Sometimes before starting 24 Hours of Le Mans Many things are taken for granted and are almost never fulfilled, because the race shows that nothing is what it seems. And the beginning of the edition of the Centenary is a sample of it. Toyota came angry to the grill for the controversial BoP and behind Ferrari. While the Italians shared impetuous hugs before starting off, the Japanese greeted each other with their apparently cold protocol. It seemed like a hint of what could happen and the opposite happened: one lap and the two units of Toyota already dominated ahead of those of Maranello.
At that time the first came out security which ate almost the first hour. He was provoked by Cadillac #311 of Action Express Racing when Jack Aitken went into the barriers on a delicate asphalt part of the track. He was the first of many. Accidents would happen, punishing especially the LMP2 and specifically one of the favourites, #22 of United Autosport, embedded against a GT
Then the first dose of rain would arrive in some areas of La Sarthe while in others a sun shone anticipate summer to disrupt everything more and confirm that what was taken for granted had no resemblance to reality. Through the head had passed the Ferrarithe Toyotaseveral Porscheincluding the private Jack #38, that the wall and the box left without a rear part and without a first position, and the Peugeot #94.
When darkness was just another threat, in Le Mans the track began to dry completely and caught the Ferrari #50 with Miguel Molina at the wheel and in the lead with an advantage of just over a minute over the Toyota #8 (Buemi, Hartley and Hirakawa) and the #7 (Conway, Kobayashi and Pechito). A pit-stop around 10:00 p.m. swapped the positions of Maranello giving the lead to 499P #51 (Calado, Pier Guidi, Giovinazzi), but with the next one from the Japanese by workshops the differences remained stable. No the sky, which capriciously unloaded with fury so that nobody relaxes. Everyone in and start over.
With the strategies and calculations of the engineers in the trash, the cars and the drivers faced the ultimate: the night, the fatigue and the water. The positions? dominated the Ferrari #51. And the one from Molina, number 50, was in fourth place when, before the water, he was leading. That that was precisely what he did in the category LMP2 Albert Costawho left his stamp again, and his car of the Inter Europol #34 at the top of the table. Alex Riberas, with starting problems in his Aston Martin, was running seventh in GT. But with more than half a race ahead, and how capricious fate and clouds are, it’s almost the least of it. Now it’s about surviving and clearing up. After the storm comes the calm, says the proverb, but everything indicates that here, in Le Mans, it will be the opposite. Who knows, because nothing is what it seems.
Classification at 22:45
