With 18 hours completed the #7 Toyota Gazoo Racing GR010 of Kamui Kobayashi is leading having completed 274 laps, nearly one lap ahead of the #8 Toyota of Sebastien Buemi. Buemi slowed and stopped at the side of the track. The Swiss driver did a reset on the #8 GR010 at the top of the hour and was soon back up to speed.
The #36 Alpine Elf Matmut A480 of Andre Negrao is running third, four laps behind the Toyotas with the #708 Glickenhaus 007 LMH of Franck Mailleux in 4th, 38 seconds behind the Alpine.
The #51 AF Corse Ferrari is leading the LMGTE Pro class with Come Ledogar 70 seconds ahead of the #61 Corvette Racing C8.R of Jordan Taylor. The #52 Ferrari had dropped back overnight with suspension failure and at the top of the 18thhour a puncture saw Sam Bird limping back to the pits with extensive front right bodywork damage from the flailing delaminated tyre.
Team WRT are running 1-2 in LMP2 with the #31 Oreca of Charles Milesi leading by 2m13s ahead of the #41 Oreca of Yifei Ye. The #83 AF Corse Ferrari of reigning class champion Nicklas Nielsen is leading in LMGTE Am, 42 seconds ahead of the #33 TF Sport Aston Martin of Dylan Pereira.
HYPERCAR
Toyota Gazoo Racing continues to lead the 24 Hours of Le Mans as # 7 and #8 GR010 Hybrid Hypercars remain first and second respectively
#7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid now with Kamui Kobayashi at the wheel carves out over four-minute lead following various issues for sister No. 8 car
# 8 car – currently driven by Sebastien Buemi – reported vibrations in the car followed by refuelling issues meaning drivers aren’t able to carry out full stints before needing to pit
Team reported issue is getting worse with Toyota currently working hard to fix the issue ahead of race’s closing six hours
Alpine Elf Matmut remain third overall with Andre Negrao now at the wheel, the French squad regularly swapping positions following pit stops with the #708 Glickenhaus entry
Sister # 709 Glickenhaus 007 Hypercar steadily making progress up the overall leaderboard and is now up to eighth overall, but still remains over two laps down on sister car
LMGTE PRO
AF Corse Ferrari still on top in LMGTE Pro, with # 51 car now around 20 seconds ahead of # 63 Corvette Racing entry still with Jordan Taylor at the wheel
Porsche GT Team #92 and # 91 911 RSR – 19s third and fourth in class respectively
Trouble for # 52 AF Corse Ferrari after a front-right puncture and bodywork damage with Sam Bird driving at the time. Car immediately goes to the pits for length repairs where it still remains
LMP2
Belgian squad Team WRT continue to dominate LMP2 category, with # 31 Oreca 07 Gibson currently 40 seconds ahead of sister car
Category leading # 31 car sees Robin Frijns hands car over to Charles Milesi in 17th hour, with Frenchman putting in solid lap times to extend lead over sister car
The battle for third position has been raging between hours 12 and 18 with JOTA and WRT regularly swapping positions for the final podium position
# 28 JOTA driven by Sean Geleal currently third ahead of # 65 Panis Racing entry and James Allen
Trouble-free few hours for Inter Europol Competition who currently occupy P5, one spot ahead of the # 23 United Autosports car which is sixth in class
Heartache for # 22 United Autosports USA after car is brought in with alternator issue and lengthy pit stop then leads to team replacing battery. Car drops down the order with # 22 now back of the class
#25 G-Drive Racing officially retired following impact at Dunlop Chicane in the early hours. It marks the third retirement in the category so far including Richard Mille Racing Team and the #32 United Autosports USA entry
LMGTE AM
#83 AF Corse still on top in LMGTE Am now with young gun Nicklas Nielsen at the wheel
TF Sport Aston Martin takes advantage of a drive-through-penalty given to category leading #83 car but British team are still over two minutes behind the leading Ferrari
#80 Iron Lynx Ferrari 488 GTE Evo hold third in class, with Rino Mastronardi now back in the car
# 88 Dempsey Proton Racing Porsche 911 RSR - 19 pits with puncture and damage, dropping the team to 12th in class
