The dream seemed over for the line-up of Nicklas Nielsen, Miguel Molina and Antonio Fuoco when they were forced into an unscheduled pit stop with a flapping door in the late stages of proceedings.
However, out of sequence, they took a gamble to not stop again in the final hour and brought P1 home with just two per cent of energy remaining.
The 24 Hours of Le Mans saw two of its biggest name contenders drop out overnight as former Grand Prix motorcycle World Champion Valentino Rossi and Formula One racer Mick Schumacher’s teams forced to retire.
Rain slicked up the course in the early hours of the race, with Ferrari’s #54 being the first team to retire after an accident.
The remaining Ferraris and the Porsches were leading the field after the first four hours.
Alpine Endurance team lost both its hypercars – #35 and #36 – including Schumacher’s within an hour late on Saturday evening.
The team’s #35 car caught fire with Ferdinand Habsburg-Lothringen behind the wheel. No one was injured in the incident, but the vehicle was unable to continue.
Within 40 minutes, Schumacher’s car suffered engine trouble and was forced to abandon its assault on the great race.
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‘Disaster for Alpine’ – Flames and smoke forces Habsburg to retire car
The team put out a statement shortly afterwards, confirming that both cars had retired. The press release referred to the “steep learning curve” of endurance racing and promised to come back stronger for next year’s edition.
Meanwhile, Rossi’s team was leading the way around 22:30 UK time, with about one quarter of the race completed but the rain was beginning to fall harder.
Many teams were struggling with the surface, but Rossi’s team-mate Al Harty lost control of his #46 BMW in the early hours of Sunday morning.
The Omani racer skidded into the gravel between the Dunlop chicane and the Tertre Rouge “S”.
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Aston Martin left upside down at Le Mans after backwards crash into barrier
Following the crash, Al Harty was seen smacking the wheel in frustration and on the team radio, he said: “Oh I lost it! I lost the car!’
Rossi’s other team-mate Maxime Martin had driven brilliantly in the wet to put the team in a strong position. Al Harty had matched Martin’s performance at first, but he ran off the track and struck the barrier.
While he was able to bring the car to the pit, there was little hope of getting it back into racing condition.
Stream the 24 Hours of Le Mans on discovery+.
Watch as a Duqueine Team car caught fire overnight at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The No.30 was in 10th place at the time, with over 15 hours left to race, when an engine blowout caused black smoke to billow. Stream the 2024 24 Hours of Le Mans live on discovery+.
In short: not an awful lot. The safety car came out and stayed out for four and a half hours with the rain coming down heavily. When the safety car retired around an hour ago, near enough the whole field pitted straight away for a new set of wet tyres.
Good morning and thank you for joining our live text coverage of Sunday at the Le Mans 24 hours race. We left last night with the #8 Toyota in the lead and they still hold the front of the race after a lenghty safety car last night. However, the #6 Porsche is marginally quicker at the moment and with the track now drying, pit stops and tyre swaps are imminent. Who will be at the top and claim the trophy in 17 hours from now?
The endurance race runs continuously over a 24-hour period. The team that covers the most distance over the course of the race will clinch the trophy.
Each team has three drivers that alternate over the 24 hours – no driver can race for more than 14 hours in total.
There are three different classes of cars: Hypercar, LMP2 and LMGT3. The hypercars are the fastest cars in endurance racing.
You can watch all the action from Le Mans 24 in the UK with discovery+, where fans can enjoy a subscription that includes TNT Sports, Eurosport and entertainment in one destination.
Good afternoon and thank you for joining our live text coverage of the 24 Hours of Le Mans 2024. It’s T-minus one hour for the 101st edition of what is widely considered the biggest race in motorsport and it comes with a stacked hypercar field. Twenty three hypercars, seven more than in 2023 with four additional manufacturers, will take to the Circuit de la Sarthe and battle it out for the coveted trophy. Defending champions Ferrari have stuck with the same driver line-up that took them to the title last year, but with bolstered competition will they be able to defend it? We’re about to find out!
24 Hours of Le Mans
Watch as Nyck De Vries crashes his Toyota into a Lexus during the warmup for the 2024 edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, causing nose damage. Only 12 of the 23 drivers ended up setting a time during the 15-minute session. Stream the 24 Hours of Le Mans live on discovery+
24 Hours of Le Mans
Watch as Nyck De Vries crashes his Toyota into a Lexus during the warmup for the 2024 edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, causing nose damage. Only 12 of the 23 drivers ended up setting a time during the 15-minute session. Stream the 24 Hours of Le Mans live on discovery+
