Toyota opens Hypercar era with decisive victory at Le Mans

Toyota opens Hypercar era with decisive victory at Le Mans

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emailBy Stephen Kilbey | August 22, 2021 10:47 AM ET

Toyota Gazoo Racing has become the first team to claim a Le Mans win in the new Hypercar category. Its new GR010 HYBRIDs cruised to a 1-2 finish, four laps clear of the competition, despite both cars suffering various minor issues throughout the race.

The winning car on this occasion was, finally, the No. 7 crew of Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez after 371 laps of racing. It was a well-deserved triumph after so many years of near misses, heartbreak and drama. It was a near faultless run from all three drivers, who made no notable errors en route to their first overall Le Mans win together.

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An issue with fuel pick-up meant the trio had to manage each stint for much of the second half of the race, and make additional stops throughout, but nobody came close enough to truly challenge them. This was a tour de force, the No. 7 leading the majority of the race from pole position.

“It’s hard to put this into words. After so many setbacks in recent years, to win it, it’s so emotional,” said Conway after the race, which coincidentally is also his 10th WEC win.

“Wow,” Kobayashi exclaimed on team radio at the end. “I can’t believe this.” He is the fourth Japanese driver to win overall at La Sarthe. Lopez, meanwhile, is the second Argentine to win the Le Mans 24 Hours, the first since Jose Froilan Gonzalez way back in 1954.

“Hard really,” Lopez mused. “Of course we came through a few Le Mans that were quite tough for us as a crew. To be a part of this is amazing, a dream come true. I’ve come so far so many years for this dream and I couldn’t choose better teammates. Mike and Kamui are like brothers for me now and things they have done, I’ve seen them doing things in the car, amazing. I’m very lucky to have them.

“And of course the team. The team has worked very hard — at the end we take the glory, we jump on the podium but there’s more than 600 people back at Cologne, and more than 1000 people back in Japan, making this happen. The first time the new car has race at Le Mans, and to make it to the end wasn’t easy. We had to work the last six, seven hours, we had a few issues, but as a team we came through and that’s the most valuable thing we took from today.”
Glory to the winners.@TGR_WEC @Mikeconway26 @pechito37 @kamui_kobayashi #WEC #LeMans24 @24hoursoflemans pic.twitter.com/30iRyYfpLW

— WEC (@FIAWEC)

Toyota’s No. 8 came closest to denying the No. 7 on this occasion, but it had a far more eventful race and rarely put the pressure on. The No. 8 was turned around at the start in the tricky wet conditions on the run up to the Dunlop Bridge by a Glickenhaus, forced to perform a power cycle later in the lap and battle back into contention from last, then later deal with fuel and vibration issues and a broken passenger door. Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Kazuki Nakajima will leave disappointed with second, but should be proud of what was a valiant effort to bring the car home second for a formation finish.
The Alpine and Glickenhaus were never closer to the Toyotas than at the wild start, but their reliability was encouraging. Rainier Ehrhardt/Motorsport.Images

The other two teams in the class simply had no answer to Toyota, as despite their various issues, the ultimate pace for the GR010s never faltered, the Alpine and Glickenhaus 007s were therefore unable to capitalize on Toyota’s niggles. This in turn made it appear a far more comfortable victory than it was in reality.

It must be said, though, that it was a pleasant surprise to see all five cars in the top class make the finish; a rarity in any year regardless of the selection of teams. Mighty efforts from both Alpine and Glickenhaus saw all three cars in question make it to the finish, and in the remaining top five places overall.

Alpine took the final place on the podium, becoming the first French team to take a spot on the overall podium since Peugeot’s last appearance in LMP1 back in 2011. For the Signatech-run factory team, it was a rather quiet race, spent running in third after making up for lost time, clear of the Glickenhaus cars but far behind the Toyotas.

An early spin at Indianapolis for Nicolas Lapierre in the opening laps of the race dropped the car down the order, and a slide into the gravel for Matthieu Vaxiviere at the first Mulsanne Chicane before the halfway mark set the team back enough to end its chances of victory early on. Nevertheless it was a strong performance, Vaxiviere, Lapierre and Andre Negrao securing trophies at the team’s home race.

Glickenhaus’ pair of U.S.-flagged 007s, meanwhile, had a superb run to the flag, both cars running reliably and quickly, the team putting all the mechanical woes during the races prior to Le Mans behind them.
A promising beginning to the Glickenhaus Hypercar story at Le Mans. JEP/Motorsport Images

For a small boutique manufacturer like Glickenhaus, building a Hypercar from scratch with a budget a fraction of its opposition, this was an outstanding 24 hours. Jim Glickenhaus can leave La Sarthe proud with his head held high. His two Pipo-powered 007s, on their Le Mans debut, came home fourth and fifth, and look like they can be a force next year against Toyota and the returning Peugeot brand.

The No. 708 of Pipo Derani, Franck Mailleux and Olivier finished fourth on the same lap as the Alpine, and three laps clear of the No. 709 driven by Richard Westbrook, Ryan Briscoe and Romain Dumas, within a lap of the Alpine.

Was this an all-time class race? No. But this did mark the start of something, with the Hypercar era looking set to be a memorable one in the years to come with Peugeot joining for 2022 and an armada of other factories expected to come aboard in 2023.

 

LM24 Hour 1: Dramatic start as Toyota and Glickenhaus collide

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emailBy Stephen Kilbey | August 21, 2021 11:15 AM ET

The opening hour of the 89th running of the Le Mans 24 Hours was a rather chaotic one. Toyota’s No. 7 GR010 HYBRID leads from pole position after 60 minutes of racing with Mike Conway at the wheel, but behind the running order has been shuffled completely with incidents occurring all over the track.

Heavy rain pre-race prompted a safety car start, and two additional formation laps, meaning the race didn’t go green for the opening 10 minutes. After that it was chaotic, with incidents up and down the order from the run up to the Dunlop Bridge onwards.

The biggest incident was the No. 708 Glickenhaus of Olivier Pla hitting the No. 8 Toyota in the run to Turn 2, locking up the brakes and clattering into the side of the GR010. This sent Buemi spinning and damaged the nose of the No. 708.
This time, WE GO RACING at Le Mans!#WEC #LeMans24 @24hoursoflemans pic.twitter.com/Y9Zcf0MZLf

— WEC (@FIAWEC)
Start from the #7 @TGR_WEC rear view mirror https://t.co/pG3077KZ4J

— 24 Hours of Le Mans (@24hoursoflemans)

Buemi then had to stop and power cycle the car later in the opening lap, before having an off into Arnage, locking up. All this has left the No. 8 crew with somewhat of a mountain to climb already, though from dead last the No. 8 has already climbed back to fourth overall, albeit over a minute off the leading No. 7 which has had the most comfortable run of any car thus far.

Elsewhere in Hypercar the Alpine A480 had a costly spin at Indianapolis which cost Nicolas Lapierre lots of time on the second racing lap, dropping the car from a comfortable second to fifth by the end of the opening 60 minutes, behind both Toyotas and the two leading cars in LMP2. The two Glickenhaus 007s sit sixth (No. 709) and 12th (No. 70 overall, both having lost time due to being on full wets as the track dried (the leading LMP2s were on inters). In addition, the No. 708 lost an additional 10 seconds to a penalty for the collision at the start.

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In LMP2 the No. 38 JOTA ORECA leads the way and sits second overall, 42 seconds off Conway. Antonio Felix da Costa has been a star so far in changeable conditions, creating a 25-second margin to Nyck de Vries in the chasing No. 26 G-Drive Racing Aurus that sits second.

The Racing Team Nederland ORECA is third, with the No. 41 WRT ORECA is currently fourth ahead of the No. 65 Panis Racing example which lost places at the first round of pit stops, after sitting second in the opening laps.

Many teams lost crucial time in LMP2 during this opening stint, with the No. 48 IDEC ORECA causing a slow zone down Mulsanne after an off by Patrick Pilet into the gravel. The No. 25 G-Drive Racing Aurus also ended up in the kitty litter at the end of the hour, Roberto Merhi getting it wrong going through the Dunlop Esses.

The GTE classes were just as chaotic as the prototypes, with positional changes occurring constantly and multiple cars having offs into the gravel.

GTE Pro is led by Tommy Milner in the No. 64 Corvette, which was hit by a Ferrari at the start of the formation lap, before climbing to second and later dropping down to fifth as the track dried. Quick pit work from the Corvette crew though, catapulted the No. 64 back to the lead at the end of Hour 1.
A Lot of traffic in GTE!@DHL_Motorsports | #LeMans24 #WEC #DHL pic.twitter.com/6SW078lAfA

— 24 Hours of Le Mans (@24hoursoflemans)

The No. 52 AF Corse Ferrari of Miguel Molina is currently second with the No. 79 WeatherTech Porsche third. The pole-sitting HubAuto Racing Porsche’s lead didn’t last long, it dropped to eighth immediately after a spin at the Dunlop Bridge at the start in the greasy conditions.

Best of the factory Porsches is up to fourth, the No. 91 leading the charge.

GTE Am, meanwhile, is led by the No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari, with the pole-sitting No. 88 Dempsey Proton 911 down to second, Nicklass Nielsen leading Nulien Andlauer.

23 hours to go. The rain has stopped but more is believed to be on the way in the next hour or two.