Behind the first quarter of the Le Mans marathon, things were extremely interesting, full of surprises and incidents of all kinds, and as dusk fell on the track, two Ferrari hypercars were leading the race.
True, at the end of the sixth hour, the No. 51 car went to a scheduled pit stop, already the seventh in a row, and Miguel Molina, driving Ferrari under No. 50, remained ahead. At the same time, the Peugeot squad moved into second position and Loic Duvall drove the No. 94 sports prototype. But literally on the next lap, it was their turn to pit, so closer to the seventh hour of the race, Toyota- rider Brandon Hartley took the lead and his teammate Jose Maria Lopez was second.
It’s hard to say what this change of leaders was, but at least it went off without any drama, but about an hour before, anyone following the goings-on at the Sarte ring witnessed another episode.
At the time, team Jota’s #38 Porsche hypercar was leading with Chinese driver Yifei Yi at the wheel, but he lost control of the car, which is typical for Porsche cornering.
The car flew to the side of the road, began to spin and collided with its back against the guardrails, after which pieces of the “tail” flew in different directions.
Yifei managed to return to the pits, but the repair took about 20 minutes and during this time the leaders went far ahead, four laps. To remove the wreckage of the car from the track, the race management has released a safety car. But that was some time ago.
Meanwhile, another change of leadership took place on the track and the duo of Ferrari hypercars took the lead again, having already completed 76 laps, with the #38 Porsche running in 25th place. However, the problems of the racers driving Porsche were not limited to this: a little earlier, the right rear wheel in the No. 6 car, which was driven by Kevin Estre at the time, was punctured, and the Frenchman drove slowly into the pits. .
At the very beginning of the seventh hour, it started to rain heavily again, everyone rushed to the pit lane to change tires, and the first Ferrari hypercar No. 51, driven by Alessandro Pier Guidi, returned to the track.
The track became extremely slippery, the downpour, combined with the thickening darkness, promised new intrigue, and new incidents were not long in coming…
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
