Toyota took the lead from Ferrari in the first hour of the Le Mans 24 Hours when one of Cadillac’s hypercars crashed early on.
It was the #8 Toyota GR010 HYBRID of Sebastien Buemi that, at the end of the first hour of racing at the Circuit de la Sarthe, interrupted by a safety car period following an accident, held the lead over James Calado’s #51 Ferrari Cadillac used by Express Racing.
Jack Aitken appeared to simply lose control of the third row #311 V-Series.R exiting the first chicane, suffering significant damage to the left front although he was able to bring the car back into the pits.
At the front of the field, Buemi and Mike Conway’s two Toyotas – both running on soft Michelin tires compared to the medium ones fitted to the Ferraris – were able to outperform Calados Ferrari and move into second and third place, and Buemi was soon a challenger to pole position #50 499P Nicklas Nielsen took the lead.
Buemi passed Nielsen just before Indianapolis on the first lap before the race was abandoned due to Aitken’s crash.
The first-ever drop-back procedure was carried out, with numerous LMP2 and GTE-Am drivers – as well as customer Jota Porsche 963 – all taking the chance to make early pit stops.
When racing resumed, Buemi quickly passed Nielsen despite complaining about having brake regeneration problems under the safety car, while Conway was able to win the Danish driver for second place again at Indianapolis.
But Conway in the #7 Toyota struggled with front tire wear and soon found himself under pressure from both Ferraris, and Nielsen was able to fight his way back into second place after 53 minutes at the Mulsanne corner.
Nielsen pitted for his first stop at the end of that lap, temporarily moving Conway back to second before being passed by Calado’s sister Ferrari at the first chicane.
At the end of the first hour, Buemi was 4.6 seconds ahead of Calado, with Conway a further 1.4 seconds behind in third place.
Felipe Nasr was fourth in the best Porsche, although the Brazilian was cautioned for touching Buemis Toyota in the first corner.
Teammates of Brazilian Laurens Vanthoor and Michael Christensen finished fifth and sixth respectively ahead of Earl Bamber’s chip Ganassi Cadillac and Peugeot’s pair of 9X8s, with Paul di Resta leading Nico Muller.
One of the two Glickenhaus 007 LMHs, car #708, was a lap down in the early stages after suffering an oil leak before the start of the race.
In the LMP2 class, pole man Paul-Loup Chatin maintained the lead at the wheel of his IDEC Sport ORECA.
Robert Kubica improved from third to second in the best WRT car while Reshad de Gerus in his COOL Racing effort was briefly third before pitting just before the end of the first hour.
Pietro Fittipaldi, who had started second at the Jota ORECA, moved back up to third place.
The No. 63 Prema car of Daniil Kvyat had finished second at the safety car restart but fell to the back of the field after being called into the pits to fix a taillight.
In the GTE class, pole-winning Nicky Catsburg’s Corvette Racing was among the most cars to pit under the safety car.
Among those who stayed out was the #54 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE of Davide Rigon, which after an hour had the lead over Matteo Cairoli’s AO Racing Porsche 911 RSR-19.
The Garage 56 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 NASCAR Cup car, driven by Mike Rockenfeller, finished 35th overall, ahead of the entire GTE-Am field.