Already ten hours of the 88th Le Mans marathon are behind, and so far everything is going more or less predictably. Not that there were no surprises at all, but at least the weather has not yet intervened in the course of the race, although the French meteorologists frightened with showers, thunderstorms and other troubles, but these forecasts have not yet resulted in anything serious. Literally.
The rain was going to go several times, but everything was limited to individual drops, so everyone remains on slicks.
Toyota №7 continues to lead, now another change of Mike Conway, and the second sports prototype of the Japanese team, piloted by Sebastien Buemi, is still more than a circle behind – this is due to an unplanned stop in the pits to replace the front brakes.
Bruno Senna, the Rebellion racer, is in third position in two laps from the leader, while the second crew of the Swiss team is kept in the circle from him – car # 3 is driven by Nathanael Burton.
In the LMP2 class, the crew of United Autosports, the team of Zach Brown, is in the lead, behind the wheel of this sport prototype is the Dutchman Job van Uytert, who played for G-Drive Racing last year.
But the Russian team started having problems at the tenth hour of the race. Before that, everything was going well, and the crew of Roman Rusinov periodically reached the second position in the class, but it was during his shift that the car suddenly stopped on the track. And this happened immediately after the next pit stop. The headlights and other lights went out, but then turned on again, and Roman was able to continue driving and get to the boxes.
Oddly enough, they did not expect him there, and Rusinov had to return to the track, drive an extra lap and only then turn back into the pit lane, which, of course, led to very large losses of time.
This time the mechanics of the Russian team eliminated the problem very quickly, and Rusinov returned to the track, but only in 7th position in the class, having rolled out of the top ten in the absolute.
But this is still not so serious in comparison with the departure of the ByKolles team, from the beginning of the race held on to the fifth position in the LMP1 category. At high speed, when Canadian Bruno Spengler was driving, the rear fender broke in the car and it flew off the track, crashing into a tire barrier. The rider was not injured and even tried to get to the boxes on the damaged sports prototype, but again got stuck on the sidelines. Because of the stopped car, a safety car left for the second time since the start of the race.
Around the same time, two LMP2s collided in front of the first Mulsanne chicane – # 30, driven by Duqueine Team driver Tristan Gommandi, and # 22, a second United Autosports car with Filipe Albuquerque at the wheel. It all ended with the departure of the first, while Albuquerque continued to move, and the incident did not affect his second position in the class.
Separately, it should be noted that the female crew of the Richard Mille Racing Team consisting of Tatiana Calderon, Sofia Flörsch and Beitske Visser rides 12th in the absolute and 7th in the LMP2 class. Judging by the timing, the girls drive circles a little slower than their closest rivals, so their position may still change, but so far everything is going well for them.
In the GTEPro class, the leader has once again changed: now the AF Corse Ferrari with Daniel Serra at the wheel is ahead of the Ferrari, while the best of the Aston Martin crews is about a minute behind.
But in the GTEAm class, it is Aston Martin cars that dominate, and Porsche and Ferrari keep in the shadows – however, there is still more than half of the race ahead, and it may still change.
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