After a quarter of the race at the Circuit de la Sarthe, the #8 GR010 HYBRID of Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa was challenging for the podium positions while the #7 GR010 HYBRID of José María López, Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries pushed for the top six.

A difficult qualifying left the two cars at the wrong end of the Hypercar grid and Nyck took the green flag from 23rd in the #7, while Sébastien started 11th in the #8. Sébastien immediately began an exciting fight through the field, while Nyck adopted a cautious strategy in the opening stint to avoid any early risks.

Within four laps, Sébastien was inside the top six and, after the first pit stops, he moved up to fourth before being part of an exciting four-car battle for third at the end of the opening hour, while Nyck had moved the #7 up to 17th.

After around 100 minutes, a rain shower hit parts of the 13.626km circuit. Sébastien, running second at the time, was the first Hypercar to switch to wet tyres, followed a lap later by Nyck, who handed over to Kamui. However, the rain eased and, as the track dried, both cars had to return to soft Michelins a few laps later.

Other Hypercars chose a different strategy so Sébastien entered the third hour in eighth place, with Kamui in 11th. Both cars maintained their strong pace and once again made progress towards the front.

In the fourth hour, they were racing in the top six, and Sébastien even led the race due to a different rhythm of fuel stops for rivals. His long first stint at the wheel ended after more than three hours when Brendon took over the #8 while, late in the fourth hour, José took the wheel of the #7.

As the race entered its fifth hour, Brendon was running fourth with José fifth, but the #7 would soon drop to eighth due to a drive through penalty for a slow zone infringement. The #8 was the fastest of the leading cars by the time Brendon handed over to Ryo, who resumed in fourth midway through the hour.

As the quarter-distance point approached both GR010 HYBRIDs were inside the top six and part of a battle with Cadillac, Ferrari and Porsche for Le Mans honours as the rain began again. Both cars pitted for wet tyres, and Nyck took the wheel of the #7.

Kamui Kobayashi (Team Principal and driver, car #7):

“Thank you to the team for their hard work to help us recover positions after what happened in qualifying. So far, we are progressively improving and gaining positions so everything is going okay. There is a long way to go. We took a conservative strategy, not taking any risks because the competition is tight. The most challenging part of this race will be the night. We will just try to stay calm until tomorrow morning and then we will see where we are. Hopefully we manage that and are in good shape on Sunday. Pace-wise we are okay and hopefully we can make up more positions.”

José María López (Driver, car #7):

“It was really tough at the end of my stint on slick tyres in the rain. The team was asking what I wanted to do and it’s not easy at that moment, but I made the right call. There was so much rain and it was really tough to get back to the pits. Now we need to survive until the weather improves.”

Nyck de Vries (Driver, car #7):

“I completed two-and-a-half stints due to the rain shower in my third stint. We took the call to change to wets, but it didn’t quite work out. In my first stint, at the start, I just had to be patient and wait for opportunities because it was tough to make up positions, and it’s a long race so there was no need to take risks. There was a slipstream train but as the gaps increased in the second stint, we started to move forwards and we had good pace in clear air.”

Sébastien Buemi (Driver, car #8):

“It was not easy. We decided to start on the soft tyres because they have more grip which was better in these conditions. That helped us make up some positions. When the rain came, we decided to change to wets, but the rain stopped and we had to change back to slicks. Ferrari didn’t change tyres, so we lost a bit of time, but it is a long race and we have worked hard to get back in the fight. We are concentrating on our race and not making any mistakes because things can change very quickly in this race.”

Brendon Hartley (Driver, car #8):

“Seb did an amazing first stint. He kept it clean at the start and made his way forward. The only issue was losing a little bit of time pitting for wet tyres when a few others stayed on slicks. Maybe we were too cautious, but it was a tough call to make. Since then, it has been a very smooth race, and I am happy with my stints. I took my time to find my rhythm and I held my own with the leaders. There is a long way to go but we are in the fight.”