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LM24 Hour 13: No. 83 Ferrari retakes overall lead
While the hour began with new hope for Toyota, Ryo Hirakawa leading most of it in the No. 8 Toyota Gazoo Racing GR010 Hybrid after a slow pit stop for the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsports 963, it ended wtih Yifei Ye back at the front in the No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P.
In between was a highly entertaining battle that ebbed and flowed with traffic. It culminated with Ye taking the lead in the second Mulsanne chicane and Hirakawa taking station in second. The first factory Ferrari ran third, Alessandro Pier Guidi at the wheel of the No. 51. Raffaele Marciello holds fourth in the No. 15 BMW M Team WRT M Hybrid V8, and Miguel Molina made it all three Ferraris in the top five.
As Matt Campbell took over the No. 6 PPM 963 from Laurens Vanthoor, what seemed like a solid position at the front suddenly became sixth, just ahead of Alex Lynn in the No. 12 Cadillac Hertz Team Jota V-Series.R.
Louis Delétraz is back behind the wheel of the No. 199 AO by TF ORECA, and has the car third overall in LMP2, first among the Pro-Am entries. The No. 43 Inter Europol Competition ORECA of Jakub Smiechowski had the LMP2 lead over Reshad De Gérus in the No. 9 Iron Lynx-Proton entry.
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The No. 48 VDS Panis Racing ORECA of Esteban Masson had just cycled out of the lead with a pit stop.
Manthey 1st Phorm continued to lead LMGT3 with starter Ryan Hardwick now back in control of the No. 92 Porsche 911 GT3R. Simon Mann, who had had a potential penalty for rejoining behind the same safety car in the previous hour hanging over his head, was second in the No. 21 Vista AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3.
The No. 81 TF Sport Corvette Z06 GT3.R continued a strong run in third, Charlie Eastwood taking over from Rui Andrade.
“The safety car was really lucky,” explained Andrade. “It came out at a good time for us and put us right in the mix. So far so good. Our car is good, we haven't made many mistakes, everyone is driving really well, the team is doing a good job. Fingers crossed we can keep this up.”
Akkodis ASP's No. 78 Lexus RC F GT3 of Finn Gehrsitz ran fourth, ahead of the No. 27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 with Ian James in the cockpit.
Although the racing has been far from tame, the fights are likely to get more intense over the next hour as light fills the sky. Dawn will arrive as race enters its 15th hour.
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Richard S. James
Richard James is motorsports journalist living in Orange County, Calif, who has been involved in the sport to some degree for three decades. He covers primarily sports car racing as a writer and photographer, with occasional forays into off-road and other forms of racing. A former editor of the SCCA’s publication, SportsCar, he has a special love for the grass-roots side of the sport and participates as a driver in amateur road racing.
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