LM24 Hour 3: Settling into strategies

With three hours complete in the 94th 24 Hours of Le Mans, all 62 starters are still running, with no major incidents or terminal mechanical problems – it’s been a very orderly start to the race, it has to be said.

Two Hypercars have traded the lead all day: The No. 8 Toyota Racing TR010 Hybrid and No. 20 Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 have each taken turns at the front and, after a pit stop 15 minutes ago, the No. 20 BMW now leads the race at the interval.

The last hour has seen the first pit stops for driver and tire changes in Hypercar, so now it’s Sheldon van der Linde behind the wheel of the No. 20 BMW, and Brendon Hartley in the No. 8 Toyota.

Jack Aitken has brought the No. 38 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA V-Series.R in from second place, so now van der Linde leads the No. 12 JOTA Cadillac of Louis Delétraz by about 10 seconds.

The No. 51 Ferrari AF Corse 499P (Alessandro Pier Guidi, in place of Antonio Giovinazzi) and No. 101 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac (Ricky Taylor) are currently battling for third. The No. 15 WRT BMW (Raffaele Marciello) is fifth, and now Hartley is sixth, poised to take the lead again when those ahead of him make their next stops.

The No. 50 Ferrari was delayed a bit after Antonio Fuoco and the No. 30 Duqueine Team ORECA LMP2 made side-by-side contact into Tertre Rouge, which sent Fuoco spinning off. He dropped a few places but recovered to sixth before his most recent stop.

Despite the contact it has not disrupted the rhythm of Le Mans rookie Richard Verschoor, who leads LMP2 in the No. 30 ORECA 07-Gibson with mostly Silver drivers behind him.

Louis Rousset (No. 29 Forestier Racing by Panis) recently overtook Paul Lafargue (No. 28 IDEC Sport) to take second in class, while the No. 343 Inter Europol Competition car (Bijoy Garg) runs fourth.

Over on the Pro/Am side of LMP2, PJ Hyett is doing his thing, leading the sub-group in the No. 99 AO by TF car, ahead of the No. 183 AF Corse (Ben Barnicoat) and No. 14 TDS Racing (Mathias Beche) cars.

And in LMGT3, the No. 78 Akkodis ASP Team Lexus (pictured, top) and No. 32 Team WRT BMW have recently pitted from first and second place.

On an offset pit strategy, the No. 91 Manthey DK Engineering Porsche 911 GT3 R, driven by Ayhancan Güven, leads from the No. 77 Proton Competition Ford (Eric Powell) and the No. 62 Team Qatar by Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG (Julian Hanses).

The 13 Autosport Corvette is the most recent car to be delayed due to an electronics fault, and it is currently in the garage for repairs. The No. 61 Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG recently spent 25 minutes in the garage undergoing repairs after earlier damage.