LM 24, Hour 4: Toyota battle at the front

Nikolaz Godet/Motorsport Images
41 shares
share
tweet
emailBy Stephen Kilbey | June 11, 2022 2:06 PM ET

Four hours into the 2022 Le Mans 24 Hours and the battle for the lead is on! After multiple hours of the No. 7 GR010 pulling away from the No. 8, the race has swung back to the pole-sitting car. Jose Maria Lopez began to get reeled in by Brendon Hartley during the hour, who got into the groove. He then had an off on his out-lap after the fifth round of stops at the second Mulsanne Chicane.

This allowed Hartley in the No. 8 to get through and retake the lead. As we head into Hour 5, the pair of GR010s are together on track, slaloming through traffic and dueling for the lead.
It's cat and mouse between the #7 and #8 Toyota's – Just tenths of a second between the two after 4 hours!

⏱️https://t.co/4J3q5Z45q3#LeMans24 | @FIAWEC pic.twitter.com/ZUKY8hIfTe

— 24 Hours of Le Mans (@24hoursoflemans)

The two Glickenhaus 007s are now third and fourth once again, after Richard Westbrook drafted past Matthieu Vaxiviere down the Mulsanne Straight into the second chicane. Unfortunately it would go from bad from worse to Alpine later in the hour, as the car wouldn’t fire after its fifth stop. The team had to push it back into the garage and started frantically bleeding the clutch. This was the first major drama in this race for a top class car.

In LMP2, it’s still the No. 38 JOTA ORECA leading the way by almost 90 seconds over the Team Penske ORECA. The No. 32 WRT ORECA is up to third after a strong stint from Dries Vanthoor. The seventh round of LMP2 stops began at the very end of the hour, though, so the order won’t be clear until we are settled into the fifth hour.

Down the order there was a drama for the Vector Sport ORECA that had a costly off into the barriers at Indianapolis. Ryan Cullen damaged the right-front corner of the car in the impact and had to limp back to the pits for repairs. It was a hugely disappointing incident for the new team in its first Le Mans, especially as it spent the opening laps of the race fighting from the back of the field after failing to set a qualifying time.

GTE Pro, like Hypercar, is seeing a pendulum swing in the fortunes of its leading cars. Corvette’s No. 63 C8.R still leads, but by just 32s over the two Porsche factory cars, which are finding pace as the temperature drops trackside. Corvette says the front tires on its C8.Rs are struggling to switch on, enabling the Porsches to begin to find their footing in this one.

Currently, the No. 91 is back ahead of the No. 92 after Richard Lietz made a move on Laurens Vanthoor. The No. 64 Corvette, meanwhile, has dropped to fourth and is only a 1.3s ahead of the first of the AF Corse Ferraris. Could the Italian marque find its way into contention as the night hours draw closer?

The biggest story of Am during the hour was a costly off for a contender. The No. 46 Project 1 Porsche, which led the race in the first hour, had a spin into the gravel at Mulsanne Corner, Nicolas Leutwiler getting beached and requiring extraction. The Swiss managed to get back to the pits for a new set of tires after rejoining but lost further time after he hit the wall at pit entry on his way in. This error has dropped the car to 61st overall and eliminated one of the more promising entries in the class from podium contention.

WeatherTech Racing still leads, with the No. 77 Dempsey Proton Porsche second and the two Astons (Northwest AMR and TF) third and fourth.

HOUR 4 STANDINGS

 

Ferrari teases forthcoming LMH for its return to Le Mans

253 shares
share
tweet
emailBy Stephen Kilbey | June 10, 2022 10:54 AM ET

Ferrari has teased its forthcoming Le Mans Hypercar, which is set to join the FIA World Endurance Championship in 2023, by releasing an image as part of the build-up to the 90th Le Mans 24 Hours this weekend.

The return of the fabled Italian marque next year will mark its first entry to the top class of international sports car racing in 50 years. The last time Ferrari took the start at Le Mans as a factory fighting for overall honors was in 1973 with 312PBs.
Arturo Merzario and Carlos Pace shared this Ferrari 312 PB 73 at Le Mans at 1973 in the last factory appearance of the Prancing Horse at La Sarthe…until next year. Motorsport Images

Ferrari’s Hypercar team will be run by AF Corse, which has run its GTE Pro class effort since the inaugural FIA WEC season back in 2012. Amato Ferrari’s outfit will run a pair of Hypercar class efforts, up against what promises to be a blockbuster top class featuring full-season FIA WEC entries from Toyota, Peugeot, Porsche, Cadillac and Glickenhaus. Next year’s FIA WEC, of course contains the centenary running of the Le Mans 24 Hours, which is set to take place on June 10-11.

With this teaser, very little has been given away by Ferrari about the car’s looks. However, the car is a long way down the line in its developmental phase, with track testing due to begin next month.

Ferrari has confirmed that the car “shows strong design references to the stylistic features that distinguish the models in the Prancing Horse range.”

The teaser image from Ferrari follows recent LMDH/LMH car “reveals” from Acura, BMW and Cadillac.

 

LM 24, Hour 5

PRESS RELEASES STILL COMING IN TO TAMPA RACING

 

LM 24, Hour 6

 

LM 24, Hour 7

 

LM 24, Hour 8

 

LM 24, Hour 9: Toyota leads into the night

Motorsport Images
44 shares
share
tweet
emailBy Stephen Kilbey | June 11, 2022 7:16 PM ET

We have had nine hours of racing now at Le Mans, and the night hours are very much underway. Night brings cooler temperatures, lower visibility and fatigue. We are beginning to see the effects of these factors on the race.

Up front, in LMH, the battle for the lead is very much still on. The tussle between the two Toyota GR010 HYBRIDs has been entertaining thus far, with lots of changes of lead. The two Toyotas spent the whole hour within a handful of seconds of each other, with Sebastien Buemi and Mike Conway both asked by the team to have a long hard think about tire strategy overnight. It appears that changing from medium to soft compound is the way forward.

As we head into Hour 10, though, the No. 8 leads by 30 seconds, as the No. 7 got caught in a slow zone on its out-lap. Brendon Hartley is now in the No. 8, with Jose Maria Lopez back in the No. 7.

Elsewhere in the class there was further strife for the No. 708 Glickenhaus which had to have its engine reset in the pit lane. Its fightback continues, Olivier Pla currently aboard and 17th overall.

LMP2 is still being controlled by the No. 38 JOTA. The lead for the “Mighty 38” is huge, now over two minutes over the No. 65 Panis Racing and PREMA ORECAs which make up the top three.

It must be noted however, that the car’s am driver, Roberto Gonzalez, has only completed one stint in the car to this point. He is set to have a lot of driving to do on Sunday to meet his minimum drive time!

GTE Pro continues to look far more open following the No. 63 Corvette’s woes. That car, which led for most of the opening third of the race, lost almost an hour in the pits due to suspension issues, which Corvette believes wasn’t due to contact. The car is now running 60th, last of the classified cars.

Up front in the class is the No. 92 Porsche, with the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari second and the No. 64 Corvette — which represents Corvette’s only shot at victory now — third.

GTE Am was static during Hour 9, WeatherTech Racing holds a minute lead once again over the Northwest AMR Aston, and an advantage of over a minute on the No. 77 Dempsey Proton Porsche in third.

The headlines from Am came from runners hitting trouble during this 60-minute segment of the race. The No. 777 D’Station Aston Martin, which was spotted running slow on Mulsanne, has become the second retirement of the race, the team discovering chassis and wishbone damage on the car when Charlie Fagg returned to the pits.

The No. 93 Porsche of Michael Fassbender also had another off, this time an unprovoked spin into the Dunlop Bridge gravel trap, the car getting beached. And the No. 71 AF Corse Ferrari also hit trouble, the car ending up in the garage with smoke bellowing out of it, losing water. It would appear to be in major trouble.

HOUR 9 STANDINGS

 

LM 24, Hour 10

 

LM 24, Hour 11

 

LM 24, Hour 12