The 92nd 24 Hours of Le Mans it started yesterday, Saturday 15 June, at 4.00pm and from that moment the race often changed face due to the rain, which intensified from 3.30am resulting in a full four hours of Safety Car. On the night of La Sarthe the battle for the leadership of the class Hypercarsthe queen category, saw Toyota Gazoo Racing and Porsche Penske as protagonists, the former with crew number 8 of Sebastien Buemi/Brendon Hartley/Ryo Hirakawa and the second with the formation of André Lotterer/Kevin Estre/Laurens Vanthoor, started from Pole Position.
Toyota and Porsche on the run
With the two prototypes on the run, third place became particularly coveted and the one competing for it was Toyota number 7 (José Maria Lopez/Kamui Kobayashi/Nyck de Vries), the Cadillac #2 (Earl Bamber/Alex Lynn/Alex Palou) and the two official Ferrari 499Ps, slowed down by a Slow Zone and therefore almost a lap behind. The Ferrari AF Corse #83, a private car with support from Maranello, also entered the protagonists thanks to a splendid conduct by the trio Robert Kubica/Yifei Ye/Robert Shwartzmanhowever a heavy contact with the BMW WRT #15 of Dries Vanthoor before Mulsanne it converted into a thirty second Stop&Go.
The rain puts everyone back in the game, Ferrari first and foremost
However, when the race seemed to be taking a more precise direction, the rain returned to Le Mans and this time much heavier. A good four hours behind the Safety Car in the hope that after dawn the weather could improve and, after a long wait, in the end the Race Direction gave the green light with just under eight hours to go. The #6 Toyota and #9 Porsche restarted ahead of the #50 Ferrari (Antonio Fuoco/Miguel Molina/Nicklas Nielsen), but as soon as the green flag was waved, eleven Hypercars were back fighting for the overall victory
BMW number 46 ko: race over for Valentino Rossi
Remaining in Italy, the first adventure of Valentino RossLe Mans didn’t end in the best way. The nine-time MotoGP champion said goodbye to the race just before one o’clock, when his partner Ahmad Al Harthy he was betrayed by the slick tires on wet asphalt. The impact in the Dunlop bridge area was fatal for the BMW M4 GT3 #46 e the team was forced to raise the white flag. A real shame because after difficult qualifying the team had managed to climb back up to first place, maintained by a decidedly solid Rossi once he got into the car. The Porsche Manthey PureRxcing squadron took advantage of thisnow leading the 24 Hours of Le Mans ahead of Manthey’s sister car EMA and the #95 United Autosports McLaren.
LMP2, AF Corse in the lead
Opening a parenthesis in LMP2, we point out the first position of AF Corseregistered in the Pro/Am category, followed byOreca #22 by United Autosports and from Vector Sports. In the middle class there are still six cars in full battle for success, so at Le Mans any scenario could materialize, hoping that the weather leaves the field open for the drivers.
