LM24 Hour 6: WRT BMW, Ferrari AF Corse extend leads

There are 18 hours left in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and through the first quarter of the 93rd edition, the No. 50 Ferrari AF Corse 499P leads overall and has completed 99 laps. Miguel Molina leads a Ferrari 1-2-3 at the front by about three seconds over the No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari of Ye Yifei.

Ye just inherited the position from the No. 51 factory Ferrari of Alessandro Pier Guidi that came in for a pit stop right at the top of the hour. The No. 83 and No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 are a bit further into their stints, and Porsche's Matt Campbell is now third on the road ahead of Pier Guidi.

But make no mistake, this race is currently in a Ferrari stronghold up front.

The No. 20 Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 of Sheldon van der Linde rounds out the top five, ahead of the No. 8 Toyota GR010 HYBRID of Ryo Hirakawa, the No. 12 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA V-Series.R of Norman Nato, and the No. 4 Peugeot TotalEnergies 9X8 of Loic Duval – which is still doing its long-run strategy – in eighth.

More Le Mans/WEC

Garage 59 stars while WRT shows championship potential on WEC opening weekend

Toyota’s century: Taking stock of another Hypercar milestone at Imola

Toyota upstages Ferrari to take Imola 6 Hours win

The complexion of LMP2 changed after the No. 43 Inter Europol Competition ORECA 07-Gibson missed its pit box during a pit stop in the hour before last, resulting in a two-minute, 20-second stop that has put them off-sequence.

Right now, it's the No. 48 VDS Panis Racing ORECA that leads LMP2 with Oliver Gray aboard, and 92 laps completed. The No. 199 AO by TF 'Spike' ORECA runs second of all LMP2 cars and leads the LMP2 Pro/Am sub-class, after their star man Louis Deletraz overtook the No. 9 Iron Lynx-Proton car of Reshad de Gerus for position.

Nick Yelloly is now fourth in the No. 43 Inter Europol machine, followed by the two IDEC Sport cars – No. 28 ahead of No. 18 – and the No. 29 TDS Racing ORECA is currently second in the Pro/Am ranks.

Kelvin van der Linde has relieved star teammate Valentino Rossi after a recent pit stop, and after six hours, the No. 46 Team WRT BMW M4 LMGT3 EVO (pictured above) leads LMGT3, with 86 laps complete and a growing gap to the No. 92 Manthey 1st Phorm Porsche 911 LMGT3 R.

Ryan Hardwick, the Bronze driver in the No. 92, has recently relieved Riccardo Pera, who was rapid during his recent stint. He has Finn Gehrsitz in the No. 78 Akkodis ASP Lexus behind him in third, then the No. 21 Vista AF Corse Ferrari and the No. 87 ASP Lexus rounding out the top five.

60 of the 62 starters are still running: The No. 88 Proton Competition Ford Mustang is the only retirement of the race after Giammarco Levorato's crash at Tertre Rouge. The No. 60 Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG has been in the garage for an engine problem and has only just emerged from its repair work.

There was a brief full course yellow after the No. 95 United Autosports McLaren LMGT3 EVO stopped along the Mulsanne Straight. Darren Leung was able to find an outlet to pull the car safely off the course, and the track went full green again in just a couple minutes.

Remarkably, 16 of the 21 cars in the Hypercar class are still on the lead lap at this stage.

Despite its retro good looks, the No. 7 Toyota GR010 hasn't had a good race – and it got worse half an hour ago when the car had to serve a 50 second stop/go penalty for pit lane speeding.

Night-time driving has officially begun at Le Mans, and to some, the race has only truly begun from here.