As the race wore on, Sheldon van der Linde held the lead of the 24 Hours of Le Mans heading into the final stretch, in what had been shaping into a three-way duel, triggered by a heavy penalty for the then-leading No. 12 Hertz Team JOTA Cadillac V-Series.R and a lengthy stop for the No. 8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid driven by Ryo Hirakawa.
First, Louis Deletraz was forced to serve a drive-through for speeding in a Slow Zone in the 17th hour, which initially dropped the Swiss driver to third after holding a 13-second lead at the time.
The No. 8 Toyota of Brendon Hartley then took over the lead, although a fuel-only pit stop for Deletraz put him back ahead of Hartley, despite having to take emergency service for a splash of energy while under a Full Course Yellow.
The positions, however, swapped back again with six hours and 20 minutes to go, and brought Hartley back into second, and having slowly closed the gap to the No. 20 Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 before pitting to Hirakawa, when the team spent nearly an extra minute, servicing the left-front brakes.
It dropped the No. 8 Toyota behind the sister No. 7 entry of Kamui Kobayashi, while Nos. 51 and 83 AF Corse Ferrari 499ps sandwiched the No. 35 Alpine A424 of Ferdinand Habsburg in fifth through seventh, respectively.
Wayne Taylor Racing’s Cadillac plummeted to eighth after Filipe Albuquerque had three drive-through penalties during his stint for FCY and Slow Zone speeding infractions, adding to the one Ricky Taylor had earlier in the morning.
Two Hypercar entries are now officially retired, with the No. 38 JOTA Cadillac crew having thrown in the towel after being unable to fix its power steering issues.
The No. 17 Genesis GMR-001 was also abandoned after Mathys Jaubert stopped on track with right-front suspension failure, after running in 11th.
Trouble hit the No. 15 BMW, again with Dries Vanthoor at the wheel, when the Belgian encountered electrical issues, which forced the car to the garage again after an initial six-lap delay earlier in the running.
LMP2 was led by the No. 30 Duqueine Team Oreca 07 Gibson of Doriane Pin, ahead of the two Inter Europol Competition entries of Nico Mueller and Tom Dillmann.
The No. 33 TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Jonny Edgar remained out front in LMGT3, with Mattia Drudi’s class pole-sitting No. 27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo second and the Hadrien David-driven No. 78 Akkodis-ASP Lexus RC F GT3 in third.
Among the latest retirements included the No. 77 Proton Competition Ford Mustang GT3 EVO due to a gearbox leak according to Seb Priaulx.
