Sebastien Buemi (SUI) / Brendon Hartley (NZL) / Ryo Hirakawa (JPN) #08 Toyota Racing, Toyota GR010, Hybrid. 12.06.2022. FIA World Endurance Championship, Round 3, Le Mans 24 Hours Race, Le Mans, France, Sunday – www.xpbimages.com, EMail: [email protected] – copy of publication required for printed pictures. Every used picture is fee-liable. © Copyright: XPB Images
Sebastien Buemi, Ryo Hirakawa and Brendon Hartley have won the 24 Hours of Le Mans for Toyota, driving the #8 Toyota GR010 to overall victory, just over two minutes ahead of the sister car, #7 Toyota, of Kamui Kobayashi, Jose Maria Lopez and Mike Conway. This marks Hirakawa’s first win from three tries, with the previous two attempts in 2016 and 2017 in LMP2, finishing 17th in class and 39th overall in the latter year. Buemi has won the race four times now, with this being Hartley’s third win.
The #709 Glickenhaus 007 finished third, being driven to the final podium position by Richard Westbrook, Franck Mailleux and Ryan Briscoe. The car had a trouble-free run but just didn’t have the pace to compete fully with the Toyotas, and finished over five laps behind.
The #708 Glickenhaus, driven by Olivier Pla, Romain Dumas, and Pipo Derani, finished fourth after spending time in the garage in the first half of the race. The car climbed back up the order and took fourth off the leading LMP2 with an hour or so to go.
The #36 Alpine A480 of Andre Negrao, Mathieu Vaxiviere and Nicolas Lapierre finished 23rd overall and fifth in LMh after continual different issues, including clutch problems and accident damage, all through the race.
The aforementioned leading, and winning, LMP2 was the #38 JOTA Oreca 07-Gibson, driven at various stages by Antonio Felix da Costa, Will Stevens, and Roberto Gonzalez. It dominated the race and led almost every lap in LMP2, finishing well over 2 minutes ahead of the #9 Prema Oreca 07-Gibson of Robert Kubica, Lorenzo Colombo and Louis Deletraz.
Third in LMP2 were Oliver Rasmussen, Ed Jones and Jonathan Aberdein in the other JOTA car, #28 JOTA Oreca 07-Gibson, a lap behind the second-placed Prema car.
Gianmaria Bruni, Fred Makowiecki and Richard Lietz, driving the #91 Porsche 911 RSR-19, won the GTE-Pro class, followed 42 seconds behind by the #51 Ferrari 488 GTE Evo of Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado and Daniel Serra. The two had a mighty battle in the final few hours, but the Ferrari, which has been lacking race pace all season fell short compared to ther Porsche.
Third was the sister AF Corse Ferrari, the #52 Ferrari 488 GTE Evo of Miguel Molina, Davide Rigon and Antonio Fucuo. The car finished a lap behind its teamcar, but still managed to get onto the podium. Fourth was the #92 Porsche 911 RSR-19 of Laurens Vanthoor, Kevin Estre and Michael Christiansen, which came unstuck after Christiansen suffered a tyre delamination 16 hours into the race, requiring time in the garage to fix the resulting bodywork damage.
The two Corvettes, #63 and #64 Corvette C8.Rs, both retired from the race. The #63 had recurrent rear end issues, while the #64 had to retire after sustaining damage when #83 AF Corse Oreca 07-Gibson driver Francois Perrodo accidentally put the Corvette into the barriers when the car was competing for the class win with just a few hours to go.
Finally, in GTE-Am, the #33 TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage AMR of Ben Keating, Henriquye Chaves and Marco Sorensen won, with an almost-45 second gap to second-placed #79 WeatherTech Racing Porsche 911 RSR-19 of Julien Andaluer, Cooper MacNeil and Thomas Merrill.
Third in GTE-Am was the #98 Northwest Aston Martin Vantage AMR of Paul Dalla Lana, Nicki Thiim and David Pittard, finishing a lap behind the WeatherTech Porsche. This marks Dalla Lana’s first podium at Le Mans after almost a decade of trying.
Congratulations to all the winners, and podium finishers, and finishers of the race, from all of us at Motorsport Week!
Keyword: Buemi, Hirakawa and Hartley win Le Mans for Toyota