Le Mans – H19: G-Drive and Aston Martin stumble

The fight at the head of 24 Hours of Le Mans still turns to the advantage of Audi with the n°1 of Marc Gené which has almost a lap ahead of the Porsche No. 20 now driven by Timo Bernhard. André Lotterer is in third position on the R18 n°2 which is still ahead of the Toyota n ° 8 of Sébastien Buemi and Rebellion No. 12 by Nick Heidfeld.

The race is more eventful in the other categories. After having been in the lead for several hours, the No. 35 G-Drive Racing Ligier of Jann Mardenborough was returned to the garage, Oak Racing having changed the rear brake calipers. Mark Shulzhitskiy replaced the Briton by starting in second position behind the Thiriet by TDS Racing Ligier which moved into first position with the eponymous driver at the wheel. Regrets are bitter for Alpine who dropped to fifth place following a broken left-front hub carrier. It is the Zytek of Jota Sport led by Simon Dolan which now completes the provisional podium in the category ahead of the Oreca 03R of Sébastien Loeb Racing driven by René Rast.

The GTE Pro duel also produced a favorite. Gianmaria Bruni finds himself alone in the lead on the Ferrari #51 after Bruno Senna returned to the pits following a power steering failure in the #97 Vantage. L'Aston Martin dropped to fourth behind the #92 Porsche of Richard Lietz while the #73 Corvette of Jordan Taylor completed the provisional podium. On the other hand, no change on the GTE Am side since the No. 95 Vantage of David Heinemeier-Hansson retains the lead.

Photos from the 82nd edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans can be viewed on this link.