The Toyota GR010 HYBRID driven by Sebastien Buemi leads the 24 Hours of Le Mans race after the first hour of action. The #51 Ferrari driven by James Calado is in second place with the other Toyota GR010 HYBRID driven by Mike Conway in third. The first hour was interrupted by a safety car period after a crash for the Action Express Racing-entered Cadillac.
Jack Aitken appeared to lose control of the #311 V-Series.R and suffered significant front-left damage, but he was able to return to the pits. At the head of the field, the two Toyotas of Buemi and Conway were both able to pass Calado’s Ferrari to move into second and third places respectively. Buemi then overtook the pole-sitting #50 499P of Nicklas Nielsen for the lead. However, the race was neutralised for Aitken’s crash and the first-ever drop back procedure was performed, with numerous LMP2 and GTE Am runners, as well as the customer Jota Porsche 963, taking the chance to make early pitstops.
When the race resumed, Buemi quickly gapped Nielsen, despite having complained about struggling with his brake regen under the safety car, while Conway was able to pick off the Danish driver for second.
LMP2
In LMP2, poleman Paul-Loup Chatin maintained the lead at the wheel of his IDEC Sport ORECA. Robert Kubica moved up from third to second in the best of the WRT cars, while Reshad de Gerus was briefly third in his COOL Racing entry before pitting just before the end of the first hour. That promoted Pietro Fittipaldi, who had started second in the Jota ORECA, back up to third. The #63 Prema car of Daniil Kvyat had held second at the safety car restart but dropped to the rear of the field after being summoned to the pits to fix a tail light.
GTE
In GTE, the pole-winning Corvette Racing car of Nicky Catsburg was among the majority of cars to pit under the safety car. Among those to stay out was the #54 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE of Davide Rigon, who held the advantage at the one-hour mark over the AO Racing Porsche 911 RSR 19 of Matteo Cairoli. The Garage 56 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 NASCAR Cup car, started by Mike Rockenfeller, ran 35th overall, ahead of the entire GTE Am field.
At the end of the first hour, Buemi was 4.6 seconds ahead of Calado, with Conway a further 1.4 seconds back in third. Felipe Nasr was fourth in the best of the Porsches, although the Brazilian picked up a warning for making contact with Buemi’s Toyota at the first corner. The Brazilian’s team-mates Laurens Vanthoor and Michael Christensen ran fifth and sixth ahead of the Chip Ganassi run-Cadillac of Earl Bamber and Peugeot’s pair of 9X8s, Paul di Resta leading Nico Muller. One of the two Glickenhaus 007 LMHs, the #708 car, went a lap down in the early stages after suffering an oil leak before the race even started.
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