Published on : 12/06/2022 – 16:50
Le Mans (AFP) – For the fifth time in a row, the 24 Hours of Le Mans turned into a duel at the top between the two Toyotas, but the first podium of a Glickenhaus offered a very slight taste of the return of competition next year.
As in 2018, 2019 and 2020, the Toyota N.8, started on pole and driven this year by the Swiss Sébastien Buemi, now four-time winner, the New Zealander Brendon Hartley and the Japanese Ryo Hirakawa, took over the N .7, its sister car and only rival.
The crew of Briton Mike Conway, Japan’s former F1 driver Kamui Kobayashi and Argentinian José Maria Lopez had broken the bad spell by winning last year, but he suffered a problem. technique which caused him to lose a lap on Sunday morning.
For nearly 16 hours, the two Japanese hypercars, often wheel to wheel, tied the lead in the race, regularly stealing first place thanks to a misbehavior by one or a stoppage. to pits better negotiated by each other.
But around 7:45 a.m. (5:45 a.m. GMT), the N.7 stopped on the track before returning to the pits, where it was visibly relaunched electronically from a distance, in front of its technicians, who were unusually immobile for long seconds.
Return of the big names
Despite this setback, Toyota was never worried, even if the N.709 and the N.708 of Glickenhaus showed their seriousness for their second participation on the Sarthe circuit, by taking third and fourth places respectively. , five and ten laps behind the Toyota N.8.
“We learned a lot, the team improved a lot, and we also improved the car,” Jim Glickenhaus, the former New York director and producer with the cowboy look, told AFP on Friday. dreams of beating his Scuderia Ferrari idols next year.
From the next round of the World Championship (WEC), Peugeot will return to endurance, with a revolutionary hypercar, without rear wing. Other big names in motorsport – Ferrari, Porsche, Audi, BMW, Cadillac… – will meet at Le Mans, in June 2023, in the queen category, for the centenary edition (first race in 1923).
Last car engaged in hypercar this year, Alpine may have trouble following, after the bitter failure of the N.36 this year.
She had managed to slip into third place on the starting grid, thanks to a temporary power bonus granted by the organizers, but she was sandwiched by the two Glickenhaus from the start.
Then she chained mechanical incidents, passing through the gravel, leaving the track… to finish 23rd, 18 laps behind the Toyotas. This poor performance cost the French manufacturer the lead in the WEC standings, in favor of Toyota.
Sixth in LMP2 at 16
At the lower level, the Oreca N.38 of the Jota team, which had been leading since Saturday afternoon, won in LMP2 and the Porsche N.91 of the factory team won in LMGTE Pro , taking advantage of the rout of the two Corvettes which had to retire twenty minutes apart at the start of the morning. In LMGTE Am, victory went to TF Sport’s N.33 Aston Martin.
In total, eight of the 62 cars at the start did not finish the race, but no serious accident is to be deplored.
As for the celebrities involved, the Oreca N.1 of Sébastien Ogier, the eight-time world rally champion who was making his debut at Le Mans, finished ninth in his LMP2 class. American Josh Pierson’s Oreca N.23, the youngest driver in the history of the race, at 16 years and 3 months, finished sixth in this category.
Actor Michael Fassbender, Magneto of the X-Men saga, meanwhile found himself in the gravel pit twice during the night and his Porsche N.93 (LMGTE Am) finished in 51st place overall .
© 2022 AFP