The battle between Ferrari and Toyota rages on as the 100th anniversary edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans enters its final quarter.
At 10:00 local time, with six hours to go, the #51 Ferrari 499P had the edge on the #8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid in a duel that ebbed and flowed through the night and beyond dawn.
CLICK HERE for earlier report, at the completion of Hour 12
Sébastien Buemi moved the Toyota back to the front early in the 13th hour before handing over to Brendon Hartley, with James Calado making way for ex-Alfa Romeo Formula 1 racer Antonio Giovinazzi.
On identical stint lengths and pitting on the same laps, the gap extended and contracted over the next couple of hours as it began to get light, with no sign of the rain showers that had added jeopardy on occasion in the night.
In the 15th hour, Hartley remained in the Toyota as Giovinazzi handed over to Alessandro Pier Guidi, the Ferrari’s longer stop allowing its rival some breathing space.
But at the next round of stops, Ryo Hirakawa headed back into the fray in place of the excellent Hartley, which brought the two cars closer together once more.
Pier Guidi was on a mission and closed the gap to less than a second when they pitted for a 19th time in the 16th hour.
It emerged that Hirakawa had been struggling with a slow puncture and the Toyota also required a nose change, which allowed the Ferrari to take the lead back in the pits as Calado took over from Pier Guidi.
The Ferrari’s advantage grew during Calado’s stint as he handed Giovinazzi a half-minute advantage at the end of the 17th hour.
“We’ve done an amazing job up to now,” said the British driver, who dealt with a tyre vibration.
“It’s tough with Toyota. They’ve been on our backs and we’ve been on theirs for the past 10 hours.”
In the 18th hour, Buemi lost further time to the Ferrari under a Full Course Yellow called to clear up the circuit, particularly at the gravel-strewn Mulsanne Corner.
At the top of the hour with six to go, Giovinazzi’s lead was out to a couple of tenths shy of a minute.
Behind the top two, the blue #2 Cadillac consolidated its third place. Richard Westbrook was 3:10s off the lead as the clock ticked into the 19th hour.
The yellow #3 Cadillac moved up to fourth at the expense of the #6 Porsche 963, which suffered a further setback in the 16th hour when Kevin Estre skated off at the Porsche Curves while trying to lap an LMP2 car.
Once he’d made it back to the pits, the Penske team wheeled the 963 into the garage for repairs, in a moment that effectively extinguished Porsche’s last (and admittedly distant) hope of challenging for a record-extending 20th Le Mans win.
The car is currently classified in 20th overall, one place ahead of the customer Jota 963.
The #93 Peugeot, in recovery mode since sliding off at Mulsanne Corner in the fourth hour, was back up into fifth.
The American-owned Glickenhaus 007s haven’t been a factor in the battles for the podium, never mind the lead, but the high attrition and solid runs pushed them up the order through the night.
The #708 entry initially led its sister, but damage from a moment at Arnage for Olivier Pla led to a garage visit.
Frank Mailleux then spun at the same place in the #709 car in the 18th hour, picking up nose damage.
The upshot following hasty repairs is that the #708 is back ahead, the two cars running in eighth and ninth behind the sixth placed #5 Porsche – now the German marque’s only hope for a top result – and the seventh placed #50 Ferrari.
The battle for secondary prototype class honours also remains in the balance. In the 15th hour, Fabio Scherer in the Inter Europol Competition ORECA tracked down WRT’s Robert Kubica and moved back into the class lead. That’s despite Sherer suffering with what might be a broken left foot after the GTE pole position Corvette ran over it before the race!
In GTE, out of sequence pitstops is changing the order. The all-female Iron Dames Porsche is in the mix for victory, but as the hour turned the ORT by TF Aston Martin Vantage was on top of the class.
Meanwhile, the ‘Garage 56’ NASCAR Chevrolet has made further progress in the past six hours. The car is up to 24th overall, running ahead of the GTE Am field, which is where it qualified. Mike Rockenfeller was the wheel as the crews plunged into the final quarter.
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