LeMans 24 Hour 9: #8 Toyota hits trouble

Night has fallen over the 24 Hours circuit. The temperature outside, approximately 33°C at the start of the race, has now dropped by 10°C. These are significant changes and should be taken into account as they alter the behavior of the cars and can affect the correlation between adversaries in each class. Overall, the lap times during the last hour were slower than previous hours by two to three seconds.

LMP1

In LMP1, the ninth hour of the race proved less than stellar for the Toyota team: the #8 stopped in its garage for the entire hour due to problems with its front hybrid system. Remember the #2 Porsche lost a considerable amount of time with similar troubles during the fourth hour. So two Toyotas and one Porsche are still contenders for the overall win. At midnight, one minute separated the #7 Toyota driven by Mike Conway from the #1 Porsche with Neel Jani at the wheel. Nicolas Lapierre's #9 Toyota trails one lap behind.

LMP2

In the LMP2 class, the Vaillante Rebellions are still in the top two positions, the #13 ahead of the #31. Barely one minute separates the two cars with Jackie Chan DC Racing's #38 following in the same lap.

LMGTE Pro

The battle in LMGTE Pro continues with 11 cars still running in the same lap: four Fords (#67, #68, #69, #66), two Aston Martins (#97, #95), two Ferraris (#51, #71), two Porsches (#92, #91) and one Corvette (#63)! The #64 Corvette kicked off the hour in the Raccordement gravel trap and the driver returned unharmed to his pit.

LMGTE Am

There were no changes in LMGTE Am. JMW Motorsport's #84 Ferrari is still leader with Will Stevens at the wheel. His closest rival, Rob Bell's #98 Aston Martin, trails by a lap.