The Headlines after 16 Hours at Le Mans

Hypercar

• As night gradually made way for daybreak at the Circuit de la Sarthe, Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA retained control in the headlining Hypercar category with Will Stevens in the #12 V-Series.R running at the front of the field
• Two-thirds of the way through the race, the Briton holds an advantage of 48 seconds over the pursuing #8 TOYOTA RACING entry, now in the hands of Brendon Hartley
• Stevens' team-mate Norman Nato in the leading Cadillac posted a new fastest lap of 3m26.305s just past 06:00am, before Toyota's Sébastien Buemi lowered it again to 3m25.968s an hour-and-a-half later during his third stint inside the cockpit of the #8 TR010 Hybrid
• That car, however, lost time after picking up a drive-through penalty for a Full Course Yellow infringement not long after 04:00am
• BMW M Team WRT remains in the hunt for victory with its #20 M Hybrid V8 in third place, now with Sheldon van der Linde back in the car; the South African is just three-and-a-half seconds behind the #8 Toyota and 51 seconds adrift of the lead
• All three of the leading trio are now in-sync with regards to strategy, setting the scene for a pulsating final eight hours
• There has been drama, however, for the other two Cadillacs in the 18-strong Hypercar field, with the #38 losing seven laps due to a power steering issue while hometown hero Sébastien Bourdais was behind the wheel at 04:10am; the car rejoined the fray following repairs, but returned to the garage and retired just under four hours later after Earl Bamber locked up and went straight on at Mulsanne Corner
• The #101 WTR Cadillac, meanwhile, has slipped down the field after incurring no fewer than three drive-through penalties during the night – two for Full Course Yellow indiscretions and the third for a slow zone infringement
• The #7 Toyota sits fourth, with Nyck de Vries on fresh tyres indulging in a lively duel with defending world champion Antonio Giovinazzi as day broke in north-western France, as the #51 Ferrari 499P follows in fifth
• The current top six is completed by the #35 Alpine Endurance Team A424 in the hands of António Félix da Costa, followed by the sister #36 entry, which has climbed the order up to seventh as Les Bleus continue to push hard on home soil
• The delayed #101 Cadillac runs eighth, ahead of last year's Le Mans winner, Yifei Ye in the #83 AF Corse Ferrari – another Hypercar to fall foul of a drive-through penalty for a slow zone infringement – and the best-placed Aston Martin Valkyrie, the #009 Ross-Gunn piloted entry
• Genesis is just outside the top ten with its #17 GMR-001 Hypercar, but the sister #19 Korean prototype has encountered further issues, with Dani Juncadella stopping briefly at Tertre Rouge just past 05:00am, prior to losing a further 70 seconds in the pits with electrical gremlins

LMGT3

• Following a quiet start to the race, the #33 TF Sport Corvette has firmly seized control in LMGT3
• With Bronze-rated driver Ben Keating completing some of his mandatory drive time under safety car conditions earlier in the night, team-mates Jonny Edgar and Nicky Catsburg have been able to press on and establish an advantage of more than two minutes over the chasing pack 16 hours in
• ‘Super-sub' Jack Hawksworth runs second in the #78 Akkodis ASP Team Lexus, but the sister #87 RC F – which held sway earlier in the race – dropped down the order after Clemens Schmid was handed a drive-through penalty for contact with Takeshi Kimura in the #57 Kessel racing Ferrari 296 that forced the latter off the track
• Zacharie Robichon is third in-class in the pole-sitting Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage, which also picked up a drive-through penalty, for a slow zone infringement – as did the #74 Kessel Racing Ferrari, which is next up in fourth
• The top five with eight hours remaining is completed by the #23 Aston Martin, with the #21 VISTA AF Corse Ferrari sixth and #91 Manthey DK Engineering Porsche seventh
• There were dramas for the #69 Team WRT BMW – another recipient of a drive-through penalty for a Full Course Yellow infringement – and the #62 Team Qatar by Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG, which went off at the final corner at 06:15am, prompting a slow zone

LMP2 

• Duqueine Team remains in charge in LMP2, with the #30 Oreca-Gibson just over a minute clear of the pursuing pair of Inter Europol Competition prototypes
• The Polish squad – the class-winner at La Sarthe in two of the last three years – sits second and third, with its #343 entry 15 seconds ahead of the sister #43 car
• The Hyperpole-winning #29 Forestier Racing by Panis car held fastest lap for a while courtesy of Esteban Masson, but the Frenchman later took a brief trip through the gravel trap at the Porsche Curves while navigating LMGT3 traffic
• Former world champion Kévin Estre prompted a slow zone just before 08:00 when he went off at Indianapolis after clipping the inside kerb in the #14 TDS Racing entry, dropping that car out of second place in the LMP2 Pro/Am battle

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