The #8 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 Hybrid of Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa won the 90th edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. They took the checkered flag after 380 laps of racing, some two minutes ahead of the sister car, the #7 driven by Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and José Maria López.
It is Toyota’s fifth consecutive victory at the fabled Circuit de La Sarthe. It is also Buemi’s fourth overall victory in La Sarthe – a singular achievement that he shares with Le Mans legends Yannick Dalmas, Henri Pescarolo and Olivier Gendebien. Hartley takes his third victory in Le Mans, while top class rookie Hirakawa becomes the fifth Japanese driver to earn an overall victory in the Grand Prix d’Endurance.
“Winning five times in a row is an incredible feeling,” said Buemi. “Our team did a fantastic job inside and outside the car. It will take a little while before this victory sinks in.”
“I won two years ago when fans weren’t here. It’s my first time winning here with the crowd. I was just overwhelmed with emotions when I crossed the line. A big thanks goes to my team,” said Hartley. “They must have felt pretty stressed out when we were fighting with the sister car.”
Hirakawa’s words were to the point: “This was my dream, and that dream came true.”
The Toyotas have dominated the event throughout the week. No other cars apart from the Japanese manufacturer led the race. Hyperpole went to Hartley earlier in the week, and in the final hour, López snatched the fastest lap of the race, setting a 3’27.749.
“I am happy to congratulate the other line up but also the entire team behind us back in Cologne and in Japan,” said López. “Competition was much closer this year. We produced a perfect race. It’s hard to take it when things happen on your car while you are at the wheel. It’s not easy to get procedures of the car running to perfection.We know it takes 40 seconds on average to get these procedures running. We were a lap down but we came back, ultimately.”
“I am as happy as the first time we won,” said Toyota Gazoo Racing technical director Pascal Vasselon. “It was an intense race […] we were constantly under pressure. We had to avoid mistakes. We did not reach perfection as one of our cars ran into some trouble, but it was good enough!”
The #8 logically wins the race as Buemi, Hartley and Hirakawa never encountered any major problems, unlike the #7, who had to stop on track and in the pits to reset onboard systems.
Glickenhaus Racing was once again present in Le Mans with a reliable and fast car, but not one that could challenge the Japanese car for the win. All the same, the #709 driven by Ryan Briscoe, Richard Westbrook and Franck Mailleux takes third spot on the overall podium, some four laps behind the winning car. Meanwhile the #708 driven by Olivier Pla, Romain Dumas and Pipo Derani takes fourth position in spite of having an accident during the eighth hour of racing.
The fiery Jim Glickenhaus joined his drivers on the podium as the first American car constructor on the overall Le Mans podium since 1969.
“I just feel so proud to be part of this journey. Repaying Jim with an overall podium at Le Mans almost feels like a win. There were parts of the race where we were very competitive, but we had a few issues,” said Westbrook.
“I’ve been with Jim since 2015. I never thought he would take us where we are today. Ending up on the podium is so unreal!” Mailleux exclaimed.
Alpine did not have a good weekend in La Sarthe. The #36 A480-Gibson never was in a position to challenge the Toyotas or the Glickenhaus consistently because of a lack of top speed, reliability issues including clutch problems – but also because of accidents on track resulting from an aggressive racing strategy. The French car takes the chequered flag in a disappointing 23rd position overall and fifth in the Hypercar class.
Meanwhile in LMP2, the mighty #38 JOTA Oreca 07-Gibson won the race with Roberto González, António Félix da Costa, and Will Stevens at the wheel. The #38 was clearly dominant during the entire race. This is JOTA’s third LMP2 class win, their first since 2017 (as Jackie Chan DC Racing). For all three drivers, it is their first LMP2 class win.
“The win is special but the way to get there takes a lot. It’s a collective victory” said Da Costa, the Formula E and Macau Grand Prix winner.
“I am so proud and happy. [It is] a dream for which we prepared over the past three years. It’s great to win here. Le Mans likes Mexico, and hopefully it stays like that,” said the former Champ Car driver González.
JOTA also took third spot on the podium with the #28 Oreca driven by Oliver Rasmussen, Ed Jones and Jonathan Aberdein. Second position went to the #9 Prema Orlen Team Oreca driven by Robert Kubica, Louis Delétraz and Lorenzo Colombo, some two minutes and 21 seconds behind the winning LMP2 car. The Italian team was probably one of the very few LMP2 cars who could challenge the #38 for victory.
The #13 TDS Racing x Valillante Oreca shared by super-sub Nyck de Vries, Mathias Beche and Tijmen van der Helm took the chequered flag in fourth position, followed by the #5 Team Penske Oreca of Dane Cameron, Emmanuel Collard and Felipe Nasr in fifth, and the #23 United Autosport shared by Alex Lynn, Oliver Jarvis and 16-year-old Josh Pierson in sixth.
The LMP2 Pro-Am victory went to the #45 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca driven by Steven Thomas, James Allen and René Binder, a car that very nearly never raced at all following a crash in Qualifying Practice on Wednesday.
Porsche Motorsport took the honour of being the last winners in the GTE Pro class at Le Mans, bringing a wonderful chapter of racing in the Grand Prix d’Endurance to a close.
The #91 Porsche GT Team Porsche 911 RSR-19 driven by Richard Lietz, Gianmaria Bruni and Frédéric Makowiecki delivered a solid performance to take victory, surviving a war of attrition and taking the lead after incidents that befell the faster Corvette Racing C8.Rs – which held the advantage on pace, but encountered mechanical dramas and cruel luck that is so common to this unique and brutal event.
It was Makowiecki’s first class win at Le Mans, Bruni’s first for Porsche, both overdue and well earned. Fittingly, Lietz – the only driver to start every race in GTE Pro – also shares in the victory.
AF Corse took second and third for Ferrari, which few would have predicted from the #51 and #52 Ferrari 488 GTE-Evos’ lack of performance due to Balance of Performance for this race. James Calado, Alessandro Pier Guidi and Daniel Serra held firm and dug in as the race eventually came to them, and they took their turn at the front. Arguably the Ferraris had less issues than their competitors, but lacked the capability needed to withstand the Porsche’s performance, despite a spirited charge by Pier Guidi in the final hours.
Miguel Molina, Antonio Fuoco and Davide Rigon’s run to third also saw issues, but these were managed well. And a double podium at Le Mans given the apparent handicap, is a triumph to add to AF Corse’s rich history in this class.
The story of the race however was the crushing disappointment for Corvette Racing. The spectacular Chevrolet Corvette C8.Rs looked good all week, dictating the pace from the front. Although the Porsches gave the experienced crews of the familiar #63 and #64 entries a sturdy challenge into the night time, the #63 car of Antonio Garcia, Jordan Taylor and Nicky Catsburg had the edge, but suffered a serious rear suspension and mechanical issues during the night that ended its hold on the race.
This handed the baton to the #64 car of Tommy Milner, Nick Tandy and Alexander Sims. Not without its own issues, the #64 Corvette nevertheless pushed the pace in the lead and looked strong, but was the casualty of an unfortunate move from a passing LMP2 car that put Sims into the barriers along the Mulsanne.
The #92 Porsche of Michael Christensen, Kevin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor took the fight to the Corvettes throughout, but a burst tyre inflicted damage and delay that would mean fourth place was the best rescue of lost time.
As a category that has delivered consistently close and spectacular competition, provided manufacturers with an affordable platform, and created a legacy of customer racing programmes in rude health – the all-pro GT class can take a bow, going out in typical edge-of-the-seat style.
TF Sport took the GTE Am class win for Aston Martin. The #33 Aston Martin Vantage AMR of Marco Sørensen, Henrique Chaves and Ben Keating delivered a well-managed performance, rising up through the field and pacing themselves as they grabbed control of the race.
Without obvious incident, and having taken good advantage of the race’s only Safety Car period, this was a the first ‘official’ Le Mans victory for the popular Ben Keating, whose apparent victory in a Ford GT in 2019 was turned into an undignified disqualification. TF Sport adds the win to their 2020 GTE Am victory and 2021’s runner-up result.
WeatherTech Racing delivered a strong run to land second place, the #79 Porsche 911 RSR-19 of Julien Andlauer, Cooper MacNeil and Thomas Merrill coming out on top of a fierce scrap between the GTE-Am Porsches that had looked to have the measure of the field early on. Northwest AMR took the last podium place for Aston Martin, the #98 car in the capable and quick hands of Nicki Thiim, Paul Dalla Lana and David Pittard. 2014 class winner Thiim anchored the result with solid pace when required, firmly supported by rookie Pittard and experienced campaigner Dalla Lana, for whom this result has been some time coming and is well earned.
Of the 62 cars that started, 53 of them made it all the way to the chequered flag.
