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LM24 Hour 9: No. 83 off eases pressure on lead Ferrari
After being told to cede the lead to James Calado in the No. 51 Ferrari AF Corse 499P, Philip Hanson ran off track and through the gravel in the No. 83 AF Corse 499P, unintentionally fulfilling the request. That promoted Calado to first, where he continued to run ahead of Hanson.
The No. 83 now looks to be attempting longer stints, but the Ferraris are largely doing 12-lap stints, while several of the other contenders are able to go a lap further. That could spell trouble for Ferrari as the race proceeds. As the hour ticked over, Ferrari occupied the top three spots after the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 with Kevin Estre at the wheel pitted prior to the race entering its 10th hour.
The No. 6 Porsche was joined by its sister car, the No. 4 of Nick Tandy, in the top five, ahead of the No. 15 BMW M Team WRT M Hybrid V8 of Dries Vanthoor and the No. 8 Toyota Gazoo Racing GR010 Hybrid of Brendan Hartley.
Although running outside the top 10, Earl Bamber set a new fast lap in the No. 38 Cadillac Hertz Team Jota V-Series.R, posting a time of 3m27.534s at the end of a stint with single-stint soft tires on the car. That time is only a few tenths off the outright Hypercar race lap record.
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The No. 93 Peugeot 9X8 spent a long time in the garage dealing with a steering issue, and is now five laps down.
As the temperatures have dropped, several Hypercar teams are experimenting with the soft Michelin tires, but they seem to be good for two stints only, while the medium tires have regularly been triple-stinted.
VDS Panis Racing continues to head LMP2, with Franck Perera freshly installed in the No. 48 ORECA. Jakub Smiechowski is still chasing in the No. 43 Inter Europol ORECA, with Iron Lynx-Proton in third, Maceo Capietto driving the No. 9. PJ Hyett is still at the wheel of the top Pro-Am competitor, “Spike,” the No. 199 AO by TF entry.
On a different strategy compared to the Team WRT BMW that has led LMGT3 for the majority, the No. 92 Manthey 1st Phorm Porsche 911 GT3R of Platinum Richard Lietz took the point ahead of Bronze Ahmad Al Harthy in the No. 46 BMW.
Akkodis ASP continues to run strong with its two Lexuses showing good pace and running together in third and fourth, while TF Sport cycled into fifth with the No. 81 Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Charlie Eastwood.
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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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