She broke the curse that had made her lose in 2017, 2019 and 2020. The No. 7 Toyota of Briton Mike Conway, Japanese Kamui Kobayashi and Argentinian José Maria Lopez ended up winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans , Sunday August 22. For the Japanese brand, however, this is far from a first. Along with other cars, Toyota had won the last three editions of the Le Mans classic.
The Toyota n ° 8 of the Swiss Sébastien Buemi, the Japanese Kazuki Nakajima and the New Zealander Brendon Hartley, and the only Alpine in the running – the n ° 36 of the French Nicolas Lapierre, Matthieu Vaxiviere and the Brazilian André Negrao – also ride on the podium.
20% of the usual tonnage
This 89e edition was held at the end of August instead of mid-June, postponed to accommodate 50,000 spectators (20% of the usual number) due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The 2020 edition took place behind closed doors.
Starting from pole position at 4:13 p.m. on Saturday, on a wet track, the n ° 7 controlled the race. Neither the rain, nor a slow puncture in the first hours, nor a straight ahead in the night, nor refueling problems on Sunday morning seemed to put it in danger. Its competitors either. The No. 8, three-time defending champion, was unable to climb higher than her second place on the grid, after being caught in the first corner.
The two other manufacturers entered in the new premier class of Hypercars, Alpine and Glickenhaus (which takes fourth and fifth places), failed to put the favorites under pressure. They also did not benefit from the reliability problem encountered by the two Toyotas, which the team knew. ” get around “ to achieve this double.
In LMP2, Team WRT won with only 727 thousandths of a second in advance for the No.31 Oreca, but missed out on a double after the cruel stop on the track for No.41 just three minutes from the race. ‘arrival at 4 p.m.!
Victories of Ferrari # 51 in LMGTE Pro and Ferrari # 83 in LMGTE Am.
The n ° 84 car, entrusted to two paraplegic drivers, the Japanese Takuma Aoki and the Belgian Nigel Bailly, placed 32e.
The World Auto Endurance Championship (WEC) will end its 2021 season with two races in Bahrain, one of six hours on October 30 and the other of eight hours on November 6. The next 24 Hours of Le Mans should return to their usual date, June 11 and 12, 2022.