Peugeot regain Le Mans lead after another lengthy Safety Car interruption

World Endurance Championship

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Peugeot have taken the lead at Le Mans after Alessandro Pier Guidi spun the race-leading Ferrari shortly before midnight.

Hours 7-8

Following the rain-hit dramas of the first quarter of the race, the seventh and eighth hours saw conditions settle down after nightfall and an uptick in green flag running.

But that all changed minutes before midnight when Pier Guidi spun off shortly after the Ferrari driver pitted from a lead he had held by almost a minute. Pier Guidi appeared to have been distracted by a collision in front of him at the first chicane involving Romain Dumas in the number 708 Glickenhaus and Richard Lietz in a GTE Am class Proton Porsche.

A slow zone was declared in the area while Pier Guidi’s 499P was craned back onto the circuit and sent on it way quickly enough that it didn’t lose a lap to the new race leader, Nico Mueller in a Peugeot 9X8. But before the slow zone was cleared a multi-car collision occured on the approach to Tertre Rouge.

Kamui Kobayashi’s number seven Toyota was hit from behind as he slowed. Three other cars were involved in the incident which dealt two blows to the GR010. Kobayashi came to a stop on the Mulsanne straight, briefly resumed then came to a terminal stop, its red hybrid warning lights flashing.

“I was in the ‘Next Slow’ zone which is the preparation area ahead of the slow zone,” Kobayashi explained. “The guy ahead braked for whatever reason. If I overtake him there, I will get a penalty, so I braked and the cars behind just crashed into me.

“I had both tyres punctured on the rear and the left-rear driveshaft was broken, so I had no drive to return.”

A Full Course Yellow was deployed while the wrecked cars were cleared. A slow zone persisted over the area while other cars involved in the collision limped back to the pits, including the number 39 Graff Racing LMP2 machine.

Ferrari had edged clear of their rivals over the preceding two hours until Pier Guidi brought the number 51 machine in for service shortly before midnight, soon after logging its 100th lap. The leading trio for much of this two-hour phase comprised the number 51 Ferrari, number 94 Peugeot, and Kobayashi’s doomed Toyota.

The midnight crashes changed the complexion of the race dramatically, putting Mueller at the head of the field followed by the number 50 Ferrari with Nicklas Nielsen at the wheel, and the number two Cadillac piloted by Earl Bamber.

Porsche suffered another below during the seventh hour of the race when Mathieu Jaminet came to a stop during the car’s 85th lap with what turned out to be a terminal fuel pressure problem. Vanwall also suffered a setback, a spin in the first sector costing their sole car a significant chunk of time.

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Positions after eight hours

Pos No. Class Team Car Drivers Laps
1 94 Hypercar (H) Peugeot Totalenergies Peugeot 9X8 Loic Duval/Gustavo Menezes/Nico Mueller 104
2 50 Hypercar (H) Ferrari AF Corse Ferrari 499P Antonio Fuoco/Miguel Molina/Nicklas Nielsen 104
3 2 Hypercar (H) Cadillac Racing Cadillac V-Series.R Earl Bamber/Alex Lynn/Richard Westbrook 104
4 51 Hypercar (H) Ferrari AF Corse Ferrari 499P Alessandro Pier Guidi/James Calado/Antonio Giovinazzi 104
5 8 Hypercar (H) Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 Sebastien Buemi/Brendon Hartley/Ryo Hirakawa 104
6 7 Hypercar (H) Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 Mike Conway/Kamui Kobayashi/Jose Maria Lopez 103
7 5 Hypercar (H) Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963 Dane Cameron/Michael Christensen/Frederic Makowiecki 103
8 3 Hypercar (H) Cadillac Racing Cadillac V-Series.R Sebastien Bourdais/Renger Van Der Zande/Scott Dixon 103
9 6 Hypercar (H) Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963 Kevin Estre/Andre Lotterer/Laurens Vanthoor 103
10 93 Hypercar (H) Peugeot Totalenergies Peugeot 9X8 Paul di Resta/Mikkel Jensen/Jean-Eric Vergne 102
11 708 Hypercar Glickenhaus Racing Glickenhaus 007 Romain Dumas/Olivier Pla/Ryan Briscoe 101
12 709 Hypercar Glickenhaus Racing Glickenhaus 007 Franck Mailleux/Nathanael Berthon/Esteban Gutierrez 100
13 38 Hypercar (H) Hertz Team JOTA Porsche 963 Antonio Felix Da Costa/Will Stevens/Yifei Ye 100
14 34 LMP2 Inter Europol Competition Oreca 07 – Gibson Jakub Smiechowski/Albert Costa/Fabio Scherer 100
15 41 LMP2 Team WRT Oreca 07 – Gibson Rui Andrade/Louis Deletraz/Robert Kubica 99
16 80 LMP2 Pro/Am AF Corse Oreca 07 – Gibson Francois Perrodo/Ben Barnicoat/Norman Nato 99
17 28 LMP2 JOTA Oreca 07 – Gibson David Heinemeier Hansson/Oliver Rasmussen/Pietro Fittipaldi 99
18 45 LMP2 Pro/Am Algarve Pro Racing Oreca 07 – Gibson George Kurtz/James Allen/Colin Braun 99
19 30 LMP2 Duqueine Team Oreca 07 – Gibson Neel Jani/Rene Binder/Nicolas Pino 99
20 37 LMP2 Pro/Am Cool Racing Oreca 07 – Gibson Nicolas Lapierre/Alexandre Coigny/Malthe Jakobsen 99
21 65 LMP2 Panis Racing Oreca 07 – Gibson Manuel Maldonado/Tijmen van der Helm/Job van Uitert 99
22 35 LMP2 Alpine Elf Team Oreca 07 – Gibson Andre Negrão/Olli Caldwell/Memo Rojas 99
23 48 LMP2 Idec Sport Oreca 07 – Gibson Paul Lafargue/Paul Loup Chatin/Laurents Horr 98
24 36 LMP2 Alpine Elf Team Oreca 07 – Gibson Matthieu Vaxiviere/Charles Milesi/Julienal Canal 98
25 63 LMP2 Prema Racing Oreca 07 – Gibson Doriane Pin/Daniil Kvyat/Mirko Bortolotti 98
26 47 LMP2 Cool Racing Oreca 07 – Gibson Reshad de Gerus/Vladislav Lomko/Simon Pagenaud 98
27 10 LMP2 Vector Sport Oreca 07 – Gibson Ryan Cullen/Gabriel Aubry/Matthias Kaiser 98
28 31 LMP2 Team WRT Oreca 07 – Gibson Sean Gelael/Ferdinand Habsburg/Robin Frijns 98
29 39 LMP2 Pro/Am Graff Racing Oreca 07 – Gibson Roberto Lacorte/Giedo van der Garde/Patrick Pilet 98
30 23 LMP2 United Autosports Oreca 07 – Gibson Joshua Pierson/Tom Blomqvist/Oliver Jarvis 97
31 56 LMGTE Am Project 1 – AO Porsche 911 RSR-19 PJ Hyett/Gunnar Jeannette/Matteo Cairoli 96
32 85 LMGTE Am Iron Dames Porsche 911 RSR-19 Sarah Bovy/Michelle Gatting/Rahel Frey 96
33 54 LMGTE Am AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo Thomas Flohr/Francesco Castellacci/Davide Rigon 96
34 57 LMGTE Am Kessel Racing Ferrari 488 GTE Evo Takeshi Kimura/Scott Huffaker/Daniel Serra 95
35 911 LMGTE Am Proton Competition Porsche 911 RSR-19 Michael Fassbender/Martin Rump/Richard Lietz 95
36 98 LMGTE Am Northwest AMR Aston Martin Vantage AMR Ian James/Daniel Mancinelli/Alex Riberas 95
37 24 CDNT Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Jimmie Johnson/Mike Rockenfeller/Jenson Button 95
38 4 Hypercar Floyd Vanwall Racing Team Vanwall Vandervell 680 Tom Dillmann/Esteban Guerrieri/Tristan Vautier 95
39 25 LMGTE Am ORT by TF Aston Martin Vantage AMR Ahmad Al Harthy/Michael Dinan/Charlie Eastwood 95
40 86 LMGTE Am GR Racing Porsche 911 RSR-19 Michael Wainwright/Benjamin Barker/Riccardo Pera 94
41 88 LMGTE Am Proton Competition Porsche 911 RSR-19 Harry Tincknell/Donald Yount/Jonas Ried 94
42 33 LMGTE Am Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C8.R Nicky Catsburg/Ben Keating/Nicolas Varrone 94
43 22 LMP2 United Autosports Oreca 07 – Gibson Philip Hanson/Filipe Albuquerque/Frederick Lubin 94
44 100 LMGTE Am Walkenhorst Motorsport Ferrari 488 GTE Evo Chandler Hull/Andrew Haryanto/Jeffrey Segal 93
45 77 LMGTE Am Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche 911 RSR-19 Christian Ried/Mikkel Pedersen/Julien Andlauer 93
46 74 LMGTE Am Kessel Racing Ferrari 488 GTE Evo Kei Cozzolino/Yorikatsu Tsujiko/Naoki Yokomizo 92
47 777 LMGTE Am D’Station Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR Satoshi Hoshino/Casper Stevenson/Tomonobu Fujii 91
48 9 LMP2 Prema Racing Oreca 07 – Gibson Bent Viscaal/Juan Manuel Correa/Filip Ugran 90
49 66 LMGTE Am JMW Motorsport Ferrari 488 GTE Evo Thomas Neubauer/Louis Prette/Giacomo Petrobelli 89
50 311 Hypercar (H) Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R Luis Felipe Derani/Alexander Sims/Jack Aitken 87
51 923 LMP2 Pro/Am Racing Team Turkey Oreca 07 – Gibson Salih Yoluc/Tom Gamble/Dries Vanthoor 87
52 32 LMP2 Inter Europol Competition Oreca 07 – Gibson Mark Kvamme/Jan Magnussen/Anders Fjordbach 86
53 43 LMP2 Pro/Am DKR Engineering Oreca 07 – Gibson Tom Van Rompuy/Ugo de Wilde/Maxime Martin 85
54 75 Hypercar (H) Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963 Felipe Nasr/Mathieu Jaminet/Nicholas Tandy 84
55 72 LMGTE Am TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage AMR Arnold Robin/Maxime Robin/Valentin Hasse-Clot 58
56 83 LMGTE Am Richard Mille AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo Luis Perez Companc/Alessio Rovera/Lilou Wadoux 33
57 16 LMGTE Am Proton Competition Porsche 911 RSR-19 Ryan Hardwick/Zacharie Robichon/Jan Heylen 28
58 60 LMGTE Am Iron Lynx Porsche 911 RSR-19 Claudio Schiavoni/Matteo Cressoni/Alessio Picariello 28
59 55 LMGTE Am GMB Motorsport Aston Martin Vantage AMR Gustav Dahlmann Birch/Marco Sorensen/Jens Reno Moller 21
60 21 LMGTE Am AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo Simon Mann/Julien Piguet/Ulysse de Pauw 21
61 13 LMP2 Pro/Am Tower Motorsports Oreca 07 – Gibson Steven Thomas/Ricky Taylor/Rene Rast 19
62 14 LMP2 Pro/Am Nielsen Racing Oreca 07 – Gibson Rodrigo Sales/Mathias Beche/Ben Hanley 18

Hours 9-10

The clean-up of the crash which eliminated the number seven Toyota required the deployment of the Safety Car so the machine could be safely craned away. It joined the number 75 Porsche as the second Hypercar-class retirement.

That meant another lengthy re-ordering process, during which many of the runners took the opportunity to pit. The entire procedure took around an hour to complete. By this time the race was in its 10th hour, of which the total duration spent behind the Safety Car was over three hours.

When the race went green again, Peugeot’s 90-second lead has been wiped out and Mueller had an aggressive Sebastien Buemi on his tail. The Cadillac driver had received a few encouraging words on his radio during the lengthy delay, and immediately set about passing the race leader to rejoin the leader lap.

Ryo Hirakawa in the number eight Toyota also pounced on the leading Peugeot in the Esses at the start of the lap. While he claimed the lead in the sole remaining GR010, the two Ferraris gave pursuit.

Fourth-placed Pier Guidi was soon lobbying to be allowed past Antonio Fuoco ahead of him, to no avail. The pair remained separated by little more than half a second for several laps through the 10th hour, before Fuoco managed to stretch a lead of just over a second.

Alex Lynn followed close behind in the first of the Cadillacs. His team mate Bourdais, who had the race-leading Toyota in his mirrors, was the last car on the lead lap.

A Full Course Yellow was triggered with 20 minutes left to the 10-hour mark when Daniil Kvyat crashed his number 63 Prema LMP2 car heavily in the Porsche curves, striking the barriers twice. Kvyat climbed from his wrecked car unaided.

Hirakawa in the race-leading Toyota had been putting around a second per lap on his pursuers, but took the opportunity to pit under the suspension, putting Mueller’s Peugeot back in front. Ferrari took the opportunity to bring Fuoco into the garage to have the front of his car looked at, but racing speed resumed before he was able to rejoin.

Much further back the Action Express-run number 311 Cadillac lost yet more time when Pipo Derani spun at the final chicane while the race was neutralised.

Pier Guidi in the second Ferrari immediately attacked the lead Peugeot when the race restarted and took the lead as they accelerated out of Mulsanne corner. However it proved only temporary, as he headed for the pits at the end of the lap, handing his car over to James Calado.

Hirakawa was also due to change over, and brought his Toyota back into the pits soon after his previous visit so Sebastien Buemi could take the wheel.

That meant as the 10th hour concluded four difference cars occupied the top four places. Mueller continued to lead for Peugeot, pursued by Lynn’s Cadillac, them Buemi and Calado as they gave chase at the beginning of their stints. Fuoco had dropped to eight place in the second Ferrari following his extended pit stops, losing places to Bourdais, Kevin Estre in the leading Penske Porsche and Mikkel Jensen in the second Peugeot.

Positions after 10 hours

Pos No. Class Team Car Drivers Laps
1 94 Hypercar (H) Peugeot Totalenergies Peugeot 9X8 Loic Duval/Gustavo Menezes/Nico Mueller 124
2 2 Hypercar (H) Cadillac Racing Cadillac V-Series.R Earl Bamber/Alex Lynn/Richard Westbrook 124
3 8 Hypercar (H) Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 Sebastien Buemi/Brendon Hartley/Ryo Hirakawa 124
4 51 Hypercar (H) Ferrari AF Corse Ferrari 499P Alessandro Pier Guidi/James Calado/Antonio Giovinazzi 124
5 3 Hypercar (H) Cadillac Racing Cadillac V-Series.R Sebastien Bourdais/Renger Van Der Zande/Scott Dixon 123
6 6 Hypercar (H) Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963 Kevin Estre/Andre Lotterer/Laurens Vanthoor 123
7 93 Hypercar (H) Peugeot Totalenergies Peugeot 9X8 Paul di Resta/Mikkel Jensen/Jean-Eric Vergne 122
8 50 Hypercar (H) Ferrari AF Corse Ferrari 499P Antonio Fuoco/Miguel Molina/Nicklas Nielsen 121
9 708 Hypercar Glickenhaus Racing Glickenhaus 007 Romain Dumas/Olivier Pla/Ryan Briscoe 121
10 709 Hypercar Glickenhaus Racing Glickenhaus 007 Franck Mailleux/Nathanael Berthon/Esteban Gutierrez 120
11 38 Hypercar (H) Hertz Team JOTA Porsche 963 Antonio Felix Da Costa/Will Stevens/Yifei Ye 119
12 5 Hypercar (H) Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963 Dane Cameron/Michael Christensen/Frederic Makowiecki 119
13 37 LMP2 Pro/Am Cool Racing Oreca 07 – Gibson Nicolas Lapierre/Alexandre Coigny/Malthe Jakobsen 118
14 34 LMP2 Inter Europol Competition Oreca 07 – Gibson Jakub Smiechowski/Albert Costa/Fabio Scherer 118
15 41 LMP2 Team WRT Oreca 07 – Gibson Rui Andrade/Louis Deletraz/Robert Kubica 118
16 30 LMP2 Duqueine Team Oreca 07 – Gibson Neel Jani/Rene Binder/Nicolas Pino 118
17 47 LMP2 Cool Racing Oreca 07 – Gibson Reshad de Gerus/Vladislav Lomko/Simon Pagenaud 118
18 65 LMP2 Panis Racing Oreca 07 – Gibson Manuel Maldonado/Tijmen van der Helm/Job van Uitert 118
19 48 LMP2 Idec Sport Oreca 07 – Gibson Paul Lafargue/Paul Loup Chatin/Laurents Horr 118
20 28 LMP2 JOTA Oreca 07 – Gibson David Heinemeier Hansson/Oliver Rasmussen/Pietro Fittipaldi 117
21 10 LMP2 Vector Sport Oreca 07 – Gibson Ryan Cullen/Gabriel Aubry/Matthias Kaiser 117
22 36 LMP2 Alpine Elf Team Oreca 07 – Gibson Matthieu Vaxiviere/Charles Milesi/Julienal Canal 117
23 31 LMP2 Team WRT Oreca 07 – Gibson Sean Gelael/Ferdinand Habsburg/Robin Frijns 117
24 80 LMP2 Pro/Am AF Corse Oreca 07 – Gibson Francois Perrodo/Ben Barnicoat/Norman Nato 116
25 23 LMP2 United Autosports Oreca 07 – Gibson Joshua Pierson/Tom Blomqvist/Oliver Jarvis 116
26 45 LMP2 Pro/Am Algarve Pro Racing Oreca 07 – Gibson George Kurtz/James Allen/Colin Braun 116
27 35 LMP2 Alpine Elf Team Oreca 07 – Gibson Andre Negrão/Olli Caldwell/Memo Rojas 115
28 56 LMGTE Am Project 1 – AO Porsche 911 RSR-19 PJ Hyett/Gunnar Jeannette/Matteo Cairoli 115
29 85 LMGTE Am Iron Dames Porsche 911 RSR-19 Sarah Bovy/Michelle Gatting/Rahel Frey 115
30 911 LMGTE Am Proton Competition Porsche 911 RSR-19 Michael Fassbender/Martin Rump/Richard Lietz 115
31 54 LMGTE Am AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo Thomas Flohr/Francesco Castellacci/Davide Rigon 115
32 57 LMGTE Am Kessel Racing Ferrari 488 GTE Evo Takeshi Kimura/Scott Huffaker/Daniel Serra 115
33 4 Hypercar Floyd Vanwall Racing Team Vanwall Vandervell 680 Tom Dillmann/Esteban Guerrieri/Tristan Vautier 114
34 25 LMGTE Am ORT by TF Aston Martin Vantage AMR Ahmad Al Harthy/Michael Dinan/Charlie Eastwood 114
35 24 CDNT Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Jimmie Johnson/Mike Rockenfeller/Jenson Button 114
36 86 LMGTE Am GR Racing Porsche 911 RSR-19 Michael Wainwright/Benjamin Barker/Riccardo Pera 114
37 98 LMGTE Am Northwest AMR Aston Martin Vantage AMR Ian James/Daniel Mancinelli/Alex Riberas 114
38 88 LMGTE Am Proton Competition Porsche 911 RSR-19 Harry Tincknell/Donald Yount/Jonas Ried 114
39 33 LMGTE Am Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C8.R Nicky Catsburg/Ben Keating/Nicolas Varrone 114
40 63 LMP2 Prema Racing Oreca 07 – Gibson Doriane Pin/Daniil Kvyat/Mirko Bortolotti 113
41 22 LMP2 United Autosports Oreca 07 – Gibson Philip Hanson/Filipe Albuquerque/Frederick Lubin 113
42 100 LMGTE Am Walkenhorst Motorsport Ferrari 488 GTE Evo Chandler Hull/Andrew Haryanto/Jeffrey Segal 112
43 74 LMGTE Am Kessel Racing Ferrari 488 GTE Evo Kei Cozzolino/Yorikatsu Tsujiko/Naoki Yokomizo 112
44 77 LMGTE Am Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche 911 RSR-19 Christian Ried/Mikkel Pedersen/Julien Andlauer 112
45 777 LMGTE Am D’Station Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR Satoshi Hoshino/Casper Stevenson/Tomonobu Fujii 110
46 9 LMP2 Prema Racing Oreca 07 – Gibson Bent Viscaal/Juan Manuel Correa/Filip Ugran 109
47 311 Hypercar (H) Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R Luis Felipe Derani/Alexander Sims/Jack Aitken 106
48 43 LMP2 Pro/Am DKR Engineering Oreca 07 – Gibson Tom Van Rompuy/Ugo de Wilde/Maxime Martin 105
49 32 LMP2 Inter Europol Competition Oreca 07 – Gibson Mark Kvamme/Jan Magnussen/Anders Fjordbach 104
50 39 LMP2 Pro/Am Graff Racing Oreca 07 – Gibson Roberto Lacorte/Giedo van der Garde/Patrick Pilet 103
51 7 Hypercar (H) Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 Mike Conway/Kamui Kobayashi/Jose Maria Lopez 103
52 66 LMGTE Am JMW Motorsport Ferrari 488 GTE Evo Thomas Neubauer/Louis Prette/Giacomo Petrobelli 89
53 923 LMP2 Pro/Am Racing Team Turkey Oreca 07 – Gibson Salih Yoluc/Tom Gamble/Dries Vanthoor 87
54 75 Hypercar (H) Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963 Felipe Nasr/Mathieu Jaminet/Nicholas Tandy 84
55 72 LMGTE Am TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage AMR Arnold Robin/Maxime Robin/Valentin Hasse-Clot 58
56 83 LMGTE Am Richard Mille AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo Luis Perez Companc/Alessio Rovera/Lilou Wadoux 33
57 16 LMGTE Am Proton Competition Porsche 911 RSR-19 Ryan Hardwick/Zacharie Robichon/Jan Heylen 28
58 60 LMGTE Am Iron Lynx Porsche 911 RSR-19 Claudio Schiavoni/Matteo Cressoni/Alessio Picariello 28
59 55 LMGTE Am GMB Motorsport Aston Martin Vantage AMR Gustav Dahlmann Birch/Marco Sorensen/Jens Reno Moller 21
60 21 LMGTE Am AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo Simon Mann/Julien Piguet/Ulysse de Pauw 21
61 13 LMP2 Pro/Am Tower Motorsports Oreca 07 – Gibson Steven Thomas/Ricky Taylor/Rene Rast 19
62 14 LMP2 Pro/Am Nielsen Racing Oreca 07 – Gibson Rodrigo Sales/Mathias Beche/Ben Hanley 18

2023 Le Mans 24 Hours report

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Keith Collantine
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11 comments on “Peugeot regain Le Mans lead after another lengthy Safety Car interruption”

  1. Wow, the Peugeot is leading and suddenly it’s a lap ahead of the four cars following it.
    If I only understood how the pitstop exit blocking works… Confusing as hell. It seems to me that a pitstop under a full course yellow costs you a full lap… Correct??

    1. Under a SC the pit exit is closed until the closest of the 3 SC’s & pack behind it passes the pit exit.

      This is done for safety so you don’t have cars driving fast to try and catch the pack.

      They have also altered the SC procedures for this year to be more in line with what you see in the US with wave arounds to try and keep more cars on the lead lap and in the flight.

      However it’s just resulting in unnecessarily long sc periods as the 3 safety car packs have to merge, Then the wave around happens and then they drop the slower classes to the back of the pack.

      Was apparently a process change that was done purely for the show to try and keep more cars on the lead lap and in the lead fight.

      Maybe it’s done that but the unintended consequence of absurdly long caution periods and confusion over getting everyone in the right pack and order has been a complete farce.

  2. Coming up on 3 hours of safety car running in a 9 hour race.

    It’ll be interesting to see how the Cadillac does in the night; they’ve had great pace so far, but perhaps not always at the right moments.

  3. The 24 hours of Safety Car

  4. Man I’m enjoying the race! Checking in as i have time but every time theres a lead change. Great to see as many manufacturers as there are in hypercar and all being competitive! I was expecting a Valkyrie though?? Next year?

    The Nascar ain’t doing too bad! And good to see kiwis well represented!!

    1. RandomMallard
      11th June 2023, 8:37

      @antznz My understanding is while Aston Martin were heavily involved in early discussions surrounding the Hypercar class with regards to creating the ruleset entering a Valkyrie, they scrapped the project after the Stroll buyout/investment in 2020 to instead focus on F1. So unfortunately I wouldn’t expect a Valkyrie any time soon. Alpine, BMW and Lamborghini, as well as a couple of smaller Italian manufacturers, do plan on bringing cars next year though.

  5. Jonathan Parkin
    11th June 2023, 5:07

    This re ordering process is why I don’t like it in F1. I watched the 2008 Monaco GP recently which had such a long SC period because there was a long reorder

    This was I’m sure why Kimi ran into the back of the Force India and why the race was ultimately time limited at 2 hours

    1. So you mean he rear-ended Sutil because of tyres & or brakes getting cold from a lengthy SC period?

  6. I watched the race at parts from some teams’ onboard footage on YT, mainly Toyotas, but unfortunately, the unnecessarily lengthy & repetitive SC neutralizations are ruining enjoyment for everyone.
    I, like all others, just wanted to see some LM24h racing instead of a high-speed parade.

    1. Rather I’ve watched & will do more today.

  7. William Coles
    11th June 2023, 8:10

    I’ve sat down and watched for probably two hours total and there has been about 20 minutes of actual racing in this time. Endless cautions, pointless full course yellows and safety car periods that last for hours. They have killed the spectical. My brother is there and he said that it has ruined it too. The coverage has also been awful. Watching the pit crews sleeping and washing their goggles is not what people tune in for…

Comments are closed.