After twelve hours of racing Audi still runs 1–2–3 in the Le Mans 24, despite yet another incident with the #3.
The #1 Audi Audi R18 e-tron quattro driven by Marcel Fässler has 40-second over the #2 e-tron of Tom Kristensen. This pair is two laps ahead of Marco Bonanomi in the #4 R18 Ultra.
The #3 Audi, which had already visited the tire wall early in the race had yet another off—with Romain Dumas at the wheel in both cases. This time Dumas tried to pass the #70 Larbre Corvette through the Ford Chicane, and he cut across the Corvette’s nose, spinning both cars deep into the gravel.
The #3 made it back to the pits, got fresh rubber and some adjustments, and carried on, now nine laps down.
The two Rebellion Racing Lola-Toyotas held fourth and fifth overall, the best of the privateers, by dint of reliability—every other P1 privateer had problems of some sort or another, while the rebellions ran faultlessly.
Tom Kimber-Smith kept the #44 Starworks HPD-Honda atop P2 and seventh overall, a lap ahead of the #49 Pecom Oreca, which was 32 seconds ahead of the #26 Signatech Nissan.
The #51 Ferraris continued to lead in GTE. Just as the twelve-hour mark passed, two serious rivals, the second-place #59 Luxury Racing Ferrari and the once-leading #74 Corvette Racing CR6 both got into trouble. The Luxury racing car spun off into the gravel and had to be towed, while the Corvette went back to the garage to get its driveshafts replaced.
The #70 Larbre Corvette led in GTE-Am by half a lap over the IMSA Matmut Porsche.
80th Le Mans 24 after Twelve Hours | |||||||
# | class | car | driver | team | laps | gap | |
1 | 1 | LM P1 | Audi R18 e-tron quattro | M. Fässler | Audi Sport Team Joest | 187 | |
2 | 2 | LM P1 | Audi R18 e-tron quattro | T. Kristensen | Audi Sport Team Joest | 187 | 41.515 |
3 | 4 | LM P1 | Audi R18 Ultra | M. Bonanomi | Audi Sport North America | 186 | 1 Lap |
4 | 12 | LM P1 | Lola B12/60-Toyota | N. Jani | Rebellion Racing | 182 | 5 Laps |
5 | 13 | LM P1 | Lola B12/60-Toyota | J. Bleekemolen | Rebellion Racing | 180 | 7 Laps |
6 | 3 | LM P1 | Audi R18 Ultra | R. Dumas | Audi Sport Team Joest | 178 | 9 Laps |
7 | 44 | LM P2 | HPD ARX 03b-Honda | T Kimber-Smith. | starworks motorsport | 175 | 12 Laps |
8 | 49 | LM P2 | Oreca 03-Nissan | L. Perez Companc | Pecom Racing | 174 | 13 Laps |
9 | 26 | LM P2 | Oreca 03-Nissan | R. Rusinov | Signatech Nissan | 174 | 32.475 |
10 | 46 | LM P2 | Oreca 03-Nissan | M. Beche | Thiriet by TDS Racing | 174 | 1:43.596 |
23 | 51 | LM GTE Pro | Ferrari 458 Italia | Fisichella G. | AF Corse | 166 | 21 Laps |
24 | 59 | LM GTE Pro | Ferrari 458 Italia | Farnbacher D. | Luxury Racing | 166 | 29.008 |
25 | 73 | LM GTE Pro | Chevrolet Corvette C6 ZR1 | Magnussen J. | Corvette Racing | 166 | 2:20.505 |
31 | 50 | LM GTE Am | Chevrolet Corvette C6 ZR1 | P. Lamy | Larbre Competition | 162 | 1:20.808 |
32 | 67 | LM GTE Am | Porsche 911 RSR (997) | R. Narac | IMSA Performance Matmut | 162 | 1:48.052 |
33 | 66 | LM GTE Pro | Ferrari 458 Italia | R. Wills | JMW Motorsport | 162 | 2:50.254 |
34 | 57 | LM GTE Am | Ferrari 458 Italia | M. Rugolo | Krohn Racing | 160 | 27 Laps |