LM24 Hour 4: Shakeups throughout the field

With four hours run in the 2026 Le Mans 24 Hours, it’s the No. 8 Toyota Racing TR010 that leads the way with Brendon Hartley at the wheel. The No.20 WRT BMW of Sheldon van der Linde, having led most of the hour, is now 30 seconds back in second after its most recent stop, off-sequence with the leader.

Plenty happened in the hour to impact the top order in Hypercar. The biggest moment was an FCY called just as the No. 20 BMW, No. 12 JOTA Cadillac, and No. 101 WTR Cadillac were due to come in for a regular stop. This meant all three had to take an emergency service splash of fuel and then pit the next lap again. The net effect is that all three are now off kilter and have lost time.

The two JOTA Cadillacs are third and fourth, with Jack Aitken in the No. 38 ahead of Louis Deletraz in the No. 12. They are both within a minute of the lead.

Elsewhere in the class, there was drama for the No. 51 Ferrari. Alessandro Pier Guidi got caught up in a tangle with the No. 9 Proton ORECA of Jonas Ried at the Forest Esses. The Italian, having dived up the inside, lost grip and collided with the side of Ried, sending both off track and the Ferrari into a bollard.

Remarkably, the damage wasn’t bad for either car, but the 2023-winning car, the No. 51, was handed a drive-through that dropped it from sixth to 10th. Pier Guidi wasn’t in agreement with the stewards’ decision – to put it mildly – after a heated radio exchange with the pit wall after the incident.

The No. 50 sister Ferrari is sixth behind the No. 35 Alpine. The only other moment of note was an unsafe release for the No. 83 Ferrari. The reigning winners will have five seconds added to their next stop, adding to the pain of the start of the race, which has seen them struggle to feature. Yifei Ye is now aboard and 13th.

In LMP2, it’s the Duqueine ORECA of Doriane Pin (main image) out front. The Frenchwoman is enjoying a great stint, running 29s up the road from Forestier Racing by Panis’ Oliver Gray. Gray is in chase mode, having hunted down Adrien Closmenil at the end of the hour and passing the CLX ORECA for third. 

There was bad news from the DKR pits during the hour. Sebastien Alvarez suffered a broken left front suspension, which forced the No. 3 ORECA into the garage for repairs after he limped back to the pits. The car is now back out, but lost 28 minutes in the garage and has dropped nine laps off the LMP2 lead.

In LMGT3, it’s the No. 91 Manthey Porsche out front with Ayancan Guven maintaining a 5s lead over the No. 87 AKKODIS ASP Lexus of Jose Maria Lopez. The No. 21 Ferrari is third, with Alessio Rovera installed, as temperatures cool and the sunset gradually approaches.

At Corvette, the 13 Autosport team has suffered a crushing blow. The car is dead last after a 29-minute stint in the garage for a technical issue concerning the torque sensor following contact with a Mercedes-AMG. The best of the Z06 GT3.Rs is now eighth, the No. 33, following Ben Keating’s first stint.

The Texan is putting in an iron-man effort in his first race back after recovering from a shattered elbow sustained in a bike crash nine weeks ago.

"It was good for the most part,” he said. “On that last stint, I lost it once at Tertre Rouge, and it really scared me. When you're driving the car, you have no idea what's going on in the race around you. I feel like I was driving the car very hard, but I did not feel I was very fast. It's hard. Yes, I passed some people, and I got passed by others. I have no idea where we are! I'm just trying to do the best job I can.

"I've been here enough that it's OK. The good news is that my elbow doesn't hurt nearly like did Wednesday. So that's a good thing. I wasn't 100 per cent sure I would be able to do five stints to start the race. But I feel pretty good."

HOUR 4 STANDINGS