Peugeot regain Le Mans lead after another lengthy Safety Car interruption

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

Hours 7-8

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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

Hours one to six: Ferrari hold one-two lead after six hours as night falls at Le Mans

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World Endurance Championship

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

Asd
10th June 2023, 23:49
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. PeterG
  11th June 2023, 1:20
  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.
MichaelN
11th June 2023, 0:06
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.
MarkWebber (@markwebber)
11th June 2023, 0:12
The 24 hours of Safety Car
Antz (@antznz)
11th June 2023, 1:28
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.
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. Jere (@jerejj)
  11th June 2023, 6:26
  So you mean he rear-ended Sutil because of tyres & or brakes getting cold from a lengthy SC period?
Jere (@jerejj)
11th June 2023, 6:26
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. Jere (@jerejj)
  11th June 2023, 6:27
  Rather I’ve watched & will do more today.
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…