Le Mans 24 Hours, Hour 18: Ferrari back in control…

Ferrari has regained its control of the 2025 Le Mans 24 Hours with one quarter of the race remaining, with just seven seconds separating its lead duo.

The #6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 LMDh and the #8 Toyota GR010 HYBRID LMH had profited from a safety car earlier in the race but the Porsche slipped back behind the lead two Ferrari 499P LMHs in the 14th hour when they did not stop during a slow zone to recover the #18 ORECA-Gibson 07 IDEC LMP2 entry of Andre Lotterer, which had lost its right-rear wheel on an out-lap.

This left the #83 customer car in the lead but Phil Hanson offered little resistance when fellow Briton James Calado sailed ahead into Indianapolis.

The gap continued to remain close between the two Ferraris, including after both were hit with drive-through penalties (along with 11 other cars) for yellow-flag abuses in the 17th hour.

Once Robert Kubica had climbed back aboard the #83 machine, he closed in on Antonio Giovinazzi ahead with a series of rapid laps that included the race's fastest so far.

After some frustration on the radio, Ferrari eventually agreed to swap places of the lead two cars.

But the Pole had drifted from being less than a second behind to over 3s back by this stage and therefore they continued to circulate in the same order, the gap steadily increasing.

#83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P: Robert Kubica, Yifei Ye, Philip Hanson (Photo by: Emanuele Clivati | AG Photo)

The third of the Prancing Horses climbed up to third with the #50 machine benefitting from the Porsche being out of sync on strategy.

The Porsche fell down to fourth, 54s off the lead but remained ahead of the best of the Toyotas.

Next up was the #15 BMW M Hybrid V8 LMDh, which had briefly held the fastest lap with Dries Vanthoor at the wheel.

The pole-sitting #12 Jota Cadillac V-Series.R LMDh is now seventh, while the #7 Toyota, the #5 Porsche and the #38 sister Cadillac rounded out the rest of the top 10.

Further back, Cadillac's dismal race continued with the #311 Action Express entry retiring at the start of the 17th hour after stopping at the Dunlop Chicane with a loss of power.

Another car in strife was the #36 Alpine of Jules Gounon, who locked up heavily in Mulsanne Corner and got beached in the gravel - a full-course yellow was required to retrieve the A424 LMDh.

Both Peugeots and Aston Martins continued to circulate although this quartet were all at least two laps behind the leading Ferraris.

#199 AO by TF Oreca 07 - Gibson: PJ Hyett, Dane Cameron, Louis Deletraz (Photo by: Marc Fleury)

The #43 Inter Europol ORECA that had been the LMP2 pacesetter for much of the race was back in the lead but generally had the #48 VDS Panis car in close company, although the latter had just pitted when the clock reached 18 hours.

The sole remaining IDEC car, the #28 ORECA, had been third but had also stopped recently and slipped behind the leading pro-am runner, the #199 AO by TF machine.

Porsche continued to lead the way in the LMGT3 ranks courtesy of the #92 Manthey 911 GT3 R, despite this being one of the cluster of cars hit with a drive-through for yellow-flag offences.

However, Charlie Eastwood in the #81 TF Sport Corvette Z06 had charged his way to the front in the 14th hour before the crew slipped back to third after he departed the car.

Second place was therefore held by the #21 AF Corse Ferrari 296 that had been a frontrunner for much of the race.

There had been drama for the #85 Iron Dames Porsche, which was punted off track by the #87 ASP Lexus RC F of Clemens Schmid in the 15th hour and then suffered gearbox woes leaving it last of the 18 LMGT3 contenders still circulating.