As the 2018 running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans moved through its sixth hour, it was the Toyotas who led from the front, with the #8 TS050-Hybrid at the head of the field, driven by Kazuki Nakajima in the car he shares with Fernando Alonso and Sébastien Buemi.
As was expected, and designed, when Toyota Gazoo Racing entered the 2018-19 ‘Super Season’ , the only two hybrids in the premier class were controlling the race from the front and, barring disasters, should be able run the remainder of the race at a pace of their choice.
The best of the non-hybrids, as the race moved through its sixth hour, was the #17 BR Engineering BR1, piloted by Matevos Isaakyan, Egor Orudzhev and Stéphane Sarrazin.
The LMP2 category is being led by the #26 G-Drive Racing ORECA 07, Roman Rusinov at the wheel in the car he shares with Andrea Pizzitola and Jean-Éric Vergne.
The battle at the head of the LM GTE Pro category is capturing a lot of attention with the #92, £93 and #91 Porsche GT Team 911 RSRs leading the field in a race that celebrates 70 years of the Stuttgart brand.
Porsche also hold on to the top two positions in the LM GTE Am category with the #77 Dempsey-Proton Racing 911 RSR leading the Team Project 1 911 RSR in second place in class with Jörg Bergmeister at the wheel.
There was major disappointment for the ByKolles Racing Team when, after issues at the start line for Enso CLM P1/01 when it failed to fire up, Domink Kraihamer had a huge accident in the car after four hours, leading to a long safety car period.