Le Mans 24h, H21: Cadillac, Toyota, Ferrari battle it out for the win

This three-hour period began under the safety car following the earlier crash of the #27 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 in the prestigious World Endurance Championship round, with two Hypercars being hit by problems despite the reduced speed.

First, Nico Muller went off at Indianapolis at the wheel of the #93 Peugeot, seemingly disturbed by a wobble for the car ahead. It was running in 15th place.

Later, the #3 Cadillac briefly stopped on the Mulsanne straight as it held 11th position. It limped back to the pits and had to retire due to an apparent oil leak.

When the green flag was waved at 10:32am local time, Earl Bamber’s #2 Cadillac led the race from the #5 Porsche, the #83 and #50 Ferraris, and the #7 Toyota – with no fewer than ten cars on the lead lap, and therefore close to each other.

The two lead Ferraris started to squabble over third place, with Antonio Fuoco’s #50 machine overtaking Robert Shwartzman’s #83 entry at the Michelin chicane before he hit back at Mulsanne corner. They briefly went three-wide with Kamui Kobayashi’s Toyota, but the prancing horse’s representatives remained ahead.

As the #311 Cadillac’s race took a turn for the worst with a violent off for Pipo Derani at Indianapolis – he hobbled back to the pits, where the car spent the best part of two hours – Kobayashi briefly slowed down, with the #8 Toyota getting up to fifth place.

Fuoco was on a mission with the #50 Ferrari and found a way past Shwartzman on the approach to Mulsanne corner, before overtaking Makowiecki in the #5 Porsche to take second place.

The Penske-run car subsequently lost some time in the pits – notably due to a drive-through penalty for a slow-zone infringement, which the #38 Porsche and the #19 Lamborghini also had to serve – and is now running just eighth, despite briefly leading the race not so long ago.

At that stage, the #2 Cadillac was still leading at the hands of Bamber with a nine-second gap to the #50 and #83 Ferraris, the #8 Toyota, the #6 Porsche and the #7 Toyota.

Buemi overtook Shwartzman with a bold move around the outside at Mulsanne, bringing the #8 Toyota up to third place, and things went from bad to worse for the #83 Ferrari, which pitted not long later with plumes of smoke emanating from its brakes. Although it has not officially retired, this outcome seems likely.

While James Calado’s #50 Ferrari let Miguel Molina’s #51 sister car through, Buemi (Toyota #8) did the same for Kobayashi’s #7. The Japanese veteran driver and team principal went on to achieve the fastest lap of the race so far, a 3m28.756s, at the end of a remarkable 2.5-hour stint at the wheel. Jose Maria Lopez subsequently took this car over, but suffered a slow puncture which cost it some time.

At 1pm, the #2 Cadillac driven by Alex Palou still led, four seconds ahead of the #50 Ferrari with Molina at the wheel, Brendon Hartley’s #8 Toyota being a further eight seconds away. Kevin Estre’s #6 Porsche and Alessandro Pier Guidi’s #51 Ferrari were battling it out for fourth, and the top nine cars remained on the lead lap.

The LMP2 class remains hotly contested, with a tight battle between Inter Europol’s #34 entry and Vector Sport’s #10 car. The former took the lead as Clement Novalak overtook Patrick Pilet when the veteran put two wheels in the gravel at the exit of Indianapolis corner.

However, the latest round of pitstops thrust IDEC Sport’s #28 machine into the lead, with Reshad de Gerus, Paul Lafargue and Job van Uitert having little margin for comfort due to the five cars chasing them fewer than 40 seconds behind.

In GT3, the #81 Corvette from TF Sport and United Autosports’ #59 McLaren were hit by trouble as they stopped on track – the latter retired. Meanwhile, the battle for the win is now a duel between Manthey’s #91 Porsche (Lietz-Shahin-Schuring) and WRT’s #31 BMW (Farfus-Gelael-Leung), with just two seconds between them.

2024 Le Mans 24 Hours – Hour 21 results