Rebellion Williams Esports leads the 24 Hours of Le Mans Virtual in one-two position with eight hours remaining, while the rival Team Redline car of F1 stars Max Verstappen and Lando Norris retired during the night hours.
The #20 Team Redline ORECA 07-Gibson, driven by the F1 pairing alongside Atze Kerkhof and Greger Huttu, suffered a number of crashes after midnight. First, Verstappen crashes out from what seemed like a technical glitch when he was chased down by the #1 Rebellion Williams ORECA 07-Gibson of Raffaele Marciello, which took the lead as a result.
Verstappen then crashed once again later in the same lap at the Porsche Curves and dropped down the order when it pitted for repairs. The team’s fate was then sealed when compatriot Atze Kerkhof had a crash of his own once he took the car over, and the team subsequently retired the car.
The #1 Rebellion Williams car of Marciello, Louis Deletraz and Nikodem Wisniewski and Kub Brzezinski now lead the race ahead of team-mates Agustin Canapino, Jack Aitken, Alex Arana and Michael Romanidis in the #13 Rebellion Williams entry. Third place is held by the #3 ByKolles Burst Esport car of Tom Dillmann, Esteban Guerrieri, Jernej Simoncic and Jesper Pedersen with the third Rebellion behind in fourth.
The #93 Porsche 911 RSR continues to dominate the GTE category, with Nick Tandy, Ayhancan Güven, Tommy Ostgaard and Josh Rodgers leading by a lap over the #80 R8G Corvette C7R of Daniel Juncadella, Mathias Beche, Erhan Jajovski and Risto Kappet, which has recovered from a crash in the first half of the race.
Porsche still holds third and fourth with the #92 and #91 cars respectively, but has had to retire the #94 car of Patrick Pilet, Simona de Silvestro, Martin Krönke and David Williams after an earlier crash.
The #95 Aston Martin Racing GTE of Nicki Thiim, Richard Westbrook, Lasse Sorensen and Manuel Biancolilla is the highest place Aston Martin in fifth, while the Wolverhampton Wanderers-sponsored #86 Gulf Racing Porsche 911 RSR lost significant time when the team had a server issue, but is now back up and running in 18th position in class.
