LM24 Hour 4: Ferrari surge continues

Antonio Fuoco is pulling away at La Sarthe. The No. 50 Ferrari AF Corse driver now finds himself 18 seconds clear of the No. 6 Porsche of Laurens Vanthoor with four hours complete.

The gap has been slowly growing lap by lap since the Italian took the lead, but it’s significantly larger than it may have been had Vanthoor not been caught out by a slow zone.

The fighting action has been frantic between the three Ferraris, which have crept up the timing screens since the start, and the No. 6 Porsche, which is currently the only car flying the flag for Roger Penske in the top five.

Robert Kubica is third in the No. 83 499P and all over Vanthoor’s rear bumper, though his mirrors are full of the front end of Antonio Giovinazzi’s No. 50 car.

Further back, the No. 20 BMW is up to fifth with Robin Frijns now in. The Whelen Cadillac continues to lead the General Motors attack in sixth.

Elsewhere, the No. 5 Penske Porsche was handed a drive-through penalty for a slow zone infraction, which has dropped the car out of the top 10 and to 14th.

In LMP2, it’s as you were out front with Inter Europol’s Kuba Schmiechowski still holding a healthy lead over the No. 29 ORECA from TDS and the No. 48 07 from VDS Panis.

GT3 sees Vista AF Corse now leads with Alessio Rovera (pictured, top), who managed to get past the No. 46 WRT BMW and pull a gap of 14s. The No. 92 Porsche is third.

We now have a first retirement, following the first major incident of the race. Gianmarco Levorato ended up destroying the rear end of the No. 88 Proton Competition Ford Mustang at Tertre Rouge.

The Italian lost a wheel and the rear at turn-in, sending him spinning into the barriers and out of the race. There did not appear to be any contact from the car directly behind at first glance. Ford Performance confirmed to RACER that Levorato is out of the car, and we await further updates on his condition.

That incident created a slow zone, which led to further drama when the No. 25 Algarve Pro Racing ORECA ended up rear-ending the RLR M Sport ORECA going into the section of track affected by the yellow. The contact damaged the front end of the No. 25 and forced Matthias Kaiser in for a nose change before he was penalized for the incident.

HOUR 4 STANDINGS