24 Hours of Le Mans 2022: Hypercar race
📷 © Luc Warnotte @ 24 Hours of Le Mans 2022.
After the traditional laying of the flag by the french armed forces and the overflight by the patrol de france,
📷 © Luc Warnotte @ 24 Hours of Le Mans 2022.
the 188 drivers shake hands wishing each other the best.
📷 © Luc Warnotte @ 24 Hours of Le Mans 2022.
At 3:40 pm, the 63 cars left the cob grid for the formation lap
📷 © Luc Warnotte @ 24 Hours of Le Mans 2022.
From the start, both Toyota took the leadership increasing the gap with both Glickenhaus.
📷 © Luc Warnotte @ 24 Hours of Le Mans 2022.
The Alpine was sixth overall within the LMP2 group.
📷 © Luc Warnotte @ 24 Hours of Le Mans 2022.
The Toyotas GR010 Hybrids, sometimes very close together, exchanged the leading position from the first stint onwards during pit stops.
📷 © Luc Warnotte @ 24 Hours of Le Mans 2022.
The #709 driven by Ryan Briscoe, Richard Westbrook and Franck Mailleux, had a small sensor problem at the start of the race thereby losing ground with the trio in front.
📷 © Luc Warnotte @ 24 Hours of Le Mans 2022.
Lap times by Romain Dumas at the wheel of #708 Glickenhaus on Saturday afternoon gave the spectators some hope of a fight with the Toyotas but Olivier Pla's excursion in the gravel at Tertre Rouge shortly before midnight cost the crew dearly, as they lost ground irretrievably.
📷 © Luc Warnotte @ 24 Hours of Le Mans 2022.
The Japanese Hypercars were never worried, despite a small technical alert on #7 after 16 Hours of racing which had the effect of prematurely aborting the fratricidal duel between the two crews.
📷 © Luc Warnotte @ 24 Hours of Le Mans 2022.
The trio Brendon Hartley, Sébastien Buemi and Ryo Hirakawa with Toyota GR010 Hybrid #8 crossed checkered flag first.
📷 © Luc Warnotte @ 24 Hours of Le Mans 2022.
It is the fourth win of the 24 Hours of Le Mans for Sébastien Buemi.
📷 © Luc Warnotte @ 24 Hours of Le Mans 2022.
It is the fifth consecutive win of Toyota Gazoo Racing for its 10 years participation to the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
📷 © Luc Warnotte @ 24 Hours of Le Mans 2022
Last year’s winners, Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and José María López, in their #7 GR010 HYBRID, which crossed the line just 2mins 1.222secs behind in P2.
📷 © Luc Warnotte @ 24 Hours of Le Mans 2022.
#709 Glickenhaus 007LMH driven by Ryan Briscoe, Richard Westbrook and Franck Mailleux, ended third putting on a solid performance after the early unscheduled pit-stop for a sensor change.
📷 © Luc Warnotte @ 24 Hours of Le Mans 2022.
The sister #708 Glickenhaus Racing entry driven by Pipo Derani, Olivier Pla and Romain Dumas took flag fourth after recovering from Pla’s off-track excursion at Tertre Rouge.
📷 © Luc Warnotte @ 24 Hours of Le Mans 2022.
Alpine ELF Team #36 was poised with a sequence of Setbacks: penalty for speeding in a Slow Zone, a clutch issue and then with the ignition coil which will have cost nearly half an hour in the pits, exit from track of Matthieu Vaxiviere in traffic at the Porsche curves, requiring repairs. Nicolas Lapierre, Matthieu Vaxivière and André Negrão end 23rd place overall and take fifth place points for 2022 WEC Hypercar title bid.
Follow our series of four reports, each about the race per the WEC class. Next: LMGTE PRO class.
