The front of the field has remained unchanged for the past several hours and likely will for the next several hours; Audi is firmly in control of the 80th running of the Le Mans 24, and there is no car on track which is likely to change that.
The #1 Audi Audi R18 e-tron quattro now with Benôit Treluyer at the wheel, still leads the field by about a lap; Tom Kristensen in the #2 e-tron is second by about the same margin.
Marco Bonanomi in the #4 R18 Ultra, the non-hybrid Audi, is third, a couple of laps ahead of the two Rebellion Lola-Toyotas, the best-placed privateers.
Romain Dumas in the remaining R18 Ultra is sixth, seven laps back, but lapping at the same speed as the other Audis.
The remaining Toyota Hybrid finally retired on lap 165 after 14 trips to the pits, mostly trying to repair damage done when the Kaz Nakajima hit the DeltaWing six-and-a-half hours into the race.
The #8 Toyota was destroyed in a crash after five hours; latest word is that driver Anthony Davis has two broken vertabrae, T11 and T12. He was able to get out of the car by himself, and didn’t lose consciousness; likely he will be out of the hospital in a few days and will be back behind the wheel in a few months.
Toyota did a marvelous job, working on a short budget and a tight schedule, and overcoming setbacks from a massive earthquake and tsunami to a wreck in testing which totaled the only chassis.
One needs to remember, this was the Toyota TS030 Hybrid’s first race. The testing accident prevented the team from racing at Spa as planned; this car debuted in the hardest sports car race in the world.
To last eleven-and-a-half hours, to actually lead the race (and to make the pass on track)—all these are more than most expected from Toyota in its debut. This team has impressed a lot of people—and probably has worried Audi more than a bit.
There has been plenty of drama aside from the battle between the factories. After twelve hours of racing
The #74 Corvette Racing CR6 was leading in GTE-Pro when it lost a wheel; on track, and had to drive three-quarters of a lap on three wheels. After repairs, the Corvette rejoined, but crashed heavily two minutes before the twelve hour-mark. The car was able to trundle back to the garage, but was 23 laps down and falling fast.
The #51 AF Corse Ferrari was likely to take the lead away anyway—the Ferrari is getting two or three more laps per tank of fuel, saving a pit stop or two over the course of the race.
The AF Corse Ferrari has a story of its own. This car was wrecked so badly in practice the team needed to bring in a totally new chassis and rebuild the car from scratch; the drivers had to get a special dispensation to qualify in the team’s #71 Ferrari.
The #51 Ferrari has a lap on the #59 Luxury Racing Ferrari, which is barely ahead of the other Corvette Racing car; Corvette could still defend their 2011 GTE-Pro win.
P2 saw tragedy, as the class-leading #24 Oak Racing Morgan Judd went Juddless—the car went to the garage after nine-and-a-half hours with some serious powerplant issues. The engine tech drew his finger across his throat, but the rest of the crew refused to quit—they pulled the whole motor to try to make some kind of repairs. The damage was too great, and the car retired at eleven hours.
This gave the lead to Ryan Dalziel in the Starworks HPD-Honda, two minutes ahead of Pierre Kaffer in the #49 Pecom Racing Oreca-Nissan. The #35 Oak Racing Morgan Judd lost a lot of time with alternator ailments.
The IMSA Matmut Porsche of Anthony Pons had a half-lap lead in GTE-Am ahead of Julien Canal in the #50 Larbre Corvette.
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