24 Hours of Le Mans: Toyota N.7’s first win, the fourth consecutive manufacturer

The Toyota N.7 of Britain’s Mike Conway, Japan’s Kamui Kobayashi and Argentina’s Jose Maria Lopez, who had no luck in 2017, 2019 and 2020, ended up winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans on Sunday without much trouble.

For the Japanese brand, this is the fourth victory in the Le Mans classic, and also the fourth in a row since 2018.

Toyota completed the N.8 for Swiss Sebastien Buemi, Japan’s Kazuki Nakajima and New Zealander Brendon Hartley, and the only Alpine in the race, the N.36 for France’s Nicolas Lapierre, Mathieu Vacciever and Brazil’s André Negrau. Platform.

That’s 89^NS Held at the end of August instead of mid-June, the edition was changed to accommodate 50,000 spectators (20% of the usual number) despite the COVID-19 pandemic, after a closed session in 2020.

Starting in pole position at 4:13 p.m. Saturday, on a wet track, N.7 dominated the race. Neither rain, nor a slow hole in the early hours, no straight forward at night, nor Sunday morning refueling problems seemed to put her in danger.

As for its competitors. N.8, the three-time defending champion, was unable to climb higher than second on the grid, after getting stuck in the first corner.

The other two manufacturers entered the new Premier category from hypercarsAnd Alpine and Glickenhaus (who took fourth and fifth places) failed to put the candidates under pressure.

They also didn’t take advantage of the reliability problem faced by the two Toyotas, which the team was able to “circulate” to achieve this multiplier.

In LMP2, the WRT only won 727/1000 ahead of the Oreca N.31, but missed the double after a rough stop on the N.41 track just three minutes into the run, at 4pm!

Ferrari N.51 wins at LMGTE Pro and Ferrari N.83 at LMGTE-Am.

The N.84 car, which was entrusted to two paraplegic drivers, Japanese Takuma Aoki and Belgian Nigel Bailey, finished the race in 32^NS place.

The World Endurance Championship (WEC) will conclude its 2021 season with two races in Bahrain, one at 6am on October 30 and the other at 8am on November 6. The next 24 hours of Le Mans should go back to its usual date, June 11-12, 2022.