Le Mans 24 Hours: Bamber leads as a number of cars crash out

Cadillac Racing’s Earl Bamber inherited the race lead after a number of crashes plague the second hour of running.

How the second hour unfolded…

Shortly after the first hour had been concluded, Toyota’s Mike Conway peeled into the pit lane to get rid of his worn soft tyres which had given the Briton some grief on his first stint.

After Conway returned to the circuit, his teammate – and overall race leader – Sebastien Buemi peeled into the pit lane to complete his own stop, this allowed Ferrari’s James Calado to naturally inherit the race lead.

Ferrari’s Nicklas Nielsen pulled into the pit lane prior to the end of the first hour and this undercut worked well for the Danish driver who became the new race leader, ahead of Cadillac Racing’s Sebastien Bourdais and Buemi respectively.

An early stop for Bourdais, who pitted 50 minutes into the session, now found himself amongst the front runners.

For the LMP2 category, Nielsen Racing saw their 24-hour race ruined after Rodrigo Sales suffered a hard crash into the barrier, at the exit of the Dunlop curve. The car was quickly lifted from the circuit as the car lost its front right tyre due to the collision and began to leak fluid.

Due to the slow zone being enforced around the Dunlop curve, Nielsen and Bourdais pulled into the pit lane. As Bourdais had pitted earlier for a fresh set of tyres, it was a quick stop for the Cadillac Racing team while Ferrari had their first driver change of the race as Antonio Fuoco replaced Nielsen.

Tower Motorsports, another LMP2 class car, crashed on the exit of Tertre corner. Replays showed Ricky Taylor was a spin into the barrier, at the beginning of the Mulsanne Straight.

In turn, this meant race control issued an additional slow zone down the first third of the back straight. The race director was reported to have stated that the Tower Motorsports car was not allowed to rejoin the track as the LMP2 car began to leak fluid.

Due to the slow zones in place, Bourdais was rotated around due to a driver not anticipating the slow zone. The #3 Cadillac was able to get back to the pit lane for repairs as the hypercar was pushed back into the garage.

The #3 Cadillac was soon released back onto the circuit, on the lead lap, with Scott Dixon now at the helm.

It was quickly seen that the AF Corse’s Ulysse De Pauw’s Ferrari, and, GMB Motorsports, Gustav Dahlmann Birch’s Aston Martin were seen stopped under the Dunlop bridge.

At the same time, Calado peeled into the pit lane which allowed Bourdais’s teammate, Earl Bamber, to inherit the overall race lead ahead of both Porsche cars of Michael Christensen and Felipe Nasr respectively.

That’s all for the article: Le Mans 24 Hours: Bamber leads as a number of cars crash out!

Read more World Endurance Championship content here:

• Le Mans 24 Hours: Buemi leads first hour as Aitken crashes
• WEC: Ferrari dominate Hyperpole to finish 1-2 ahead of Le Mans 24 Hours
• 2023 Le Mans 24 Hours: Ferrari lead hyperpole contenders with 1-2 finish
• Romain Grosjean set to race for Lamborghini in 2023 and 2024

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Kamron Kent

Hi, I’m Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion.

I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I’ve loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.