Toyota’s Kamui Kobayashi continues to lead the Le Mans 24 Hours at the halfway point, with the #7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid driver 26 seconds plus a pitstop to the good over Sébastien Buemi in the sister #8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid.
Andre Negrão in the #36 Alpine A480 has cemented third overall over the #708 Glickenhaus 007 of Franck Mailleux, who is now over a minute back from the Brazilian.
In LMP2, Team WRT remain in 1-2 formation, with #31 Team WRT ORECA 07-Gibson of Charles Milesi five and half seconds ahead of Yifei Ye in the #41 Team WRT ORECA 07-Gibson. Ye, the 21-year-old from China, previously set the race’s fastest LMP2 lap, before being beaten by Felipe Nasr in the #82 Risi Competizione ORECA 07-Gibson, with a 3:32.309. Fabio Scherer sits third in the #22 United Autosports ORECA 07-Gibson.
The race has been punctuated by yellow flags, slow zones and safety cars, but has run green for much of this hour. The most recent retirement is the #79 WeatherTech Racing Porsche of Cooper MacNeil, Laurens Vanthoor and Earl Bamber, with MacNeil crashing heavily at the Ford Chicanes, subsequently damaging the car’s chassis beyond repair.
In the GTE-Pro category, Ferrari also had a 1-2 until seconds to go, with Alessandro Pier Guidi in #51 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo leading #52 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo’s Sam Bird by just under two minutes. However, #63 Corvette C8.R, with Nicky Catsburg behind the wheel, took second off Bird moments ago, putting Catsburg behind Pier Guidi and Bird into third.
In GTE-Am, an AF Corse Ferrari also leads. #83 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo of Nicklas Nielsen has just over 65 seconds on #33 TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage’s Felipe Fraga, who recently climbed into the third. Third in class is Rino Mastronardi in the #80 Iron Lynx Ferrari 488 GTE Evo.
