Le Mans 24h: Toyota wins with new hypercar, #7 crew breaks jinx
The #7 Toyota of Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez found redemption after years of heartbreak by finally winning the first Le Mans 24 Hours of the Hypercar era, while Ferrari beat Corvette in GTE Pro.
Conway started the #7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid from the front at a wet start after Kobayashi had put the car on pole.
The Briton got away cleanly, while the #8 sister car of Sebastien Buemi was tagged by the #708 Glickenhaus 007 LMH of Oliver Pla.
In the #36 Alpine A480-Gibson, a grandfathered LMP1 car that ran last year as the Rebellion R-13, Nicolas Lapierre briefly took second but then lost it at Indianapolis, gifting Conway's Toyota a handsome lead.
While the #8 car carved its way back up the field, the leading #7 Toyota enjoyed a trouble-free run and survived a chaotic night, which was marred by several accidents, particularly in LMP2.
Toyota restored a commanding 1-2 lead before one-third distance, with the #8 car getting back in contention for the win.
But problems with fuel pickup began hampering the #8 car, restricting it to shorter stint lengths, while Buemi also lost a minute trying to reset the car on the side of the road.
The leading #7 car also suffered similar fuel issues, but Toyota managed to find a workaround and get both cars to the finish in a nervy final four hours.
An emotional Kobayashi took the chequered flag for the #7 crew, which finally found redemption after years of near misses at the Circuit de la Sarthe.
In 2017, Kobayashi and Conway - then partnered by Stephane Sarrazin - held a comfortable lead when they famously suffered a burnt-out clutch on pitlane, after Kobayashi mistook a thumbs up from LMP2 driver Vincent Capillaire for a marshal's go-signal.
When Toyota finally started winning in 2018, the first of now four consecutive Le Mans wins, it was the #8 car that took a hattrick of wins while Kobayashi, Conway and Lopez were left wondering if it was ever going to be their day.
That day, on the debut of the ACO's new Hypercar regulations, has now come, Kobayashi getting the honour to take the car to the chequered flag.
Buemi, Nakajima and Hartley completed another Toyota 1-2, Nakajima being held in the pits to orchestrate a photo finish.
Lapierre crossed the line four laps behind the winners to give Alpine a first overall podium finish at La Sarthe alongside Andre Negrao and Matthieu Vaxiviere, the first French team to finish on the overall podium since Peugeot in 2011.
After early drama, American boutique manufacturer Glickenhaus Racing had a low-key Le Mans debut in which it never threatened its fellow Hypercar rivals, but both of its cars made it to the finish in fourth and fifth, the #708 and #709 cars respectively four and seven laps behind.
#31 WRT holds on to LMP2 win amid late drama
#31 Team WRT Oreca 07 - Gibson LMP2, Robin Frijns, Ferdinand Habsburg, Charles Milesi
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
In LMP2 the Belgian WRT outfit looked set to take a shock 1-2 win on its Le Mans debut, but last-lap heartbreak for its #41 entry left the sister #31 Oreca 07-Gibson alone to take the victory in a dramatic finale.
On Sunday morning WRT, which expanded to WEC's LMP2 class after a decade of success in GT3 racing, emerged from the darkness in a comfortable 1-2 lead after an eventful night for many of its competitors.
At that time the #31 car of Robin Frijns, Charles Milesi and Ferdinand Habsburg enjoyed a 45s lead on the #41 sister car of Robert Kubica, Yifei Ye and Louis Deletraz, but in the afternoon the #41 crew closed the gap and took over the lead with less than two hours to go.
But on the final lap of the race Ye sensationally ground to a halt in the leading #41 car, reportedly suffering a complete loss of power.
That handed the win to Frijns, Milesi and Habsburg, but only after holding off JOTA's resurgent #28 car of Stoffel Vandoorne, Tom Blomqvist and Sean Gelael who came back to finish under a second behind.
The #65 Panis Racing Oreca of Will Stevens, Julien Canal and James Allen ended up on the podium ahead of the #23 United Autosports car. It had completed fewer laps than the stricken #41 machine, but because the WRT car didn't cross the finish line it will be classified as a DNF.
While WRT fully earned its maiden win despite its late scare, it also benefitted from a plethora of issues and incidents that befell its competitors.
Some of the pre-race favourites faltered as early as Saturday afternoon, Anthony Davidson going off at Turn 1 from the lead in the #38 JOTA Oreca after teammate Antonio Felix da Costa had been the star of the opening hours.
G-Drive Racing's challenge fell apart after Franco Colapinto got caught out by a slow zone on the way to Porsche Curves, clattering his #26 Aurus-badged car into the #1 Richard Mille entry of Sophia Floersch. While the car eventually returned, its #25 sister car dropped out after a hard crash by Rui Andrade at the Dunlop chicane.
United Autosports' race also started unravelling on Saturday night when aboard the #32 car Manuel Maldonado lost control in the first corner and rammed teammate Paul di Resta in the #23 entry.
United's third #22 car ran well up front until it disappeared into the garage for an alternator issue, just past the halfway mark.
Among the other contenders, IDEC Sport's race was stunted early on when Patrick Pilet got stuck the gravel in the #48 Oreca.
JOTA's #28 trio also had the potential to ruin WRT's day, leading spells of the evening hours. But a 90-second stop and hold and a drive-through penalty, respectively for jumping the safety car queue and crossing the white line on pit entry, dropped that car off the lead lap in fifth before it mounted its recovery to second.
Juan Pablo Montoya and his DragonSpeed crew took Pro-Am honours, the former F1 ace and Indy 500 champion winning the sub-class alongside Ben Hanley and Henrik Hedman in the #21 Oreca.
On their debut as a father and son duo, Kevin and Jan Magnussen finished 17th in LMP2. A puncture sent Magnussen senior into the wall in the #49 High Class Oreca, which they shared with fellow Dane Anders Fjordbach.
Ferrari outduels Corvette for GTE Pro honours
#51 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE Pro, Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado, Come Ledogar
Photo by: Paul Foster
GTE Pro looked set to be dominated by the AF Corse Ferraris, but with great strategy and driving the #63 Corvette managed to stay in the mix as the conditions began to play into the debuting C8.R's hands, Nicky Catsburg particularly enjoying the nighttime conditions during a fast triple stint.
A possible 1-2 win for AF Corse was thwarted by a left-rear suspension failure for the #52 car at night, which caused it to tumble down the order. On Sunday morning a delaminating puncture for Sam Bird cost the car even more ground.
That meant the race turned into a two-horse race between the #51 Ferrari 488 GTE Evo and the #63 Corvette C8.R.
In the warmer afternoon conditions, the #51 Ferrari of Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado and Come Ledogar gradually pulled away and took the entry's second win in three years, after winning in 2019 and finishing second last year.
It was the second GTE Pro win for Pier Guidi and Calado, who were also part of the winning crew in 2019, while Frenchman Ledogar took his first-ever Le Mans class win.
Catsburg, Antonio Garcia and Jordan Taylor took a solid second place in class 41 seconds behind.
Porsche endured another character-building Le Mans, both the #92 and #91 factory cars losing ground early on and lacking the outright race pace to do much about it.
In the #92 Porsche 911 RSR-19, which was rebuilt on Friday after a shunt in Hyperpole, Kevin Estre, Neel Jani and Michael Christensen beat their teammates in the #91 car to a distant podium berth, one lap down on the winning Ferrari.
Initially it was the Proton-run #79 WeatherTech car which led the Weissach marque's charge in the hands of Laurens Vanthoor and Earl Bamber, but the car retired overnight after a crash by third driver Cooper MacNeil damaged the chassis.
The other privately entered Porsche, the #72 HubAuto entry which Dries Vanthoor sensationally drove to pole, also had a troubled run. At the start Maxime Martin collided with a LMP2 car, a time loss from which the car never recovered. A broken drivetrain, which made the younger Vanthoor sibling grind to a halt, sealed the car's fate.
The second #64 Corvette bore the brunt of the reliability issues in its class. First it had to replace a broken diffuser after Nick Tandy was stunningly tapped from behind by Calado as the field left the ceremonial grid, before the race had even started.
It then lost over an hour with a nighttime clutch issue and disappeared into the garage a third time in the morning hours with an alternator problem.
In GTE Am, the #83 AF Corse Ferrari proved the class of the field. It gained a healthy buffer after Felipe Fraga went off in the first chicane on Saturday night in what was then the class-leading #33 TF Sport Aston Martin.
Once in the lead, Nicklas Nielsen, Alessio Rovera and Francois Perrodo drove a controlled race to keep the Aston over a minute behind at all times.
Fraga and TF Sport Aston teammates Ben Keating and Dylan Pereira ultimately settled for second.
Trouble for the #54 AF Corse Ferrari gave the #80 Iron Lynx Ferrari of Matteo Cressoni, Rino Mastronardi and Callum Ilott a clear run to third in class.
Full 2021 Le Mans 24 Hours race results:
Cla | # | Drivers | Car | Class | Time |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 7 |
Mike Conway
Kamui Kobayashi Jose Maria Lopez |
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid | HYPERCAR | :00'50.768 |
2 | 8 |
Sébastien Buemi
Kazuki Nakajima Brendon Hartley |
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid | HYPERCAR | :00'50.861 |
3 | 36 |
Andre Negrao
Nicolas Lapierre Matthieu Vaxiviere |
Alpine A480 | HYPERCAR | :01'13.643 |
4 | 708 |
Pipo Derani
Franck Mailleux Olivier Pla |
Glickenhaus 007 LMH | HYPERCAR | :03'47.746 |
5 | 709 |
Ryan Briscoe
Richard Westbrook Romain Dumas |
Glickenhaus 007 LMH | HYPERCAR | :03'08.937 |
6 | 31 |
Robin Frijns
Ferdinand Habsburg Charles Milesi |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | :00'53.576 |
7 | 28 |
Sean Gelael
Stoffel Vandoorne Tom Blomqvist |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | :00'54.303 |
8 | 65 |
Julien Canal
Will Stevens James Allen |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | :02'56.556 |
9 | 23 |
Paul di Resta
Alex Lynn Wayne Boyd |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | :04'26.714 |
10 | 34 |
Jakub Smiechowski
Renger van der Zande Alex Brundle |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | :01'38.757 |
11 | 48 |
Paul Lafargue
Paul-Loup Chatin Patrick Pilet |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | :02'12.856 |
12 | 26 |
Roman Rusinov
Franco Colapinto Nyck de Vries |
Aurus 01 | LMP2 | :01'22.547 |
13 | 38 |
Roberto Gonzalez
Antonio Felix da Costa Anthony Davidson |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | :02'09.758 |
14 | 30 |
Rene Binder
Memo Rojas Tristan Gommendy |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | :00'54.199 |
15 | 21 |
Henrik Hedman
Ben Hanley Juan Pablo Montoya |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | :01'29.753 |
16 | 29 |
Frits van Eerd
Giedo van der Garde Job Van Uitert |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | :01'59.005 |
17 | 70 |
Esteban Garcia
Loic Duval Norman Nato |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | :03'49.671 |
18 | 20 |
Dennis Andersen
Ricky Taylor Marco Sorensen |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | :01'47.930 |
19 | 39 |
Vincent Capillaire
Arnold Robin Maxime Robin |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | :02'21.811 |
20 | 51 |
Alessandro Pier Guidi
James Calado Côme Ledogar |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | :00'53.654 |
21 | 63 |
Antonio Garcia
Jordan Taylor Nick Catsburg |
Chevrolet Corvette C8.R | LMGTE PRO | :01'35.340 |
22 | 92 |
Kevin Estre
Neel Jani Michael Christensen |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE PRO | :04'19.356 |
23 | 91 |
Gianmaria Bruni
Richard Lietz Frédéric Makowiecki |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE PRO | :04'02.596 |
24 | 44 |
Miro Konopka
Oliver Webb Matej Konopka |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | :01'29.078 |
25 | 83 |
François Perrodo
Nicklas Nielsen Alessio Rovera |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | :04'24.967 |
26 | 33 |
Ben Keating
Dylan Pereira Felipe Fraga |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | :02'05.682 |
27 | 80 |
Matteo Cressoni
Rino Mastronardi Callum Ilott |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | :01'50.393 |
28 | 74 |
James Winslow
John Corbett Tom Cloet |
Ligier JSP 217 | LMP2 | :03'57.555 |
29 | 49 |
Anders Fjordbach
Jan Magnussen Kevin Magnussen |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | :01'47.968 |
30 | 60 |
Claudio Schiavoni
Paolo Ruberti Raffaele Giammaria |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | :02'55.737 |
31 | 77 |
Christian Ried
Jaxon Evans Matt Campbell |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | :03'28.782 |
32 | 84 |
Takuma Aoki
Nigel Bailly Matthieu Lahaye |
Oreca 07 | INNOVATIVE CAR | :03'22.554 |
33 | 777 |
Satoshi Hoshino
Tomonobu Fujii Andrew Watson |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | :01'20.816 |
34 | 18 |
Andrew Haryanto
Alessio Picariello Marco Seefried |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | :00'54.484 |
35 | 95 |
John Hartshorne
Ollie Hancock Ross Gunn |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | :01'21.055 |
36 | 85 |
Rahel Frey
Sarah Bovy Michelle Gatting |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | :03'14.207 |
37 | 52 |
Daniel Serra
Miguel Molina Sam Bird |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | :03'27.666 |
38 | 69 |
Robert Renauer
Ralf Bohn Rolf Ineichen |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | :01'35.871 |
39 | 54 |
Thomas Flohr
Giancarlo Fisichella Francesco Castellacci |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | :04'15.815 |
40 | 22 |
Philip Hanson
Fabio Scherer Filipe Albuquerque |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | :01'51.294 |
41 | 71 |
Brendan Iribe
Ollie Millroy Ben Barnicoat |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | :00'58.759 |
42 | 88 |
Julien Andlauer
Dominique Bastien Lance David Arnold |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | :02'04.599 |
43 | 86 |
Michael Wainwright
Benjamin Barker Tom Gamble |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | :02'59.412 |
44 | 64 |
Tommy Milner
Nick Tandy Alexander Sims |
Chevrolet Corvette C8.R | LMGTE PRO | :04'09.820 |
41 |
Robert Kubica
Louis Deletraz Ye Yifei |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 23:56'37.967 | |
82 |
Ryan Cullen
Oliver Jarvis Felipe Nasr |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 19:08'27.205 | |
388 |
Pierre Ehret
Christian Hook Jeroen Bleekemolen |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 20:21'46.823 | |
24 |
Patrick Kelly
Gabriel Aubry Simon Trummer |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 19:28'50.174 | |
72 |
Dries Vanthoor
Alvaro Parente Maxime Martin |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE PRO | 16:26'23.653 | |
79 |
Cooper MacNeil
Earl Bamber Laurens Vanthoor |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE PRO | 10:27'21.538 | |
46 |
Dennis Olsen
Anders Buchardt Robby Foley |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 10:48'47.118 | |
57 |
Takeshi Kimura
Scott Andrews Mikkel Jensen |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 9:46'32.228 | |
66 |
Thomas Neubauer
Rodrigo Sales Jody Fannin |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 9:20'35.788 | |
55 |
Duncan Cameron
David Perel Matthew Griffin |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 8:36'05.287 | |
25 |
John Falb
Roberto Merhi Rui Andrade |
Aurus 01 | LMP2 | 7:57'54.957 | |
47 |
Roberto Lacorte
Giorgio Sernagiotto Antonio Fuoco |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 6:56'22.572 | |
56 |
Egidio Perfetti
Matteo Cairoli Riccardo Pera |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 6:20'24.435 | |
32 |
Nico Jamin
Jonathan Aberdein Manuel Maldonado |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 5:10'04.179 | |
1 |
Tatiana Calderon
Sophia Flörsch Beitske Visser |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 5:05'41.433 | |
99 |
Harry Tincknell
Vutthikorn Inthrapuvasak Florian Latorre |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 4:54'53.633 | |
98 |
Paul Dalla Lana
Nicki Thiim Marcos Gomes |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 3:11'43.090 | |
View full results |
Be part of Motorsport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Related video
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments