Rain, Rossi's retirement and a long Safety Car: the recap of the night at the 24 Hours of Le Mans

• If the Le Mans night very often reserves many surprises, good or bad, it is the rain which is a spectacle this year at the 24H of Le Mans. Indeed, quite heavy rain has been falling on the circuit since around 3:30 a.m., and the race was neutralized under Safety Car since the No. 311 Cadillac left the track at 3:45 a.m. Showers are expected to continue until at least 7:00 a.m.
• A long safety car which has frozen the classification in Hypercar since midnight: at the head of the race after the penalty inflicted on the AF Corse n°83, following its accident with the BMW n°15, the Toyota n°8 of the trio Buemi – Hirakawa – Hartley still leads the race, ahead of Porsche No. 6 and the No. 7 Toyota.
• La Classic Ferrari for sale #83 of Yifei Ye is 4th, ahead of JOTA #38. Long in the fight for 4th place, the No. 2 Cadillac of Alex Palou fell to 8th place after a long pit stop under Safety Car. On the French side, following the abandonment of both Alpine, Peugeot is now the only French representative in Hypercar. The two 9X8s are still in the second part of the ranking, with #93 in 15th place and #94 in 17th place.
• In LM P2, the No. 07 Oreca 14 of the AO by TF team, which started from pole position, spent a moment in the gravel before returning to 7th in the category. The Crowdstrike Racing by APR N°45 lost its left rear wheel and stopped a few hundred meters after the second Mulsanne chicane, before abandoning. Another abandonment to note: that of the No. 30 Oreca of Team Duqueine, whose engine caught fire in the Mulsannes at 00:30 a.m.

#45 @CrowdStrikeRcng loose its tire! 🛞# LeMans24 #WEC pic.twitter.com/YFBQ2K3prx

- 24 Hours of Le Mans (@ 24hoursoflemans) June 16, 2024

• In the early morning, it was the AF Corse n°183 of the Perrodo-Varrone-Barnicoat crew which led the way ahead of the United Autosports n°22 and the COOL Racing n°37.
• The notable abandonment of this night at Le Mans was that of the #46 BMW of Valentino Rossi, which will not see the finish of its first 24 Hours of Le Mans. His teammate, Ahmad Al Harthy made a mistake in the Esses de la Forêt and landed his mount in the gravel trap.

MAMAMIA! 😲
#46 BMW in the gravel exiting Dunlop!# LeMans24 #WEC pic.twitter.com/ydfzzXiM3r

- 24 Hours of Le Mans (@ 24hoursoflemans) June 15, 2024

• At dawn, the LMGT3 ranking is dominated by the two Porsches, with the No. 92 Manthey PxreRacing of the Malykhin-Sturm-Bachler trio in the lead ahead of the No. 91 Manthey EMA.

24H of Le Mans
Ranking at 6:30 p.m.

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