hertz Team Jota
HYPERCAR
67
59.973
26.783
5
35
Alpine Endurance Team
HYPERCAR
67
1’25.863
25.89
6
50
Ferrari AF Corse
HYPERCAR
67
1’26.522
0.659
7
15
BMW M Team WRT
HYPERCAR
67
1’27.731
1.209
8
101
Cadillac WTR
HYPERCAR
67
1’28.399
0.668
9
36
Alpine Endurance Team
HYPERCAR
67
1’37.565
9.166
10
51
Ferrari AF Corse
HYPERCAR
67
1’50.681
13.116
11
7
Aston Martin Thor Team
HYPERCAR
67
1’57.962
7.281
12
7
Toyota Racing
HYPERCAR
67
1’59.156
1.194
13
83
AF Corse
HYPERCAR
67
2’02.924
3.768
14
17
Genesis Magma Racing
HYPERCAR
67
2’08.289
5.365
15
19
Genesis Magma Racing
HYPERCAR
67
2’11.580
3.291
16
9
Aston Martin Thor Team
HYPERCAR
67
2’41.538
29.958
17
94
Peugeot Totalenergies
HYPERCAR
67
3’13.214
31.676
18
93
Peugeot Totalenergies
HYPERCAR
66
1 Laps
1 Laps
19
30
Duqueine Team
LMP2
64
3 Laps
2 Laps
20
343
Inter Europol Competition
LMP2
63
4 Laps
1 Laps
21
29
Forestier Racing by Panis
LMP2
63
4 Laps
0.304
22
37
CLX Motorsport
LMP2
63
4 Laps
2.645
23
28
IDEC SPORT
LMP2
63
4 Laps
11.922
24
43
Inter Europol Competition
LMP2
63
4 Laps
11.679
25
26
Vector Sport
LMP2
63
4 Laps
23.822
26
24
Nielsen Racing
LMP2
63
4 Laps
11.351
27
9
Proton Competition
LMP2
63
4 Laps
19.68
28
22
United Autosports
LMP2
63
4 Laps
0.435
29
183
AF Corse
LMP2
63
4 Laps
2.062
30
99
AO by TF
LMP2
63
4 Laps
7.746
31
14
TDS Racing
LMP2
63
4 Laps
17.13
32
4
Crowdstrike Racing by APR
LMP2
63
4 Laps
28.064
33
25
Algarve Pro Racing
LMP2
62
5 Laps
1 Laps
34
44
Proton Competition
LMP2
62
5 Laps
27.422
35
48
RD Limited
LMP2
62
5 Laps
51.196
36
222
United Autosports
LMP2
62
5 Laps
52.401
37
91
Manthey DK Engineering
LMGT3
59
8 Laps
3 Laps
38
87
Akkodis ASP Team
LMGT3
59
8 Laps
4.595
39
27
Heart of Racing Team
LMGT3
59
8 Laps
12.953
40
21
Vista AF Corse
LMGT3
59
8 Laps
8.449
41
23
Heart of Racing Team
LMGT3
59
8 Laps
0.308
42
74
Kessel Racing
LMGT3
59
8 Laps
0.46
43
62
Team Qatar by Iron Lynx
LMGT3
59
8 Laps
4.008
44
78
Akkodis ASP Team
LMGT3
59
8 Laps
10.811
45
77
Proton Competition
LMGT3
59
8 Laps
11.963
46
69
Team WRT
LMGT3
59
8 Laps
23.751
47
150
Richard Mille AF Corse
LMGT3
59
8 Laps
3.948
48
32
Team WRT
LMGT3
59
8 Laps
11.744
49
34
Racing Team Turkey by TF
LMGT3
59
8 Laps
1.784
50
10
Garage 59
LMGT3
59
8 Laps
4.502
51
33
TF Sport
LMGT3
59
8 Laps
7.196
52
58
Garage 59
LMGT3
58
9 Laps
1 Laps
53
2
TF Sport
LMGT3
58
9 Laps
11.477
54
54
Vista AF Corse
LMGT3
58
9 Laps
0.179
55
59
Racing Spirit Of Leman
LMGT3
58
9 Laps
10.436
56
88
Proton Competition
LMGT3
58
9 Laps
31.786
57
79
Iron Lynx
LMGT3
58
9 Laps
11.397
58
57
Kessel Racing
LMGT3
58
9 Laps
33.015
59
92
The Bend Manthey
LMGT3
55
12 Laps
3 Laps
60
3
DKR Engineering
LMP2
55
12 Laps
32.364
61
61
Iron Lynx
LMGT3
51
16 Laps
4 Laps
62
13
13 Autosport
LMGT3
49
18 Laps
2 Laps
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