18 June 2017
Le Mans, 18 June 2017 - The evening and early night were very complex for many of the competitors in all classes and nor were the Ferraris entirely problem-free.
GTE-Pro. The 488 GTE of Risi Competizione suffered the heaviest setback, kicked out for irresponsible conduct by Mathieu Vaxiviere at the wheel of the Oreca no. 28 of TDS Racing. At the first Hunaudières chicane the prototype lapped Ferrari no. 71, then driven by Miguel Molina, and shortly after did the same to Ferrari no. 82. However, even before completing the manoeuvre, the prototype struck the Ferrari, sending it smashing into the barriers. It was the end of the race for the Risi Competizione car, at that time driven by Pierre Kaffer, while Molina only just avoided the incident. Over an hour after midnight, Ferrari no. 51 is fourth with James Calado while no.71 is sixth with Miguel Molina.
GTE-Am. In the GTE-Am class, Ferrari no. 84 is comfortably in command after a Dunlop tyre exploded on Aston Martin no. 98, which had been in the lead. Dries Vanthoor, Will Stevens and Robert Smith are driving a perfect race, but Marco Cioci, Duncan Cameron and Aaron Scott with Ferrari no. 55 of Spirit of Race are still doing very well as are Townsend Bell, Bill Sweedler and Cooper MacNeil in no. 62 of Scuderia Corsa. Aside from the Risi Competizione car, all the Ferraris are still in the race as they approach the halfway mark.