Constant rain showers plagued the circuit.
LEMANS, France—Toyota Gazoo Racing held the lead at the midway point of the 92nd annual 24 Hours of Lemans at the Circuit de la Sarthe with the team of Sebastian Buemi, Brendon Hartley, and Ryo Hirakawa attempting to give the Japanese team their first win in two years.
In a race where constant showers plagued the circuit, it was a dominant attempt by Ferrari to hold the lead, which the Italian team did following the battle with the Penske Porsches early on. But as the evening approached, the yellow-clad Ferrari with former F1 driver Robert Kubica, who was teamed with Robert Schwartzmann and Yeffi Ye, continued to lead going into the midnight hour, when Kubica collided with the BMW driven by Dries Vanthoor on Mulsanne straight, retiring the Belgian and giving Kubica a penalty, in which he never regained the lead again.
Seven other cars besides Vanthoor have retired from this classic race, and two of the home Alpine cars ended their day with mechanical issues. One of the other favorites that retired was the WRT entry of Ahmad Al Harthy with a Proton and a Vista Ferrari with Thomas Flohr, who crashed into the first chicane earlier in the day. As morning appeared, the Toyota Gazoo with Hirakawa still held the lead from pole sitter Laurent Vanthoor, with the second Toyota of Nyck de Vries driving third.
The other two classes besides hypercar have the LMP 2 class, with Vector Sport leading from AF Corse and the United Autosports with their main driver Oliver Jarvis in third. For the new class, the GT3, driving for the first time in this French race, has the Manthey EMA entry leading with Roland Lietz, already a race winner, leading with the United Autosports in second and the all-female Iron Dames car in third.
The finish of this classic race will conclude at 1600 hours with the possibility of more showery conditions that could change the outcome of what has not been much of a dry race.
