LM24 Hour 1: An early tactical tilt from Toyota

BMW M Team WRT led most of the first hour at Le Mans, but an early strategic call from Toyota Racing has put its No. 8 TR010 Hybrid in the lead, in front of the No. 20 BMW M Hybrid V8.

The race began on a warm, beautiful Saturday afternoon, in front of another capacity crowd at the legendary Circuit de la Sarthe. At 4:00pm, cycling legend Sir Mark Cavendish waved the French tricolor flag to signal the start of the race.

Kevin Magnussen in the No. 15 WRT BMW didn’t hold his pole position advantage for more than a few hundred yards as the No. 12 JOTA Cadillac of Will Stevens swarmed past from the outside of the front row, while Rene Rast in the No. 20 WRT BMW jumped from fourth to second, and then from second to first past Stevens around the outside of the first Mulsanne Chicane.

Rast opened up an eight-second lead over Stevens across the first stint, then both cars came in at the end of 13 laps for fuel. But when Rast exited the pits, Sébastien Buemi in the No. 8 Toyota drove past. With its cars mired in the Hypercar midfield, Toyota brought the No. 7 of Mike Conway in after just eight laps, then Buemi on the following lap.

It’s Buemi who leads and has extended the lead to seven seconds over Rast, after Buemi set the fastest lap of the race at 3m27.857s. Ferdinand Habsburg in the No. 35 Alpine Endurance Team A424 runs third, followed by the No. 38 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA V-Series.R of Earl Bamber, and the No. 7 Toyota of Conway in fifth.

Polesitter Magnussen, meanwhile, has been shuffled down to ninth after coming under fire for most of his first stint at the wheel.

LMP2 polesitter Job van Uitert leads the class in the No. 28 IDEC Sport ORECA 07-Gibson. Before the first round of pit stops, he had the No. 30 Duqueine Team car of Julien Andlauer keeping the pressure up.

But Andlauer has now dropped to third behind new second-place man Esteban Masson in the No. 29 Forestier Racing by Panis ORECA. Dane Cameron in the No. 99 AO by TF car runs fourth outright and first of the LMP2 Pro/Am entries.

Alex Quinn started the No. 4 CrowdStrike Racing by APR and ran third during his stint; George Kurtz has been plugged into the car now as the leading Bronze driver, who must complete six hours of compulsory driving.

In LMGT3, Jack Hawksworth leads the way in the No. 78 Akkodis ASP Team Lexus RC F GT3, ahead of the No. 27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin in second place.

Mattia Drudi led the opening stanza in the No. 27 Aston Martin, but now it’s Bronze driver Ian James who’s in the car. It’s a similar situation with the No. 87 ASP Lexus, now third after Petru Umbrǎrescu relieved starting driver Clemens Schmid.

Team WRT’s two BMWs run fourth and fifth, the No. 32 of Augusto Farfus ahead of the No. 69 of Dan Harper.

At the 42-minute mark, Martin Berry relieved co-driver Maxime Martin in the No. 61 Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG, but spun at Tertre Rouge on his out-lap. He returned to the pits with damage to the right-front bodywork, and suspected damage to the front splitter.

The No. 88 Proton Competition Mustang, meanwhile, was the first car to have any setback of note after it was given a black-and-orange flag for an issue with its rear bodywork.

HOUR 1 STANDINGS