Le Mans 24h, H3: Ferrari leads as shower disrupts Hypercar battle

The World Endurance Championship race has been shaped by a sudden shower at 5:38pm, before which the Nicklas Nielsen's #50 Ferrari led Laurens Vanthoor's #6 Porsche, Antonio Giovinazzi's #51 Ferrari and Sebastien Buemi's #8 Toyota.

The Italian and the Swiss had previously overtaken Sebastien Bourdais' Cadillac, respectively round the outside at Mulsanne and on the Mulsanne straight.

Although the track wasn't soaked, the shower was substantial enough to result in a noticeable loss of grip, with the #8 Toyota, both Alpines and the #3 Cadillac pitting for wet-weather tyres straight away.

It initially seemed like this strategy might work out as they were several seconds a lap faster than their rivals, and most of the Hypercar class emulated them in the following two laps.

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However, the #83 and #50 Ferraris, #12 and #5 Porsche, #19 and #63 Lamborghinis opted to brave those tricky track conditions on slick tyres.

This gamble proved to be the right one as the other cars grudgingly came back in to put slick tyres back on – this was their fourth pitstops when the lead cars were on two.

The only exception was the #20 BMW, which the WRT team decided to keep on track with grooved tyres until its next stop – before Robin Frijns lost control after bouncing off a kerb at the Ford chicane and crashed the car at 6:23pm. The right-rear corner was damaged, and Frijns had to go around the lap at snail's pace, taking no less than eight minutes to get back to the pitlane.

Crash for the #20 BMW, Robin Frijns at the wheel. #LeMans24 #WEC pic.twitter.com/RObGr1oLXl

— 24 Hours of Le Mans (@24hoursoflemans) June 15, 2024

Meanwhile, two Ferraris were battling it out for the outright lead, with Robert Kubica making a mistake at Mulsanne in the #83 car and resisting an assault from Nielsen, with the #50 499P having served a ten-second penalty for an unsafe release with the #3 Cadillac earlier. Nielsen found a way past shortly after, taking first position at 5:59pm.

However, the pecking order evolved further as lead cars pitted during a slow zone, with the #50 losing tens of seconds to the #83 and the #5 Porsche as well.

Robert Shwartzman took the lead at the wheel of the #83 Ferrari, gradually increasing what initially was a meagre gap to Michael Christensen's #5 Porsche to more than 25 seconds.

On the other hand, Antonio Fuoco has been the faster of the three and brought the gap down to 35 seconds with the lead car in the #50 Ferrari, setting the fastest lap so far in the process – 3m29.208, more than 1.4s quicker than anyone else. He subsequently pitted after the third hour, as did the #5 Porsche.

This temporarily elevated the #8 Toyota to second place and the #51 Ferrari to fourth, with Sebastien Buemi's car the first of those which pitted for wet-weather tyres, thanks to a remarkable three-hour stint.

Further in Hypercar, the Peugeot #94 had an early second pitstop and subsequently had to serve a drive-through penalty due to a slow-zone infringement by Loic Duval.

In the LMP2 class, Inter Europol's #34 ORECA took the lead shortly before 7pm after Clement Novalak overtook Vector Sport's #10 machine driven by Ryan Cullen, with other cars close to a minute behind.

The start of the race was one to forget for Cool Racing's #47 car as Naveen Rao spun at the Dunlop chicane before colliding with Thomas Flohr's #54 AF Corse GT3 Ferrari, which the Swiss driver got a drive-through penalty for.

Flohr also crashed out at the Dunlop chicane at 6:09pm, causing the aforementioned slow zone.

Big crash for #54 Vista AF Corse 😱
Driver ok ✅#LeMans24 #WEC pic.twitter.com/VjJLzl7o0p

— 24 Hours of Le Mans (@24hoursoflemans) June 15, 2024

Although Larry ten Voorde built a comfortable GT3 lead at the wheel of JMW's #66 Ferrari, the car dropped back somewhat when Salih Yoluc took over, and the #91 Porsche run by Manthey Racing is now in the lead, driven by Morris Schuring.

Le Mans 24 Hours 2024, Hour 3 results

POS	#	CLASS	TEAM	CAR	LAPS	GAPS	PITS
1	83	Hypercar H	AF CORSE	Ferrari 499P	48	-	3
2	8	Hypercar H	TOYOTA GAZOO RACING	Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	48	1:21.477	5
3	5	Hypercar H	PORSCHE PENSKE MOTORSPORT	Porsche 963	48	1:29.228	4
4	51	Hypercar H	FERRARI AF CORSE	Ferrari 499P	47	1:45.238	5
5 (+1)	50	Hypercar H	FERRARI AF CORSE	Ferrari 499P	47	1:46.859	4
6	12	Hypercar H	HERTZ TEAM JOTA	Porsche 963	47	1:47.463	4
7	7	Hypercar H	TOYOTA GAZOO RACING	Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	47	1:49.334	5
8	19	Hypercar H	LAMBORGHINI IRON LYNX	Lamborghini SC63	47	1:55.895	3
9	4	Hypercar H	PORSCHE PENSKE MOTORSPORT	Porsche 963	47	2:18.120	5
10	6	Hypercar H	PORSCHE PENSKE MOTORSPORT	Porsche 963	47	2:20.400	5
11	311	Hypercar H	WHELEN CADILLAC RACING	Cadillac V-Series.R	47	2:21.446	5
12	38	Hypercar H	HERTZ TEAM JOTA	Porsche 963	47	2:27.669	5
13	3	Hypercar H	CADILLAC RACING	Cadillac V-Series.R	47	2:43.805	5
14	36	Hypercar H	ALPINE ENDURANCE TEAM	Alpine A424	47	2:47.419	5
15	63	Hypercar H	LAMBORGHINI IRON LYNX	Lamborghini SC63	47	3:10.543	4
16	15	Hypercar H	BMW M TEAM WRT	BMW M HYBRID V8	47	3:17.400	4
17	2	Hypercar H	CADILLAC RACING	Cadillac V-Series.R	47	3:23.610	5
18	35	Hypercar H	ALPINE ENDURANCE TEAM	Alpine A424	47	0.596	5
19	93	Hypercar H	PEUGEOT TOTALENERGIES	Peugeot 9X8	47	7.093	5
20	94	Hypercar H	PEUGEOT TOTALENERGIES	Peugeot 9X8	47	1:01.078	6
21	11	Hypercar H	ISOTTA FRASCHINI	Isotta Fraschini Tipo6-C	46	2 laps	5
22	34	LM P2	INTER EUROPOL COMPETITION	Oreca 07 - Gibson	45	3 laps	4
23	10	LM P2	VECTOR SPORT	Oreca 07 - Gibson	45	2:29.317	4
24	37	LM P2	COOL RACING	Oreca 07 - Gibson	45	3:21.836	5
25	22	LM P2	UNITED AUTOSPORTS	Oreca 07 - Gibson	45	3:24.363	5
26	183	LM P2 P/A	AF CORSE	Oreca 07 - Gibson	45	21.240	5
27	28	LM P2	IDEC SPORT	Oreca 07 - Gibson	45	37.779	5
28	9	LM P2	PROTON COMPETITION	Oreca 07 - Gibson	45	1:10.636	6
29	99	Hypercar H	PROTON COMPETITION	Porsche 963	45	26.827	6
30	24	LM P2	NIELSEN RACING	Oreca 07 - Gibson	45	1:40.662	5
31	30	LM P2 P/A	DUQUEINE TEAM	Oreca 07 - Gibson	44	4 laps	5
32 (+1)	14	LM P2 P/A	AO BY TF	Oreca 07 - Gibson	44	1:40.662	4
33	33	LM P2 P/A	DKR ENGINEERING	Oreca 07 - Gibson	44	3:15.447	4
34	65	LM P2 P/A	PANIS RACING	Oreca 07 - Gibson	44	4.466	5
35	45	LM P2 P/A	CROWDSTRIKE RACING BY APR	Oreca 07 - Gibson	44	13.666	5
36	25	LM P2	ALGARVE PRO RACING	Oreca 07 - Gibson	43	5 laps	5
37	91	LMGT3	MANTHEY EMA	Porsche 911 GT3 R LMGT3	42	6 laps	4
38	46	LMGT3	TEAM WRT	BMW M4 LMGT3	42	5.934	4
39	87	LMGT3	AKKODIS ASP TEAM	Lexus RC F LMGT3	42	6.195	4
40	66	LMGT3	JMW MOTORSPORT	Ferrari 296 LMGT3	42	11.792	4
41	86	LMGT3	GR RACING	Ferrari 296 LMGT3	42	25.982	4
42	85	LMGT3	IRON DAMES	Lamborghini Huracan LMGT3 Evo2	42	29.199	4
43	59	LMGT3	UNITED AUTOSPORTS	McLaren 720S LMGT3 Evo	42	38.628	4
44	92	LMGT3	MANTHEY PURERXCING	Porsche 911 GT3 R LMGT3	42	39.898	5
45	95	LMGT3	UNITED AUTOSPORTS	McLaren 720S LMGT3 Evo	42	43.422	5
46	77	LMGT3	PROTON COMPETITION	Ford Mustang LMGT3	42	45.676	4
47	44	LMGT3	PROTON COMPETITION	Ford Mustang LMGT3	42	1:01.747	4
48	88	LMGT3	PROTON COMPETITION	Ford Mustang LMGT3	42	1:21.862	5
49	27	LMGT3	HEART OF RACING TEAM	Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGT3	42	48.220	4
50	55	LMGT3	VISTA AF CORSE	Ferrari 296 LMGT3	42	1:32.020	4
51	70	LMGT3	INCEPTION RACING	McLaren 720S LMGT3 Evo	41	7 laps	5
52	81	LMGT3	TF SPORT	Corvette Z06 LMGT3.R	41	1:55.606	4
53	155	LMGT3	SPIRIT OF RACE	Ferrari 296 LMGT3	41	2:27.196	5
54	31	LMGT3	TEAM WRT	BMW M4 LMGT3	41	2:37.501	4
55	78	LMGT3	AKKODIS ASP TEAM	Lexus RC F LMGT3	41	3:00.635	4
56	777	LMGT3	D'STATION RACING	Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGT3	41	3:29.413	5
57	82	LMGT3	TF SPORT	Corvette Z06 LMGT3.R	41	3:31.274	4
58	60	LMGT3	IRON LYNX	Lamborghini Huracan LMGT3 Evo2	41	17.380	4
59	20	Hypercar H	BMW M TEAM WRT	BMW M HYBRID V8	40	8 laps	5
60	47	LM P2 P/A	COOL RACING	Oreca 07 - Gibson	39	9 laps	5
61	23	LM P2 P/A	UNITED AUTOSPORTS USA	Oreca 07 - Gibson	35	13 laps	5
62	54	LMGT3	VISTA AF CORSE	Ferrari 296 LMGT3	30	18 laps	3