Cadillac lead BMW and Toyota at Le Mans after 6 hours

Credit: Evan Roberts

The No.38 Jota Cadillac lead the 24 Hours of Le Mans one quarter of the way through after a first part of the race filled with strategy. The No.20 BMW is second, with the top two swapping positions constantly with the No.8 Toyota due to a strategy offset.

The No.30 Duqiene Team car leads LMP2 whilst the No.78 Akkodis ASP Lexus leads in LMGT3.

As it happened

The pole sitting BMW of Kevin Magnussen had a slow start, being overtaken by the No.12 Team Jota Cadillac, with Will Stevens in the car. The other BMW, driven by René Rast, had a dream opening lap, getting past Magnussen exiting the Dunlop Curve and was soon past Stevens.

LMP2 pole sitters, the No.28 IDEC Sport machine, maintained their lead in the opening lap. The order behind them, however, was constantly changing. The No.30 Duqueine Team car, starting sixth, quickly made its way to second after a short battle with the No.4 Crowdstrike Racing Oreca.

In LMGT3, the No.27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin had a great start and started pulling away. The No.21 Ferrari dropped down the order, promoting the two Lexuses, the No.87 and the No.78, up to second and third, respectively. The No. 74 Kessel Racing Ferrari did not share the misfortunes of the fellow Ferrari, jumping past the two Team WRT BMWs to fourth.

As the order settled down in Hypercar, the drivers of the No.007 Aston Martin and the No.83 Privateer Ferrari complained about the condition of the cars.

With 20 minutes down, Ferdinand Habsburg in the No.35 Alpine got past the No.15 BMW for third at Indianapolis. Two minutes later, the No.101 Cadillac WTR got past the pole sitter, the BMW dropping places as they seemed to start fuel saving early.

Just 29 minutes into the race, with only 8 laps done, the No.7 Toyota was the first to pit. It seemed to be a standard service stop, with nothing wrong in the car. Just around then, the No.15 BMW dropped another place thanks to the No.38 Cadillac, dropping to sixth.

Credit: Noah Romana

The other Toyota, the No.8, pit one lap later, taking a strategic gamble with both cars early on. Around the same time, the first of the LMP2 cars took to the pits as well. Over the next three laps, all the cars in LMP2 and LMGT3 made their stops.

It took 43 minutes for the first caution, a short-lived yellow flag. It was caused by Martin Berry in the No.61 Iron Lynx Mercedes on his outlap, spinning out at the Dunlop chicane. The Mercedes had damage on the front right portion of the car.

Around the same time, some of the Hypercars came in for the pit stops. A lap later, with 48 minutes eclipsed, the remaining Hypercars made their stops as well. The early gamble from Toyota paid off for now as the No.8 was now in the lead by almost two seconds and in clean air. The other Toyota, the No.7, jumped up to fifth. The Toyotas were 13th and 14th before the pit stop cycle.

Four minutes before the first hour was done and dusted, No.78 Lexus took the lead in LMGT3 from the No. 27 Aston Martin.

With the first hour ticked by, the No.8 Toyota led the pack, the No.28 IDEC car led LMP2, and the No.78 Lexus led LMGT3.

Early on into the second hour, the No.27 Aston Martin and the No. 87, who were running second and third, started dropping down the order. The No.69 and No.32 BMWs soon moved up to second and third.

The No.92 Manthey Porsche had to be pulled into the garage as the team had a broken wheel rod plaguing them. It took the crew 15 minutes to get the car fixed up and back on track.

The second cycle of pit stops for Hypercar was done halfway through the second hour, and the gamble for the Toyotas seemed to be paying dividends early, the No.8's lead increasing from 13 to 18 seconds over the cycle.

The final podium place overall was in hot contention, with the No.35 Alpine and the No.38 Cadillac fighting each other for third.

At the two hour mark, the No.8 Toyota led overall, the No.28 IDEC Oreca led LMP2, and the No.78 continued leading LMGT3.

Credit: Noah Romana

With just over two hours completed, the leading Toyota No.8 entered the pits. Sébastien Buemi left the car, and Brendon Hartley took his place. Around 10 minutes later, the third-placed No.35 Alpine made their pit stop. Charles Milesi replaced Ferdinand Habsburg in the car.

The No.38 pit soon after, and Aitken got in the car. The Cadillac jumped the Alpine in the pits. After all the Hypercars completed their third stints, the No.8 jumped back to the top of the order.

Meanwhile in LMGT3, the three-way fight for second heated up between the No. 69 BMW, No. 78 Lexus and the No. 77 Ford Mustang.

27 minutes into the third hour, the No.50 Ferrari Hypercar spun around Tertre Rouge after Antonio Fuoco, behind the wheel, made contact with an LMP2 trying to lap the car.

After two hours and 45 minutes had elapsed, the leading No. 8 Toyota entered the pitlane for the crew's fourth stop of the race.

After three hours had elapsed, the No.20 BMW led the race, but had yet to pit; the No.30 Duqueine car got into the lead in LMP2, and the No.91 Porsche led LMGT3.

Just five minutes past the three hour mark, the first Full Course Yellow had been called, for a bit of debris on track. The No.20 BMW, the No.12 Cadillac and the No. 101 Cadillac, all came in for emergency stops.

Once the track had been cleared, the cars that took emergency fuel came in again, and the No.8 Toyota had once again cycled back into the lead.

Ross Gunn in the No.007 Aston Martin had a small coming together with Robert Kubica in the No.83 AF Corse Ferrari, with the Briton not too happy with the Pole. "Who is this idiot? Is it Kubica?" he asked his engineer on the radio.

Another Ferrari was in trouble soon after too, with the No.51 of Alessandro Pier Guidi trying to get past the No.9 Proton Competition LMP2 in sector 1. The Italian lost the rear slightly and collided into the side of the Oreca. Both went off the track, with the SevenXSeven Proton LMP2 getting damage, and the Ferrari knocking a bollard onto the track.

Pier Guidi was given a drive-through penalty for the incident, for which he was not too happy about on the radio, arguing that it was unfair.

After the No.8 Toyota pit from the lead, the No.20 BMW, now driven by Sheldon van der Linde, led the way. Aitken in the No.38 was catching him, though, and he sent it down the inside of the Ford chicanes to take the lead of the race. He quickly began to pull a gap ahead of the BMW too.

With each passing pit stop cycle, the No.8 Toyota's advantage at the front only increased, but during their seventh stint, which ended just before the fifth hour came to an end, they had only gained a little more than three seconds.

At the end of five hours of racing, the No.38 Cadillac led the race overall, the No.343 Inter Europol were leading in LMP2, and the No.87 Lexus led the LMGT3 field.

Just past the five-hour mark, the No. 61 Iron Lynx Mercedes had an issue with the rear left and had to limp into the pits. They soon had to retire the car.

Five and a half hours into the race, Bourdais in the No.38 Cadillac went wide at the exit of the Porsche curve, but the Le Mans native didn't seem to follow the race director's orders on rejoining the track.

The No.15 BMW of Dries Vanthoor was attempting to overtake the No.3 DKR Engineering LMP2, but the two got very close and touched, the BMW's rear right to the Oreca's front left. The BMW's brake light was damage, but more crucially gave the car a puncture. But Vanthoor didn't realise until after he had passed pit entry, so he had to limp around an entire lap on three wheels before getting repairs.

He eventually got the car back, and was wheeled into the garage with exactly six hours to go.