LE MANS: Toyota score first Hypercar victory, as LMP2 decided on final lap
The #7 GR010 claimed overall honours, scoring Toyota's fourth consecutive Le Mans win
The #7 Toyota of Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and José Maria Lopez amend three years of heartbreak at Le Mans to score their first overall victory.
Surviving an intense start in the rain – the first wet start since 2016 – escaped unscathed when running off track in the night, and managing a fuel pick-up problem throughout Sunday morning, the team nursed the car without losing pace to claim their first win at the twice-round-the-clock classic.
Toyota score their fourth overall victory at La Sarthe, joining the likes of Ferrari, Ford, Porsche and Audi as the seventh brand to win four or more races in a row.
The second GR010 finished two laps down on the winners, the #8 of Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Kazuki Nakajima recovered from an opening lap collision with the #708 Glickenhaus, and almost ground to a halt on track within seven hours of the checkered.
Alpine rounded out the Hypercar podium, Nico Lapierre, Andre Negrao, and Mathieu Vaxiviere ending a 12 year wait for a French mark to finish on the overall rostrum since Peugeot in 2009.
American privateer Glickenhaus would see both 007 Hyeprcars finish on their debut at Le Mans, with the #708 and #709 in P4 and P5 respectively after a trouble-free race.
CRAZY FINISH TO LMP2 RACE SEES ROOKIES CROWNED
Belgian outfit Team WRT claimed victory on their debut in one of the closest Le Mans finishes ever, their #31 trio of Ferdinand Habsburg, Robin Frijns and Charles Milesi winning in dramatic fashion.
Image: Marius Hecker for Adrenal Media
The #41 Oreca of Louis Deletraz, ex-F1 star Robert Kubica, and Yifei Ye had all but secured the race victory following a strong turn of pace in the final three hours. However, it would be heartbreak for the debutants as Ye stopped on the final lap of the race, handing the win to their teammates.
Both cars had dominated proceedings following a dramatic series of incidents at nightfall, which damaged a number of LMP2 competitors. The #31 and #41 exchanged the lead during pit cycles, with the #41 the established leader before stopping at the Forest Esses on the final tour.
The #28 JOTA Oreca of Tom Blomqvist, Sean Gelael and Mercedes FE driver Stoffel Vandoorne would finish less than a second behind the class victors as the parading Toyotas slowed for the checkered flag.
In failing to finish the final lap the #41 trio do not take the final step on the podium, despite covering a greater distance that the eventual third-placed finishers #65 Panis Racing. Julien Canal, Will Stevens, and Ryan Cullen running consistently throughout the 24 hours.
AF CORSE TAKE CLEAN SWEEP OF GTE CLASSES
James Calado, Côme Ledogar and Alessandro Pier Guidi scored a commanding victory for the #51 AF Corse Ferrari in the GTE-PRO class, running unchallenged for nearly 16 hours.
An AF Corse Ferrari carrying the #51 car has now won four times in the last decade, with this weekend's victory Ferrari's second overall win in three years.
Image: Gabi Tomescu for Adrenal Media
The #63 Corvette trio of Nicky Catsburg, Antonio Garcia and Jordan Taylor achieved a second place finish in the debuting Chevrolet Corvette C8.R that was unable to race last year owing to travel restrictions.
As the sun appeared above the horizon, the #63 looked to be mounting a challenge on the long term race leaders, but were unable to sustain the attack and close on the leading Ferrari.
Porsche made the podium thanks to ruthless stints from Michael Christensen, Kevin Estre and Neel Jani who saw off the competition from their sister #91 911 RSR-19.
AF Corse completed a GTE sweep, and their first in AM, as the #83 Nielsen/Perrodo/Rovera ran faultlessly to the flag.
The reigning class winners #33 TF Sport finished second, with the #80 Iron Lynx Ferrari completing the rostrum.
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Comments (24)
1. Hypercar beta-test: passed! That's enough. That's good enough. It's a shame that only one of the teams here get to sell the car as a road-going, street-drivable machine, but the simple thing is that the ACO made LMH work for 24 hours. It's all we wanted to see, all Peugeot and Ferrari wanted to see, and that means come 2023, the action is bound to be even more palpable with a more sizable grid on both sides of the LMP coin.
2. KAMUI-SAN!!! He's finally slain the dragon, and with a new class to boot. Simply incredible. Feels great is great.
3. Jim Glickenhaus also proves himself here: the SCG007 works. It's the greatest endorsement for his product ever (superseding the Baja and N24 efforts), and the fact that his team managed to claw back from dicing with P2s is more than enough to prove that they can keep on fighting when the chips are down. In my book, he's redeemed himself. 90% of tweets shouldn't hold much weight anyway.
4. FUCKING HELL WHY DID THAT HAVE TO HAPPEN AGAIN MY GOD IN HEAVEN!!! No, really, that is the single worst possible outcome for WRT, and not even within their control. Absurd. But not unexpected at Le Mans. And better to have it happen here, now, and not later when arguably the most bulletproof factory team in the world may tap WRT when the time comes. Good thing their sister car was well within range and racing to the line, which makes this a net positive anyway.
5. Ferrari P1 and Corvette P2 I'm eating good, baby!!! I mean, no offence to Porsche, but to see Pratt & Miller pull of a podium on the car's Le Mans debut is more than what most can do. Also, big-time affirmation for Ferrari sticking it out with the 488 platform, enshrining it in legend for years to come.
Oh my god the scenes on the LMP2 last lap, the commentators couldn't believe it happened twice in the last five years!
And it led to a last-gasp full-throttle race that almost wiped the flagman out.
67 and I can still do all 24 hrs. Thank you MT for the coverage, finally someone got it right.
So……..
Toyota wins its 4th Le Mans!
Racing against, well, Toyota.
No Ford, No Ferrari, no Audi, and No Porsche.
That’s the best path to victory, have no one else running.
I get your point but I also disagree. Out of the wins they’ve had, 2021 was definitely the hardest to come by. The GR010 is a new car, shares nothing with its LMP1 predecessor, and had some quite horrendous issues throughout the second half of...
Read morenever underestimate the brand that makes grocery getters
Vauxhall GTE car when??
You're welcome
Ferrari, you ve met ur match