Cadillac briefly seized the lead in the 24 Hours of Le Mans at roughly one-quarter distance when Jack Aitken, piloting the No. 38 Hertz Team JOTA entry, twice overtook the early leader, the No. 20 BMW.
Aitken first captured the advantage in the No. 38 Cadillac V-Series.R in the fourth hour as the field exited the second Mulsanne chicane, before Sheldon van der Linde’s BMW regained the top spot during the next pit cycle.
Yet Aitken delivered another bold move at the opening of the fifth hour, slipping ahead of van der Linde at the Ford Chicane before pulling clear of the No. 20 BMW M Hybrid V8.
When Sebastien Bourdais took the reins of the Cadillac, he extended the gap to just over 30 seconds by the end of the sixth hour, with Robin Frijns taking control of the BMW.
The BMW’s pursuit was complicated by two rapid stops at the start of the fourth hour after a brief full-course yellow was called to clear debris.
The No. 8 Toyota TR010 Hybrid continued to rotate into the lead from time to time, having opted to pit earlier than the rest of the field, and stood third with Ryo Hirakawa at the wheel as the clock reached six hours.
Fourth place belonged to the second Cadillac run by JOTA, the No. 12 entry, with Norman Nato aboard, while the No. 51 Ferrari 499P sat fifth despite clashing with LMP2 cars that hindered its progress.
Alessandro Pier Guidi clashed with the Proton Competition Oreca No. 9 driven by Jonas Ried at the Dunlop Chicane in the fourth hour, and the No. 51 driver received a drive-through penalty for causing the incident.
Towards the end of the sixth hour, Dries Vanthoor in the No. 15 BMW—having climbed to sixth—made contact with the No. 3 DKR Engineering car of John Farano at Maison Blanche, causing a puncture to Vanthoor’s car and forcing him to limp back to the pits, where it remained at the close of the sixth hour.
This turn of events lifted the No. 50 Ferrari, driven by Miguel Molina, to sixth, ahead of the No. 36 Alpine A424, which had climbed the order, while its sister No. 35 fell to ninth amid suspected tire-pressure issues.
Eighth place went to the No. 101 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac, while the top ten was completed by the No. 7 Toyota, which had been slowed by a late-pace puncture earlier in the race and had also adopted a strategy similar to the No. 8’s.
The Duqueine Team No. 30 Oreca 07 Gibson continued to lead the LMP2 class, with Julien Andlauer taking over from Doriane Pin at the wheel and maintaining a 24-second cushion over the No. 29 Forestier Racing by Panis entry, which Oliver Gray handed to Louis Rousset.
The No. 37 CLX Motorsport Oreca, run by a trio of teenagers, rose to third in the fifth hour, helped by pole-sitter No. 28 IDEC Sport’s Valerio Rinicella being handed a five-second penalty for cutting the Dunlop Chicane.
The two Inter Europol Competition cars had used aggressive fuel-saving to climb the order and could prove pivotal later in the race.
The No. 343 car, driven by Richard de Gerus, rose to fourth, while the No. 43, driven by Nick Yelloly who won last year, climbed to fifth.
A broader reshuffle among the LMGT3 contenders emerged as teams balanced strategies around when to deploy their FIA Bronze-graded drivers.
After Ayhancan Guven steered the No. 91 Manthey Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo into the lead near the end of hour three, the baton passed to James Cottingham, allowing the No. 87 Akkodis ASP Lexus RCF GT3, driven by Jose Maria Lopez, to assume the top position.
But in hour six Zacharie Robichon put the No. 27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin GT3 Evo into the lead until it pitted, after which Ian James took over the Canadian’s reins.
Consequently, the No. 78 Lexus, with Hadrien David aboard, held a one-minute advantage but was due for a pit stop at the quarter-distance.
The No. 27 Aston sat second while the sister Lexus, now with Petru Umbrarescu behind the wheel, stood third.
The LMGT3 top five at that stage was completed by the No. 91 Porsche and the No. 21 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo, which had surged up the order under Alessio Rovera.
The race’s first withdrawals occurred around the five-hour mark, as the Autosport Chevrolet Corvette Z07 GT3.R suffered damage to its transponder and scrutineering loom area after early contact, while the No. 61 Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo dropped out with left-rear suspension problems.
