After a long time under the Safety Car due to heavy rain, we set off again. The #6, after a great fight with the #8, takes the lead thanks to a Slow Zone.
At dawn at 8.15 am, finally, the race director announces that the 92nd 24 Hours of Le Mans is about to resume and, after all the necessary procedures, the race returns to life with the release of the three Safety Cars on track for over four hours.
The #6 Porsche of Laurens Vanthoor immediately chases the #8 Toyota, driven by Hirakawa, while they separate the two Ferraris, which have been in a bit of trouble.
Immediately a small twist for the other Toyota, the #7, which, while chasing the Ferrari #50, notices a technical problem, due to which its windows are completely fogged up, and it has to enter the box.
Immediately afterwards, the penalties for the various episodes that occurred before the long SC caused by the weather began to arrive: the Ferrari #51 was given a Drive Through, thus complicating an already very difficult race for the Italian team.
Meanwhile, Laurens Vanthoor with his Porsche 963 continues to follow Hirakawa’s Toyota #8, always keeping the gap between 1 second and 3 seconds.
At this point, with 7 and a half hours left to go, another twist happens, this time in the GT3: the Manthey Pure Racing #92, which was “dominating” the LMGT3 classification, suffers from problems with the gearbox, and is forced to return to the pits, thus losing 5 laps and leaving the leadership to its sister, the #91.
After half an hour, the track slowly begins to dry, leading many teams to try the compound change card, switching from WET to SLICK. The first to try is De Vries with the Toyota #7, who sacrifices himself for his teammate, taking a gamble with dry tyres.
Little by little, other cars also want to stop and put on slicks, and so the #8 also comes back in, but, surprisingly, the #6 stays out.
He remains out precisely because the third Porsche 963 brought by the official team, the #4 with Nasr at the wheel, hits the wall heavily at the Indianapolis curve, causing a Slow Zone. This allows the #6 to make the pit stop, overtaking and gaining almost 1 minute on the #8, a gap that is immediately reduced to 20 seconds due to another Slow Zone, caused by the retirement of the #81 Corvette, which the Vanthoor takes , while Hirakawa does not.
When there are about 6 and a half hours left to go, another twist occurs: the Aston Martin of the Heart of Racing team #27 also crashes and overturns at the Indianapolis curve, causing a Safety Car, which lasts until the end. of the 18th hour. The pilot involved, Daniel Mancinelli, is unharmed and fortunately is well.
Media: Porsche Pressroom
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