Valentino Rossi leads LMGT3 as Ferrari dominate overall - 6-hour Le Mans report

MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi has driven his #46 BMW machine to the lead of the LMGT3 class at the Le Mans 24 Hours as the race approaches the quarter-distance mark. 

Shortly before the 18-hour mark, Rossi stepped out to hand over to Kelvin van der Linde having driven to the class lead from the #92 Manthey machine through a period of leapfrog through pit-stops cycles. 

This is Rossi's second appearance at Le Mans for Team WRT, having debuted in 2024, but the car was forced to retire. 

Overall, up front, Ferrari has asserted a crushing dominance of the race at the Circuit de la Sarthe, with a one-two-three in the Hypercar class and overall classification. 

The #50 machine leads with Miguel Molina currently aboard from the #51 with Alessandro Pier Guidi currently 4.7s behind after six hours and just under 100 laps complete. The #6 Porsche Penske with Matt Campbell driving is 30 seconds behind in fourth overall. 

Mick Schumacher's #36 Alpine is 17th, two places behind the #38 Cadillac currently being driven by 2009 F1 champion Jenson Button as night sets in. 

In LMP2, the #48 machine of VDS Panis Racing maintains the class lead. 

Below, you can check out the top three cars by class. 

RacingNews365's next report will be at the 12-hour mark, with any updates for noticeable incidents in the meantime.