Ferrari’s James Calado led Toyota’s Sebastien Buemi by 4s at the 12-hour mark, as the race enjoyed its most settled phase since the wild opening and jaw-dropping drama of the subsequent hours.
Calado took the lead during a pitstop cycle after he’d closed on Buemi, who took new tyres when the Ferrari was double-stinting. The #8 Toyota is also due a 5s penalty for a pitstop infringement.
The #2 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac V-Series.R holds third, about a minute behind, in the hands of Richard Westbrook, ahead of the #6 Porsche 963 of Andre Lotterer.
Earlier, Peugeot’s Nico Muller led the race to green in a restart just after the nine-hour mark in the #94 9X8, but Sebastien Bourdais muscled his way past him at the Dunlop Chicane to get back onto the lead lap in his #3 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac.
Toyota’s Ryo Hirakawa also passed Muller to take the race lead in the #8 GR010, ahead of the Ferraris of polewinner Antonio Fuoco and Alessandro Pier Guidi, who switched places after a surprisingly elbows-out battle between them.
Muller stayed out for multiple stints, leading again until being passed by Sebastien Buemi in the #8 just before 2:30am local time, and Calado also passed him for second in the #51 Ferrari.
The #94 Peugeot was about to be delayed by a 5s penalty for a pitstop infringement when Gustavo Menezes, who had just taken over from Muller, got onto the damp and gravel at the first Mulsanne Chicane and smacked the wall, wrecking the front-end. That led to a painfully slow return to the pits, losing eight laps and dropping it outside the top 10 overall.
Two other Hypercars suffered major delays during this phase of the race: the #5 Porsche pitted for repairs due to a water leak, and the #50 Ferrari went into the garage just before hour 11 with an energy recovery system fluid leak.
After an epic start to his stint, Bourdais ended with a whimper when an uncooperative LMP2 car shoved him into a spin at the Ford Chicane. That dropped the #3 car back to fifth, ahead of the #93 Peugeot.
Source: Autosport