Toyota and Ferrari locked in two horse race at Le Mans

Daybreak at the Circuit de la Sarthe saw a close two-way battle for the lead of the centenary running of the Le Mans 24 Hours race between Ryo Hirakawa's #8 Toyota Gazoo Racing and James Calado's #51 Ferrari Af Corse hypercar.

There had been dramatic developments just before midnight local time when the sister #7 Toyota was caught up in a multi-car incident while being driven by Kamui Kobayashi, and forced to retire with extensive damage.

That resulted in a prolonged safety car period while the cars were involved were retrieved, debris cleared up and the barriers attended to. The running order also had to be adjusted after a mix-up in releasing cars from pit lane in the right order.

The #94 Peugeot 9X8 driven by Nico Muller found itself unexpectedly in control of the race during the full course caution period, but when the race resumed it was the #8 Toyota that soon moved to the front.

Antonio Giovinazzi had put Ferrari ahead by the midway point of the race, until Hirakawa's team mate Brendon Hartley contributed a huge stint behind the wheel in the middle of the night to put Toyota in front by nearly 17s.

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Giovinazzi fought back and had reduced the lead to 3.5s, only to lose out to a slow pit stop when he handed over to Pier Guidi who then lost time in a slow zone triggered by the demise of Tomonobu Fujii's D’station Aston Martin.

Currently two laps behind the lead pair is the #2 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac driven by Earl Bamber and Alex Lynn followed by the sister #3 car driven by Sebastian Bourdais and Scott Dixon.

The lead Peugeot is now the #93 car shared by Jean-Eric Vergne and Paul di Resta. in fifth ahead of the two Glickenhaus entries. The #5 Porsche Penske Motorsport entry and the #50 Ferrari and #94 Peugeot rounded out the top ten.

The LMP2 category is in the hands of the #34 Inter Europol Competition Oreca driven by Albert Costa running in 11th overall ten laps behind the overall race leader, despite co-driver Fabio Scherer having injured his foot.

The #47 Cool Racing car had been at the front when Reshad de Gerus suffered a huge shunt at the Porsche Curves and did extensive damage to the left hand side of the car. Ben Barnicoat also shunted the #80 AF Corse at the same spot.

The #41 Team WRT fronted by Robert Kubica together with the #30 Duqueine Team entry are currently on the same lap as the #34 giving chase. The class leader in GTE-Am was the #33 Corvette Racing after Jonas Ried’s #88 Proton Porsche crashed heavily at Indianapolis.

The #24 Hendrick Motorsports converted stock car racing under the NASCAR banner with a driving team consisting of Jenson Button, Jimmie Johnson and Jenson Button was still running in the morning in a respectable 30th overall, keeping company with the GTE-Am frontrunners.

As well as the #7 Toyota, retirees in a high-attrition race so far include Jan Magnussen in the #32 Inter Europol, and Daniil Kvyat who spun into the barriers in the #63 Prema shortly after 1am, incurring extensive damage to the car.

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