Yahoo Finance Race-Leading Ferrari Nudges BMW Hypercar Off Track and Into Guardrail in Gnarly Wreck at Le Mans
With 17:24:48 remaining in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the No. 15 BMW was shown crashed into the safety barrier Saturday evening. When onboard cameras were reviewed, it was discovered that the No. 15 was knocked by the current race-leading No. 83 Ferrari.
Dries Vanthoor was visibly upset in the car after the leader ruined his race vehicle; he was running in 13th at the time. Vanthoor was running in tenth place and about to be lapped when the contact occurred.
Robert Kubica, who had just brought the No. 83 through the field for the lead, was handed a 30-second stop-and-hold penalty for the incident. Once restarted, the No. 8 Toyota would inherit the lead.
Eurosport talked with WRT Owner Vincent Vosse after his second Hypercar was involved in a crash. Earlier in the race, the No. 20 BMW hit the wall hard while exiting the Ford Chicane.
"We're very disappointed for what happened," Vosse said, "Fortunately, Dries is fine; he's back in the box. Let's hope that in a few days, he will feel a little bit better. As you can imagine, we are very disappointed. We put the car 20 back on track, and in GT, we are still fighting there, P2. Car 51 is back on the lead lap."
The yellow flag would go on for more than an hour as the night show began at Le Mans.
Unfortunately, after the race returned to green after the extended yellow flag to repair the damage caused to the barrier, one of the WRT GT cars was the next victim.
MAMAMIA! 😲
#46 BMW in the gravel exiting Dunlop!#LeMans24 #WEC pic.twitter.com/ydfzzXiM3r— 24 Hours of Le Mans (@24hoursoflemans) June 15, 2024
The No. 46 BMW was running ninth when Ahmed Al Harthy spun into the wall after losing control over the white lines while trying to navigate the half-wet, haft-dry track on slicks.
Before Al Harthy took control of the No. 46, nine-time MotoGP world champion Valentino Rossi had navigated up to second position; the team had hopes of an LMGT3 victory. They would retire after this incident.
You Might Also Like
