In the sixth hour of the Le Mans Marathon, just as it was getting dark, it started to rain again, and in this situation the Ferrari #50 crew was unlucky: they had been in the pits just before and returned on soft roads to the track. slicks.
At this point, yellow flags were hung on the track after the departure of one of the sports prototypes from the LMP2 class, so the peloton moved around the track at relatively low speeds, and those who decided to change the tires in this situation, were in a more favorable situation. position, because they lost less time. And those who decided to stay on the track were even luckier.
While there was a series of pit stops, Ferrari hypercar No. 83 returned to the lead; this was Robert Kubica’s second shift. American Frederick Makoveki in the No. 5 Porsche was in second place and Rio Hirokawa in the No. 8 Toyota was in third place. Ferrari #50 was still fourth, losing almost four and a half minutes to the leaders.
The heavy rain did not last long and those who managed to switch to rain tires had to pit again to return to slicks.
In the seventh hour of the race, the safety car came onto the track for the first time – this happened after leader Robert Kubica overtook the WRT team’s BMW hypercar, driven by Driz Vantur, which was one lap down. The Ferrari hit the Belgian’s car, lost its stability on the wet track and crashed into the barrier at high speed. Just moments before, both hypercars overtook a car from the LMGT3 class, which was another factor influencing this development of the events.
There was virtually nothing left of the front part of the BMW and a safety car had to be released to evacuate it and repair the track fence. The rider was not injured. Because the circle at Le Mans is more than 13 kilometers long, three safety cars are deployed at various points on the route.
Before the restart, the top ten looked as follows: Ferrari No. 83 (AF Corse) – Porsche No. 5 – Toyota No. 8 – Ferrari No. 50 – Porsche No. 6 – Cadillac No. 2 – Ferrari No. 51 – Porsche No. 12 (Team Jota) – Toyota No. 7 – Cadillac No. 311.
It is not yet clear whether Kubica will be fined…
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.
