Le Mans Hour 1: Porsche leads from Cadillac
The two gold Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA V-Series.Rs led the field to the start of the 93rd annual 24 Hours of Le Mans, but not for long, as the sandbagging #5 Penske Porsche took the lead from third on the grid.
Julien Andlauer whipped his way past the #38 Cadillac of Earl Bamber exiting the Dunlop Chicane to pursue the #12 Cadillac of pole starter Will Stevens.
Using the slipstream and the power of his Porsche’s V8 engine and battery hybrid, Andlauer got past Stevens down into the first Mulsanne Chicane and drove away to a lead which he still holds at the end of the first hour, 4.7 seconds ahead of the two Cadillacs, then the #50 Ferrari 499P of Nicklas Nielsen.
The first major drama of the race came just before the hour when the #93 Peugeot Total Energies 9X8 of Paul di Resta went off at the Porsche Curves and smacked the tire wall. Di Resta ran out of talent trying to negotiate slower GT traffic when he felt the car snap and couldn’t keep it on the road. Di Resta drove the car back to the pits for a front and rear body work change.
In LMP2, Tom Dillmann has taken the lead in the #43 Inter Europol Competition ORECA 07-Gibson from the pole-sitting #29 TDS Racing car. Mathias Beche led his first stint from start to finish, but the car is now in the hands of Bronze driver Rodrigo Sales, who is trying to clear some of his minimum driving time.
In LMGT3, it’s the #78 Akkodis ASP Lexus RC F LMGT3 of Jack Hawksworth that leads at the end of the hour, from the #46 Team WRT BMW M4 LMGT3 of Kelvin van der Linde.