LM24, Hour 23

2023 LM24, Hour 23: Toyota Falls At The Penultimate Hurdle!

It's now clear track ahead for Ferrari's overall victory, after Ryo Hirakawa crashes at Arnage Corner

11 June 2023, 2:19 PM
What promised to be an all-time classic finish to the Centenary Edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans has completely blown up with one hour and 45 minutes to go!

Ryo Hirakawa had just boarded the #8 Toyota Gazoo Racing GR010 HYBRID, entrusted to take the final stint after Brendon Hartley was finished with a quadruple-stint.

Race engineer Ryan Dingle had been in constant communication with all three of his drivers in the #8 car to manage the brake balance.

This would prove prophetic in time, when Hirakawa, on used Michelin rubber, locked up the rear wheels in the braking zone at Arnage Corner, spun off to the left and bounced off the guardrail sustaining cosmetic damage to the front and rear. Hirakawa pitted again for damage repairs.

Barring a monumental collapse, Ferrari is now on track to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans for the first time since 1965.

The spin and subsequent pit stop for the #8 has given the race-leading #51 Ferrari AF Corse 499P of Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado, and Antonio Giovinazzi a lead of over three minutes. Giovinazzi’s time aboard the wheel has finished and Pier Guidi, who has been the star driver of this car for most of the race, rightfully will take it to the chequered flag.

All he needs is one more clean pit stop, 60 minutes of mistake-free driving, and for the turbo-V6-powered 499P to run trouble-free for one more hour – and the greatest prize in endurance sports car racing is Ferrari’s to cherish for generations.

Hirakawa is now settled and running second for Toyota – and Richard Westbrook is third in the #2 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R, which is set to take the first overall podium for GM’s luxury marque at Le Mans.

Another team an hour away from the greatest triumph in its history is Inter Europol Competition, the leader in LMP2.

The #34 Oreca 07-Gibson has been leading for much of the race and currently has a 15-second lead. All of the front runners will make one more pit stop before the end of the race.

Fabio Scherer will gut it out with his injured foot and take the green and yellow #34 to the chequered flag in a gladiator-like effort.

Team WRT now has its two cars on the podium – the #41 of Louis Deletraz in second, and coming all the way back from its terrifying off in the rain yesterday evening, Robin Frijns in the #31 has just overtaken the Team Duqueine #30 for third place at the first Mulsanne Chicane!

IDEC Sport’s #48 car was running in third, until Laurents Horr spun out as the result of a left-rear puncture. That’s dropped the #48 to sixth in class.

Panis Racing, which was also hovering around the top five, lost 15 crucial minutes in the garage after a broken starter motor prevented them from leaving the box after the #65’s final stop.
Charlie Eastwood chased down the Iron Dames Porsche, and the pace and experience of the Irish driver and 2020 winner brought the car to within striking distance of the pink Porsche.

Eastwood made light work of passing Rahel Frey into the first Mulsanne Chicane to take second place, as the tangerine Aston Martin Vantage still looks quite second hand with its slightly lifted bonnet. Frey fought back, trying to create a gap to Eastwood’s left, but the Aston Martin driver had it covered.

Nicky Catsburg still leads and will take the #33 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C8.R through to the finish. The race is far from over though and the car will need a final fuel stop. Catsburg’s gap to Eastwood’s Aston Martin is over a minute and a half, a comfortable cushion for everything required to see the car through the final hour should it not find further trouble.

Of the 21 starters in GTE-Am, nine are still classified as runners. Mention should be made of the sterling effort of the #98 Northwest AMR Aston Martin.

Stepping in to fill Paul Dalla Lana’s usual entry, the team has plenty of experience, but this is the team’s first Le Mans. Mechanicals and the challenges of harsh conditions could not phase the efforts of the team and its crew of driver/manager Ian James, Daniel Mancinelli and Alex Riberas who made it through the night, anchoring the car to deliver a solid finish in seventh place, barring further drama.

Equally, Walkenhorst Racing have been the essence of GTE-Am endurance racing with their #100 Ferrari 488 GTE EVO. A plucky effort that stuck with it and never gave up are racing towards a classification of eighth place, two laps off the class lead.

Bringing up the rear in the last ever GTE-Am competition at the 24 Heures du Mans will be the #74 Ferrari of Kessel Racing, which had shown pace and form earlier in the race.

Coming into the last hour the #24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 is on track, and NASCAR legend Jimmie Johnson, rightfully so, has the honour of taking it to the chequered flag – surely, to a thunderous applause.

That’s how things run heading into the last hour of racing, with good conditions. But if there’s one thing that the history of Le Mans has taught us – it is never, ever over until the clock hits zero and the chequered flag flies!

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LM24, Hour 23: Toyota’s pursuit wrecked; Corvette looking supreme in GTE

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emailBy Stephen Kilbey | June 11, 2023 9:16 AM ET

We’re into the final hour at Le Mans and all of a sudden it’s Ferrari’s race to lose. Toyota’s hopes of a sixth straight victory evaporated in the blink of an eye early in the 23rd hour, when Ryo Hirakawa ended up in the barriers at Arnage.

The Japanese driver, newly installed in the No. 8 GR010 for the final two hours, was tasked with catching and passing Antonio Giovanazzi in the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari to claim a comeback victory for the long-dominant Toyota Gazoo Racing team. The gap between them was just 16 seconds when he emerged from the pit lane, but it’s now almost a lap after the incident.

Hirakawa locked the rears under braking into Arnage and veered off into the barriers on the driver’s left, before spinning and clipping the rear of the car in the escape road.


After an agonizing few moments spent turning the car around, Hirakawa brought the car to the pits for emergency service, the rear end damage significant. Toyota’s mechanics managed to complete the stop — which included a front and rear end change — in just two minutes, but that meant the gap grew to over three minutes by the time the car rejoined the race.

Since then, Hirakawa has been unable to make up any ground and is actually at risk of being caught by the No. 51, which will look to put the Toyota a lap down in the final hour.

It was a dramatic moment that had been brewing for a while, and looks likely to have marked the end of Toyota’s challenge, barring any late drama for Ferrari.

There were nerves down at Inter Europol too during the hour, as its LMP2-leading No. 34 ORECA was flagged on the timing screens as under investigation for a pit infringement. Should the team receive a penalty in the final hour, it will almost certainly lose the lead in heartbreaking fashion, as the No. 41 WRT ORECA is only 14 seconds behind, with Louis Delatraz closing in on the injured Fabio Scherer.

To make matters more complicated for the Polish team, should it get the penalty, it may struggle to communicate it to Scherer as the team’s radio communications with the car are reported to be faulty.

GTE Am continues to be led by Corvette Racing, and barring a last-hour drama, it will be another famous victory for the American make. Behind, though, things are far from settled. During the penultimate hour ORT by TF’s Charlie Eastwood caught and passed Rahel Frey in the Iron Dames Porsche for second in class. Since making the move, Eastwood has been pushing to create a gap and has created a healthy 14-second margin heading into the final stint.