Le Mans 24h, H4: Toyota extends advantage over BMW in the evening

Toyota continues to lead the Le Mans 24 Hours at the end of the fourth hour, cementing its advantage over BMW and Cadillac in the Hypercar class.

After an undercut catapulted the #8 Toyota TR010 at the head of the pack in the opening hour, Sebastien Buemi quickly pulled away from the chasing pack, building an advantage of nearly half a minute through his triple stint.

Hartley took over the driving duties at the beginning of the third hour and carried on the work of his team-mate Buemi, with the gap continuing to hover around the 30s mark as the clock struck 8pm in France. However, the #8 Toyota remains on a different strategy to most of the Hypercar field.

Jack Aitken propelled Jota’s #38 Cadillac V.Series.R to second, passing the #20 BMW M Hybrid V8 of Sheldon van der Linde at the second Mulsanne chicane halfway through the fourth hour. However, the #20 BMW surged back ahead during the final pitstop before the hour.

The other Jota Cadillac driven by Louis Deletraz remains fourth, despite having briefly got ahead of the sister car in the second hour.

All three cars behind the leading Toyota were caught out by the timing of a virtual safety car at the beginning of the fourth hour. After coming in for emergency service, the trio were forced to bring their cars back to the pits for full service. The two Jota cars, along with the other Caddy entered by Wayne Taylor Racing, remain under investigation for the emergency stop.

Behind, Charles Milesi ran fifth in the #35 Alpine A424, while Antonio Fuoco remained fifth despite suffering a spin in the #50 Ferrari 499P.

Rafaelle Marciello held seventh in the #15 BMW ahead of Ricky Taylor in the #101 WTR Cadillac and Victor Martins in the #36 Alpine.

The #51 Ferrari dropped to 10th place after Alessandro Pier Guidi picked up a drive-through penalty for causing a collision with the #9 Proton LMP2 car of Jonas Reid. The #83 AF Corse Ferrari copped up a five-second penalty for an unsafe release in a tough start to Scuderia’s title defence.

In LMP2, Duqueine moved to the front when Richard Verschoor took over the driving duties in the third hour. As the designated gold-rated driver in the #30 Oreca 07, Verschoor extended his advantage at the front, before handing over the car with a comfortable advantage to Doriane Pin.

Bijoy Garg propelled the #343 InterEuropol car to second, with the Polish team able to go a lap longer on fuel than most of its rivals. 

Meanwhile, Manthey snatched the LMGT3 lead from ASP as reigning DTM champion Ayhancan Guven stormed through the field on an offset strategy in the #91 Porsche 911 GT3 R.

Guven has built a significant lead over the #87 ASP Lexus RC F GT3 of Jose Maria Lopez, while Mattia Drudi propelled the polesitting #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 back to second place after the car dropped down the order in the hands of gentleman driver and team owner Ian James.

The #92 Porsche suffered an early setback, losing three laps due to a broken tie rod in the second hour.

Le Mans order after four hours