24H of Le Mans | Inter Europol Competition in the lead eight hours into a chaotic race

A third of the way through the 24 Hours of Le Mans Centenary, the drama has not let up on the track. Intermittent downpours have only added to the challenges facing drivers of the 24 ORECA 07s fielded this year, however, Inter Europol Competition’s #34 ORECA 07 has been able to dominate the LMP2 class.

So far, the 2023 24 Hours of Le Mans has not been a cakewalk for competitors, certainly affecting the ORECA 07s in the LMP2 category since the start at 16:00 on Saturday. It all began before the race even got underway with DKR Engineering’s #43 ORECA 07 taking several minutes to take off.

During the first eight hours, rain peppered the track several times in multiple sections. Evolving track conditions made things extremely tricky for the drivers, proving especially difficult for WRT’s #31 ORECA 07 and Alpine’s #35 ORECA 07. Shortly after nightfall, three LMP2s had incidents in the same spot, namely the United Autosports team’s #22 and Racing Team Turkey’s #923, currently both in their garages. Prema Racing’s #9 ORECA 07 was also affected while in the lead pack.

The Safety Car was deployed several times in the wake of multiple incidents across all the classes. Inter Europol Competition’s #34 ORECA 07 shared by Jakub Smiechowski/Fabio Scherer/Albert Costa successfully avoided every obstacle, snatching the lead at midnight, with WRT’s #41 ORECA 07 still very much a contender for victory in its wake. Third overall in the standings, AF Corse’s #80 ORECA 07 driven by Ben Barnicoat/Norman Nato/François Perrodo figured in the lead of Pro/Am.

Despite leaving the track at one point, the pace of JOTA’s #28 allowed the car to climb the classification, with Pietro Fittipaldi/Oliver Rasmussen/David Heinemeier Hansson taking fourth position. Algarve Pro Racing’s #45 rounded out the top 5 and pole-sitter IDEC SPORT Racing’s #48 held 10th place.

The Le Mans circuit forgives no error. After eight hours, two ORECA 07s have been forced to retire due to incidents: Nielsen Racing’s #14 and Tower Motorsports’ #13.

The next update is coming at 08:00 after Hour 16.