June 14 (Reuters) – Cadillac led the Le Mans 24 Hours into the final quarter of the endurance race on Sunday with Swiss driver Louis Deletraz at the wheel of the number 12 Jota-run car he shares with Briton Will Stevens and Frenchman Norman Nato.
The number 20 BMW of South African Sheldon Van der Linde, German Rene Rast and Dutch driver Robin Frijns was just over a minute behind at the 18-hour mark of the 94th edition of the race at the Circuit de la Sarthe.
Toyota’s number seven and eight cars, driven by Kamui Kobayashi and Ryo Hirakawa respectively, were in third and fourth places with Ferrari’s 51 car in fifth.
Ferrari have won the last three editions of the race, last year with the yellow-liveried customer AF Corse team.
The same winning 83 car lineup of Poland’s Robert Kubica, China’s Yifei Yi and Britain’s Phil Hanson was running in seventh place.
Cadillac were one-two in the 14th hour but their number 38 car then suffered a power steering problem that led to two pit stops and a plunge down the order before retirement.
That was a bitter blow for French driver Sebastien Bourdais, a Le Mans native who remains luckless at home, as well as New Zealand teammate Earl Bamber and Britain’s Jack Aitken.
The number 15 BMW that started on pole with Danish former F1 driver Kevin Magnussen, Swiss-born Italian Raffaele Marciello and Belgian Dries Vanthoor was running 16th.
The second tier LMP2 category was led by the number 30 Duqueine team with Doriane Pin, one of two women competing in this year’s event, at the wheel.
The race, with 62 cars and 186 drivers, was flagged away on Saturday by Tour de France sprint great Mark Cavendish as official starter.
Five-time winners Toyota led after the first hour following surprise early pit stops.
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