Hypercar @ 24 Hours of Le mans 2021: Toyota’s fourth win
Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and José-Maria Lopez won their first 24 Hours of Le Mans after dominating the race from qualifications to the end of the race.
Let us look at the film of the event:
At 15:50 the turn your engines panel was presented to the drivers in rain conditions.
At 16:01, at the end of the formation lap, 2 laps were added behind the safety car to enable the drivers to adapt to the wet conditions of the track.
At 16:14, the start of the 24 Hours of Le Mans was given with each class well separated.
At the start Olivier Pla hit Toyota #8 causing damages to his Glickenhaus #708 but luckily, not to Sebastien Buemi’s car, who nevertheless lost his P2 to #36 Alpine. The race went on until the morning with 4 Hypercar leading 4 LMP2 in the following order:
Toyota #7 proved to be a strong leader increasing their advance to the Alpine and the 2 Glickenhaus by one sec. per lap to reach 5 laps after 17 hours of race. Sister car #8 stayed mainly in the same lap.
#36 Alpine Endurance Team A480 Gibson of Nico Lapierre, Negrao, Vaxivière was 3rd, increasing progressively the number of laps behind the two Toyota to reach 5 laps at the end of Sunday morning. The Alpine trio pointed in P5 after one hour, behind Toyota#7, JOTA #38 and the 2 Glickenhaus. From the 3rd hour till the 7th the trio was 3rd overall, and then again from the 17th hour.
Derani, Mailleux, Pla in the #708 Glickenhaus were 3rd overall after one hour but disappeared from the top 5 between the 3rd and 5th hour. After the 6th hour, it pointed in P4 and gained P3 between the 8th and 10th hour. Derani, Mailleux and Pla then battled in the same lap as Alpine #36, and the two WRT cars for several hours in the same lap exchanging P3. From hour 17, they were 3rd, one lap ahead of the Alpine #36 then, and continued fighting in the same lap until hour 21, ending up one lap behind it.
Glickenhaus #709 with Dumas, Briscoe, Westbrook were showing up 4th after one hour. They were progressively passed by LMP2 to reach P9 at the end of the night. Sunday morning they were in P7 behind the two WRT cars. Romain Dumas then started a serious remontada to reach P4 with two hours to go.
At 9:43 Sunday morning, Toyota #8 in slow motion was the beginning of a fuel-related issue in the final six hours. At the exit of Mulsanne around 10:00 am, one could hear the #8’s engine not responding for several seconds and see the driver moving in slow motion to the right of the track and then starting again.
Fixing the problem would have required replacing the fuel collector and filters which would have cost at least 25 minutes for each car. The team managed to find a workaround by reducing the stints to 5 laps. The incident happened first on #8, which was able to test the workaround to the benefit of sister #7.
15:50: Toyota #7 at the pit for a splash; Toyota #8 is waiting for sister car to get both to the finish line
16:02: Both Toyota cross the checkered flag
16:13: Mike Conway and Jose-Maria Lopez get on track to join Kobayashi on the car
16:34: Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Jose-Maria Lopez lift the trophy.
Brendon Hartley in the #8 Toyota ended 2nd, two laps behind.
#36 Alpine Endurance Team A480 Gibson of Nico Lapierre, Negrao, Vaxivière ended 3rd, 4 laps behind the winners.
Derani, Mailleux, Pla in the #708 Glickenhaus ended 4th as they did for Le Mans hyperbole, in the same lap as Alpine #36.
Glickenhaus #709 with Dumas, Briscoe, Westbrook ended 5th overall, 7 laps behind the winning Toyota.
