Weekend Recap: Toyota Claims Fifth Consecutive Le Mans Victory
Catch up on results, post-race reaction from last weekend's French endurance classic...
Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa earned Toyota’s fifth consecutive 24 Hours of Le Mans victory, leading a 1-2 result for the Japanese manufacturer.
Hartley brought the No. 8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid to the 4 p.m. Sunday checkered flag with two minutes hand to Jose Maria Lopez who shared the No. 7 Toyota with fellow defending winners Kamui Kobayashi and Mike Conway.
Ryan Briscoe, Franck Mailleux and Richard Westbrook earned Glickenhaus Racing’s first Le Mans podium in third, four laps off the winning Toyota, in their No. 709 Glickenhaus 007 Pipo.
That was the least delayed of the non-hybrid Glickenhaus LMH machines, with the sister No. 708 car finishing five laps further back in fourth overall.
A series of problems early in the race prevented Alpine from mounting a challenge with its grandfathered LMP1 in the car’s final Le Mans. Nicolas Lapierre, Andre Negrao and Matthieu Vaxiviere were classified 18 laps behind the winning Toyota in 23rd place.
The Toyotas ran close together for much of the opening half and it didn’t take long for them to break away from their competitors in the Hypercar class.
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JOTA Takes LMP2 Honors With Commanding Run
JOTA took the LMP2 class victory in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, securing its first victory since 2017 with a controlled performance after taking the lead during the opening exchanges.
The No. 38 Oreca 07 Gibson of Roberto Gonzalez, Antonio Felix da Costa and Will Stevens claimed the class win by a margin of 1 minute and 48 seconds from the No. 9 Prema Oreca of Robert Kubica, Louis Deletraz and Lorenzo Colombo as the Italian squad secured a podium finish on its Le Mans debut.
JOTA’s ‘Mighty 38’ captured the lead in the class during the opening hour after Da Costa surpassed Kubica half an hour into the race by emerging in front during the first round of scheduled pitstops.
Kubica had taken the lead on the opening lap of the race after a chaotic start that saw the No. 22 United Autosports car of Will Owen end up in the gravel following contact with Team WRT driver Rene Rast.
After assuming the lead, the British squad carried through a commanding performance to take the class win, only seeing its lead briefly brought down when da Costa pitted after a short, three-lap stint due to suffering from a delaminating tire on Sunday afternoon.
With the win, the British squad secured its first LMP2 class victory since it won and finished on the overall podium under the Jackie Chan DC Racing banner.
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Porsche Wins Final GTE-Pro Race at Le Mans
Porsche GT Team claimed victory in the final GTE-Pro race at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, with the No. 91 Porsche 911 RSR-19 of Gianmaria Bruni, Richard Lietz and Fred Makowiecki breaking a near three-year winless streak in FIA World Endurance Championship competition.
The German manufacturer benefited from misfortune by both AF Corse and Corvette Racing to take top class honors for the first time since 2018 and the maiden Le Mans win for the RSR-19 model, in its second-to-last outing at Circuit de la Sarthe.
Makowiecki was embroiled in a battle with the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE of Alessandro Pier Guidi with less than five hours to go until the Italian driver was forced to make an unscheduled stop for a right-rear punctured tire.
He inherited a 30-plus second lead and managed to increase the advantage in the final hours of the around-the-clock endurance classic, finishing 42.684 seconds ahead of James Calado.
It was the No. 91 Porsche’s first WEC class win since the 2019-20 season-opener at Silverstone.
Both Lietz and Bruni claimed their fourth Le Mans crowns while Frenchman Makowiecki scored his long-awaited first Le Mans win after 11 previous starts.
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Corvette’s Race Ended “Within a Blink of An Eye”
Alexander Sims believes it was Corvette’s ‘race to lose’ in GTE-Pro, with the factory squad leaving the 24 Hours of Le Mans with its first double retirement in the French endurance classic in more than ten years.
Sims’ No. 64 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R was forced out of the race with six hours to go while battling for the class lead after contact between the No. 83 AF Corse Oreca 07 Gibson of Francois Perrodo on the Mulsanne Straight sent the Englishman hard into the barriers.
The crash came moments after the Pratt & Miller-run operation retired its No. 63 Corvette due to various mechanical issues following suspension failure earlier in the race.
Sims, who shared driving duties with full-season FIA World Endurance Championship drivers Tommy Milner and pole-winner Nick Tandy, was uninjured in the high-speed shunt.
“It was a huge, huge shame,” Sims told Sportscar365. “We had a bit of a setback early in the race, but we stuck at it and our pace was sensational at times, to put some of the laps in that we did.”
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Keating: GTE-Am Win “Vindication” After 2019 DQ
Ben Keating said he feels a bit of “little bit of vindication” by winning this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans after losing his first victory in 2019 due to a post-race technical infraction.
The 50-year-old Texan helped steer TF Sport to its second GTE-Am class victory in the last three years, sharing the wheel of the No. 33 Aston Martin Vantage GTE with Henrique Chaves and Aston Martin factory driver Marco Sorensen.
It came two years after Keating’s Riley Motorsports-run Ford GT won GTE-Am on the road but was excluded due to a fuel-related infraction discovered in post-race scrutineering.
“What it means to me is that I’ve now won Le Mans twice,” he told Sportscar365. “But it’s nice to have a little bit of vindication — assuming this one sticks — it’s nice to show in the record books.
“The first time, everyone who was in the race knows who won it. Now, hopefully it’s official! It’s pretty special.”
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