Good morning from Le Mans. The sun has come up and we are well over the halfway mark - but we still have eight hours on the clock. Plenty of mileage and plenty of time for drama to spill over. Here’s what has happened in the early hours this morning.

Hypercar

At 01:00 on Sunday morning, James Calado at the wheel of the #51 Ferrari AF Corse secured the top spot in the race but then suffered a flat front left tyre and a five-second penalty for causing contact with a LMGT3 Corvette - the 2023 race winners had it all to do. Oh, and then the car was given a 20-second stop-and-go for exceeding the speed limit in the pit lane. The #51 knuckled down and dug deep under the cloak of darkness like they only know how and are now back at the top of the tree - just... as the sun broke cover. 

Chasing them and pushing them all the way, just a handful of seconds back is the #83 AF Corse Ferrari - the constant thorn in the side for three Le Mans victories in a row for the factory cars from Maranello. 

The front two have broken away, but in touching distance is the #6 Porsche Penske Motorsport effort being watched closely by the #50 Ferrari - which is doing everything it can to make it a one, two, three for the prancing horse.  

On the lead lap but currently only fighting for a top five and praying something happens to those in front are the #8 Toyota Gazoo Racing, #12 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA and #15 BMW M Team WRT efforts. The #12 golden Cadillac has had a spurt in pace with the cooler conditions helping the Anglo-American team to manage the tyres more efficiently. Their pace is undeniable as Norman Nato on the 232nd lap set the fastest time of the race with a 2:27:043 - under the lap record from last year by two tenths. 

Speaking of Cadillac - we lost out first Hypercar - with the #101 Cadillac #101 entry retiring with a wounded engine.

LMP2

It’s been a nip and tuck affair in the LMP2 prototypes for the lead car - the #48 #VDS Panis Racing ORECA has been leapfrogged by the early race leaders #43 Inter Europol Competition - shifting their strategy with an additional pair of pit stops to undercut the #48 and slide into the lead. The #9 Iron Lynx effort has been constantly there or thereabouts, trying to hang onto the coattails of the pair in front - but dropping away from the fight for the win. 

Sadly since our last report, we have lost the #18 IDEC Sports, losing a wheel this morning.

LMGT3

The #92 Manthey 1ST Phorm Porsche has been metronomic in its approach - dominating the proceedings with almost a minute in hand from the #21 Vista AF Corse Ferrari 296 LMGT3 and on the rise #81 TF Sport Corvette, who over the course of the night has worked its way up the leaderboard and passed the pair of Lexus’ run by the French Akkodis ASP Team - who were one of the favourites for the GT class victory. The #87 received a drive-through for making contact with the Iron Dames #85 Porsche as the sun came up.

Sadly, Valentino Rossi and his team are out of the 2025 event in the #46 Team WRT BMW. We have also lost the #54 Ferrari 296 LMGT3 from Vista AF Corse since our last update.

After 16 hours Top 5 overall:

1. #51 Ferrari 499P - Ferrari-AF Corse – Alessandro Pier Guidi / James Calado / Antonio Giovinazzi - 259 Lap
2. #83 Ferrari 499P - AF Corse – Robert Kubica / Yifei Ye / Philip Hanson +9.209s
3. #6 Porsche 963 - Porsche Penske Motorsport – Kévin Estre / Laurens Vanthoor / Matt Campbell +39.855s
4. #50 Ferrari 499P - Ferrari-AF Corse – Antonio Fuoco / Nicklas Nielsen / Miguel Molina +59.432s
5. #8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid - Toyota Gazoo Racing – Sébastien Buemi / Brendon Hartley / Ryo Hirakawa +1:04.2s

Leaders in the other categories:

• LMP2: #43 Oreca 07-Gibson #43 Inter Europol Competition – Jakub Smiechowski / Tom Dillmann / Nick Yelloly
• LMGT3: #92 Porsche 911 GT3 R LMGT3 of Manthey 1ST Phorm – Ryan Hardwick / Riccardo Pera / Richard Lietz

Retirements at mid-race:

• #18 Oreca 07-Gibson - IDEC Sport – Jamie Chadwick / Mathys Jaubert / André Lotterer - Lost a wheel
• #54 Ferrari 296 LMGT3 - Vista AF Corse – Thomas Flohr / Francesco Castellacci / Davide Rigon - Mechanical
• #101 Cadillac V-Series.R - Cadillac WTR – Ricky Taylor / Jordan Taylor / Filipe Albuquerque -  Engine
• #24 ORECA 07-Gibson of Nielsen Racing – Naveen Rao / Cem Bolukbasi / Colin Braun (LMP2 Pro/Am) – Incident
• #46 BMW M4 LMGT3 of Team WRT – Ahmad Al Harthy / Valentino Rossi / Kelvin van der Linde – Mechanical Problem
• #60 Mercedes-AMG LMGT3 of Iron Lynx – Andrew Gilbert / Fran Rueda / Lorcan Hanafin – 22:24 – Engine Breakdown
• #95 McLaren 720S LMGT3 Evo of United Autosports – Darren Leung / Sean Gelael / Marino Sato – 22:23 – Powertrain Failure

#88 Ford Mustang LMGT3 of Proton Competition – Stefano Gattuso / Giammarco Levorato / Dennis Olsen – 19:53 – Incident and Loss of a Wheel Nut