LM24 Hour 17: Leaders shake off penalties

Antonio Giovinazzi still leads at Le Mans with seven hours to go in the red No. 51 factory Ferrari 499P, ahead of the yellow No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari of Robert Kubica.

But as hour 17 began, 13 cars were given drive-through penalties for speeding in a yellow flag zone, including the No. 51 and No. 83 Ferrari 499Ps.

Other notables hit with drive-through penalties included the LMGT3-leading No. 92 Manthey 1st Phorm Porsche 911, another top GT contender in the No. 27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage, and a few top LMP2 cars including the No. 9 Iron Lynx-Proton ORECA.

It hasn't dropped Giovinazzi and Kubica from the top two, and in fact, Kubica recently reset the fastest lap of the race at 3m26.562s. The No. 50 Ferrari of Antonio Fuoco has now mover back up to third behind them.

The No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 of Matt Campbell has slotted into fourth after its pit stop, ahead of the No. 8 Toyota Gazoo Racing GR010 HYBRID of Brendon Hartley in fifth. Dries Vanthoor, who previously held the fastest lap, was sixth in the No. 20 Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8.

The drive-through penalty did even less damage to the No. 92 Manthey Porsche 911's lead in LMGT3: Riccardo Pera is now aboard with a big lead over the No. 21 Vista AF Corse Ferrari 296 in second. Francois Heriau has given way after doing his required six hours of driving, now Simon Mann is in the car.

Then it's the No. 81 TF Sport Corvette of Charlie Eastwood, and the two Akkodis ASP Team Lexus RC Fs of Jose Maria Lopez and Jack Hawksworth.

LMP2 is still led by the No. 43 Inter Europol Competition ORECA 07 ahead of the No. 48 VDS Panis Racing ORECA, Tom Dillmann ahead of Oliver Gray.

Paul Lafargue is third in the No. 28 IDEC Sport ORECA but he has a big cushion to the No. 9 Iron Lynx-Proton car of Maceo Capietto, and the No. 199 AO by TF car of LMP2 Pro/Am leader, Dane Cameron.

As the leaders had their drama, the No. 311 Cadillac Whelen V-Series.R lost power near turn one, and for Frederik Vesti and company, it was the end of the road.

The red Cadillac joined its fellow IMSA invitee at Wayne Taylor Racing as the second premier class retirement of the race, and the tenth in total, after a Slow Zone was deployed to lift the car away.

The No. 85 Iron Dames Porsche LMGT3 is back out on track, though planted last in LMGT3 among all remaining runners in what has turned out to be another luckless Le Mans for the Dames.

There was also a collision between Bernardo Sousa and Derek DeBoer which sent the latter in his No. 10 Racing Spirit of Leman Aston Martin spinning around. That spin, and a ten-second pit stop penalty for a pit stop violation, were insults after the No. 10's big injury very early on, in which the car dropped out of the lead fight due to an engine sensor problem.

George Kurtz's stint in the No. 45 Algarve Pro Racing ORECA went from bad to worse in the last hour: Having already had to serve a drive-through penalty for a slow zone violation, he then had to take a ten-second stop/go penalty for speeding in the pits while serving the previous penalty.

And most recently, Jules Gounon spun off at Mulsanne Corner and into the gravel. His No. 36 Alpine A424 was beached, leading to a Full Course Yellow just minutes ago, as the car was craned out of harm's way.

HOUR 17 STANDINGS