The 89th running of the Le Mans 24 Hours was won by the number seven Toyota Gazoo Racing Hypercar driven by Kamui Kobayashi Jose Maria Lopez and Mike Conway.
Below are summaries of the 2021 Le Mans 24 Hours as supplied on the FIA WEC website:
Hour 24
The No.7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid Hypercar takes comfortable victory in 89th running of 24 Hours of Le Mans, round four of FIA WEC.
Jose Maria Lopez, Kamui Kobayashi and Mike Conway seal victory to finally take win after several years of frustration at Le Mans and become first ever Hypercar race at Le Mans.
No.51 AF Corse Ferrari of James Calado, Alessandro Pierguidi and Come Ledogar take LMGTE Pro victory, while Team WRT take dramatic last gasp win in LM2 on La Sarthe debut after sister car retires on final lap of race! Condensed race report here>>>
Hour 18
The No. 7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid Hypercar continues to lead the 24 Hours of Le Mans, round four of the FIA WEC, extending its lead over the sister No. 8 Toyota Gazoo Racing car – which has reported fuelling issues – by over four minutes.
No.51 AF Corse Ferrari continues to leads LMGTE Pro, while Team WRT remains first and second in highly-competitive LMP2 category. No leader change in LMGTE Am with AF Corse Ferrari No. 83 car still at the helm.
Below are the main headlines from hours 12 – 18.
Hypercar
• Toyota Gazoo Racing continues to lead the 24 Hours of Le Mans as No. 7 and No. 8 GR010 Hybrid Hypercars remain first and second respectively
• No.7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid now with Kamui Kobayashi at the wheel carves out over four minute lead following various issues for sister No. 8 car
• No. 8 car – currently driven by Sebastien Buemi – reported vibrations in the car followed by refuelling issues meaning drivers aren’t able to carry out full stints before needing to pit
• Team reported issue is getting worse with Toyota currently working hard to fix the issue ahead of race’s closing six hours
• Alpine Elf Matmut remain third overall with Andre Negrao now at the wheel, the French squad regularly swapping positions following pit stops with the No. 708 Glickenhaus entry
• Sister No. 709 Glickenhaus 007 Hypercar steadily making progress up the overall leaderboard and is now up to eighth overall, but still remains over two laps down on sister car
LMGTE Pro
• AF Corse Ferrari still on top in LMGTE Pro, with No. 51 car now around 20 seconds ahead of No. 63 Corvette Racing entry still with Jordan Taylor at the wheel
• Porsche GT Team No. 92 and No. 91 911 RSR – 19s third and fourth in class respectively
• Trouble for No. 52 AF Corse Ferrari after a front-right puncture and bodywork damage with Sam Bird driving at the time. Car immediately goes to the pits for length repairs where it still remains
LMP2
• Belgian squad Team WRT continue to dominate LMP2 category, with No. 31 Oreca 07 Gibson currently 40 seconds ahead of sister car
• Category leading No. 31 car sees Robin Frijns hands car over to Charles Milesi in 17th hour, with Frenchman putting in solid lap times to extend lead over sister car
• The battle for third position has been raging between hours 12 and 18 with JOTA and WRT regularly swapping positions for the final podium position
• No. 28 JOTA driven by Sean Geleal currently third ahead of No. 65 Panis Racing entry and James Allen
• Trouble-free few hours for Inter Europol Competition who currently occupy P5, one spot ahead of the No. 23 United Autosports car which is sixth in class
• Heartache for No. 22 United Autosports USA after car is brought in with alternator issue and lengthy pit stop then leads to team replacing battery. Car drops down the order with No. 22 now back of the class
• No.25 G-Drive Racing officially retired following impact at Dunlop Chicane in the early hours. It marks the third retirement in the category so far including Richard Mille Racing Team and the No. 32 United Autosports USA entry
LMGTE Am
• No.83 AF Corse still on top in LMGTE Am now with young gun Nicklas Nielsen at the wheel
• TF Sport Aston Martin takes advantage of a drive-through-penalty given to category leading No. 83 car but British team are still over two minutes behind the leading Ferrari
• No.80 Iron Lynx Ferrari 488 GTE Evo hold third in class, with Rino Mastronardi now back in the car
• No. 88 Dempsey Proton Racing Porsche 911 RSR – 19 pits with puncture and damage, dropping the team to 12th in class
Hour 12
No.7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid Hypercar pushes to the front as the halfway mark arrives in the 89th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. But pressure is still being applied by sister No.8 car.
More safety car, full course yellow and slow zone periods punctuate the six-to-12-hour period of racing ensuring array of strategies play out.
No.51 AF Corse Ferrari leads LMGTE Pro, while Team WRT take control of LMP2 in tight intra-team battle as they run 1-2.
AF Corse also leads in LMGTE Am as No.83 car holds off recovering TF Sport Aston Martin.
Hypercar
• Toyota Gazoo Racing Hypercar in control of race at halfway point as No.7 and No.8 take turns in leading race after multiple slow zone, full course yellow and safety car incidents
• No.7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid with Mike Conway driving pulls out a 45-second gap after capitalising on a slow zone in ninth hour.
• Kamui Kobayashi takes over from Conway as halfway point approaches
• But Kazuki Nakajima and then Sebastien Buemi reduce gap to just 26-seconds after 12 hours. Brendon Hartley takes over cockpit just before 4am
• Kiwi has three lap buffer over third placed Alpine ELF Matmut entry
• Matthieu Vaxiviere had earlier spun into gravel at first Mulsanne Chicane in eighth hour and Alpine fell behind No.708 Glickenhaus in to fourth in Hypercar
• Nicolas Lapierre caught Olivier Pla and two engaged in entertaining battle which was resolved when Lapierre made a move stick at second chicane after wheel-to-wheel fight
• Glickenhaus Racing continue to enjoy strong run on Le Mans debut as No.708 and No.709 run fourth and fifth in Hypercar class after clean runs in first half of race
LMGTE Pro
• Intra-manufacturer battle in LMGTE Pro hots up as Ferrari and Corvette take turns in lead while Porsche threatens to fight back after difficult start.
• No.63 Corvette driven by Jordan Taylor spends time in lead of class after taking advantage of some slow zone fortune for pit stops in off-strategy race so far
• AF Corse Ferraris still running close together as No.51 heads No.52 car
• Alessandro PierGuidi takes Taylor for the lead on track at 2.30am and slowly pulls a gap to the Corvette which is one off-set strategy
• Nicky Catsburg applies pressure to Sam Bird in No.52 Ferrari in tight battle for second place in class
• Kevin Estre completes rapid double stint in No.92 Porsche 911 RSR-19 after they are forced to adapt strategy by bringing in Neel Jani in early
• Estre fights through to third but drops position after handing over to Michael Christensen in 10th hour and runs fourth but slow zone woes compromises progress
• No.91 Porsche driven by Richard Leitz at halfway mark places in fifth position ahead of the WeatherTech 911 RSR-19 shared by Earl Bamber, Laurens Vanthoor and Cooper McNeil
• But McNeil crashes heavily at final corner after 10hrs 30mins and car suffers significant right-hand side damage and car is pushed back into its box
LMP2
• Team WRT takes control of LMP2 as they run 1-2, initially with No.41 car out front
• But sister No.31 car takes the lead in eighth hour as Ferdinand Habsburg makes move
• Robin Frijns extends lead with the gap over the No.41 car stretched to 41-seconds after 12 hours of racing before Charles Milesi takes over for his second stint at the wheel
• But Yifei Ye starts to reduce the gap to No.31 Team WRT car just before the halfway stage, setting fastest lap of the class as he does so as advantage is reduced to just 5.6 seconds.
• Panis Racing and No.22 United Autosports cars battling for third place throughout early hours of the morning
• At 12 hours the United Autosports car driven by Fabio Scherrer holds advantage over James Allen piloted Panis entry
• No.28 JOTA entry places fifth ahead of Inter Europol Competition in sixth as pair joust just 12-seconds apart with Tom Blomqvist and Renger van der Zande battling for position
• No.25 G-Drive Racing car crashes out of race as Rui Andrade impacts barriers under braking for Dunlop Chicane just before the ninth hour arrives
• Dragonspeed leads the Pro/Am stakes as Henrik Hedman completes solid stints and capitalises on off track issues for No.70 Realteam and No.29 Racing Team Nederland entries
• Felipe Nasr stars in early hours of morning as he sets succession of fastest lap in Risi Competizione Oreca-Gibson which is placed 10th in class after earlier rear-wing issues
LMGTE Am
• Close battle rage throughout the LMGTE Am category as No.83 AF Corse leads from No.33 TF Sport Aston Martin
• The TF Aston survives a double puncture which causes small impact with first Mulsanne chicane tyre-wall at end of seventh hour
• Dylan Pereira, Ben Keating and Felipe Fraga fight back to briefly lead before Nicklas Nielsen in No.83 opens small gap at the front to head TF Sport
• No.80 Iron Lynx Ferrari 488 GTE Evo battles for lead as Callum IIIot stars on his Le Mans debut
• Matteo Cressoni places car third as halfway mark arrives holding off fourth placed No.54 AF Corse Ferrari of Francesco Castellacci
• But Cressoni speeds under slow zone conditions and has to serve a 10-secs penalty at scheduled stop, yet still holds on to third
• Cetilar Racing Ferrari 488 GTE Evo forced to retire as Roberto Lacorte crashes car at Tertre Rouge while running fourth
• No.57 Kessel Racing Ferrari ran third but retired after Mikkel Jensen stopped on track with terminal technical issue
Hour 4
Hypercar
Just seconds into the race, Olivier Pla (Glickenhaus #708) slid while braking and clipped Sébastien Buemi’s #8 Toyota. The Japanese car had trouble getting back on track and came to a halt on the Mulsanne Straight but managed to set off again shortly after.
The irritated Swiss driver then had a skirmish with an LMP2 car before settling down and recording a couple of fast times, with 3:28.726 on his 19th lap, then 3:27.766 two laps later.
Four hours into the race, only three Hypercars were still on the same lap – the #7 and #8 Toyota GR010 Hybrids (in that order), ahead of the #36 Alpine A480-Gibson.
LMP2
The unfavourable track conditions at the start of the race saw the LMP2s give the Hypercars a run for their money in the overall standings. Things settled down however once the circuit dried out. At 20:00, the leading LMP2 was just one lap behind the #7 Toyota.
Da Costa had made his way to the front in the #38 Oreca 07 – Gibson by the time he handed over to Davidson. The British driver, however, went straight into the gravel at the Dunlop curve. Robert Kubica in the #41 Oreca 07 – Gibson pounced on the opportunity to close ranks before pitting to refuel.
After the setbacks encountered by its sister car, the #28 Oreca 07 – Gibson was in the lead after the first four hours of the race.
LMGTE Pro
Kévin Estre was the first to slip up in the tricky conditions in the early stages of the race, but his #92 Porsche did not suffer and he was soon back in the running. The two Corvettes took advantage of the situation to move to the top of the class standings but, as the tarmac dried out, the Ferraris stepped up to regain control.
The two AF Corse cars were almost wheel-to-wheel, taking turns in the lead until Daniel Serra (Ferrari #52) finally created a comfortable gap and settled into P1 in the class. In the Porsche camp, the #72 Hub Auto Racing has all but scuppered its chances after a track limit violation for which Martin/Parente/Vanthoor picked up a drive-through penalty.
Earl Bamber (Porsche #79) was the most successful representative of the German marque four hours into the race, holding third place in class.
LMGTE Am
After an uneventful start to the race, LMGTEAm driver Marcos Gomes sent his Aston Martin Racing #98 Aston Martin Vantage AMR hard into the tyre wall at the Indianapolis corner.
The Brazilian driver came off at high speed, causing a massive impact. He walked away dazed but unharmed. Given the state of the car, the chances of seeing it back on the track are slim.
Start
Mike Conway leads first hour for Toyota Gazoo Racing #8 (live above)after intense and dramatic first hour at Le Mans in wet but drying conditions. Corvette lead in LMGTE Pro, while Antonio Felix da Costa stars for JOTA in LMP2, while No.83 AF Corse Ferrari is ahead in LMGTE Am category.
Hypercar
• No.7 Toyota Gazoo Racing Hypercar driven by Mike Conway leads majority of first hour and holds comfortable lead
• Conway leads 61 car field after safety car start due to wet conditions for 89th running of the great race
• Dramatic start to race as Sebastien Buemi is hit by Olivier Pla and spun down the field
• No.8 Toyota then stops for a systems re-set and also has excursion at Arnage amid difficult start to race
• But Buemi fights back and is able to run in second place in Hypercar albeit 57-seconds behind teammate Conway in No.7 Toyota GR010-Hybrid
• Alpine Elf Matmut of Nicolas Lapierre initially places second but spins at Indianapolis on second lap. Lapierre re-joins and is able to lead briefly during pit stops. But he soon follows suit and after first hour before he sit in third position
• Despite damage from first corner incident No.708 Glickenhaus 007 LMH places second but damage to front right of car
• Pla also forced to take a 10-second penalty for the accident when he makes first scheduled stop and slips back to fifth in Hypercar
• No.709 Glickenhaus driven by Richard Westbrook places fourth after cautious start to race
• But British driver spins at final corner just as first hour ends. He re-joins but drops back behind sister car of Pla
LMGTE Pro
• Corvette took initiative at start of race but drop back to allow charging AF Corse Ferraris to run 1-2 with No.51 car driven James Calado holding off No.52Miguel Molina
• After pit stop shake-out to take on slick tyres as track dries out the Corvette re-assume the lead as No.64 car driven by Tommy Milner leads No.52 Ferrari driven by Molina
• James Calado has off-track excursion at Esses just before end of first hour and slips back fifth position in LMGTE Pro
• WeatherTech Porsche sits third as Laurens Vanthoor sits on tail of second place Ferrari
• Tough start for Porsche GT Team as Kevin Estre has two incidents in re-built No.92 911 RSR-19. This drops him down to seventh place
LMP2
• Antonio Felix da Costa leads from pole and is quickest car on track after starting on Goodyear intermediate tyres
• But JOTA driver relinquishes the lead as he pits to slick tyres and the No.26 G-Drive car driven by Nyck de Vries takes over temporary lead
• After an hour da Costa re-assumes lead and enjoys a sizeable 20-second lead over de Vries and places second overall
• Third in class is No.41 Team WRT car driven by Robert Kubica who fought closely with de Vries in first laps of the race
• Racing Team Nederland places fourth as Giedo van der Garde cuts through the field and ensures Dutch car also leads Pro/Am class and closes on Kubica
• No.23 United Autosports USA entry hits trouble on opening lap as Nico Jamin spins but re-joins to continue
• No 25 G-Drive car of Roberto Merhi loses two laps after beaching car in Esses gravel just before end of first hour
LMGTE Am
• Julien Andlauer leads from pole in the No.88 Dempsey Proton Racing Porsche
• But Cetilar Racing Ferrari 488 GTE Evo of Antonio Fuoco surges to the front
• But No.83 AF Corse Ferrari comes through the field to take lead after first stops as Niklas Nielsen enjoys 8-second lead over Andlauer’s Porsche
• No.80 Iron Lynx Ferrari of Matteo Cressoni impressive as he places in third position
• In the Innovation class Matthieu Lahaye has trouble free stint to place encouraging 23rd overall in adapted car he races with Takuma Aoki and Nigel Bailley.
89th 24 Hours of Le Mans underway!
The race got underway at 16h00 on Saturday when the flag waved to start the race under safety car conditions for the first two laps before the field was released with an immediate accident.
Immediately the Hypercar class was severely impacted when the # 708 Glickenhaus and the # 8 Toyota collided within a few seconds. prompting the safety car to emerge once again with no racing lap completed.
Even when the field was released after the track was cleared, immediately there were incidents as the big field snaked through the spray.
Under the orders of John Elkann, Chairman of Ferrari and Official Starter of the 89th 24 Hours of Le Mans, the 61 entrants took to the track for 24 hours of racing. The winner will cross the line at 16:00 tomorrow.
Proceedings for the field began 11:30, the 61 teams in this edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans notched up their first laps of the day during the Warm-Up. This final 15-minute practice session is a chance for the teams to make any last-minute checks and tweaks to their cars according to the day’s weather conditions.
At 13:45, the grid formation began. Not long afterwards, at 14:10, Alpine treated the crowd to a parade of its cars including a Formula 1 machine driven by two-time 24 Hours of Le Mans winner Fernando Alonso, joined on track by F1 teammate Esteban Ocon, winner of the recent Hungarian Grand Prix.
History made by Alpine today at Le Mans, for the first time an @F1 car is hitting the legendary French circuit with #WEC World Champion at the wheel, @alo_oficial.#LeMans24 @AlpineF1Team @SignatechAlpine pic.twitter.com/AufTNkRmGp
— WEC (@FIAWEC) August 21, 2021
Then, finally, it was 16:00 and time to unleash the competitors in the world’s greatest endurance event for a thrilling 24 hours of racing!
ALLEZ 🇫🇷! The race has started behind the safety car. A Hyper-historic moment for new era of endurance racing at Le Mans.#WEC #LeMans24 @ROLEX pic.twitter.com/l7VDNdwpwE
— WEC (@FIAWEC) August 21, 2021
LIVE – 24h of Le Mans – OnBoard #36 Alpine
LIVE – 24h of Le Mans – OnBoard #8 Toyota
LIVE – 24h of Le Mans – OnBoard #63 Corvette C8.R
Report in progress…
Earlier the the Endurance Racing Legends race washeld before the 24 Hours of Le Mans, featuring some of the most outstanding cars of the 1990’s and 2000’s era
https://youtu.be/_GAHpHA3V7w
The Endurance Racing Legends race, held before the 24 Hours of Le Mans, brings together some of the most outstanding cars of the 1990’s and 2000’s era
Such as… Aston Martin DBR9, Bentley Speed 8, Dodge Viper GTS-R, Ferrari 550 Prodrive, Maserati MC12 GT1, Porsche 911 GT1…
This grid is intended for GT1 cars such as Ferrari F40 LM and 550, McLaren F1 GTR, Porsche 911 GT1, GT2 icons like the Porsche 993 GT2 to 997 RSR, Chrysler Viper GTS-R, and Ferrari 360 to F430 GTC, plus of course prototypes like the iconic Audi R8 LMP and Bentley Speed 8.
This grid is intended for GT1 cars such as Ferraris F40 LM and 550, McLarens F1 GTR, Porsches 911 GT1, GT2 icons like the Porsches 993 GT2 to 997 RSR, Chrysler Vipers GTS-R, and Ferraris 360 to F430 GTC, plus of course prototypes like the iconic Audis R8 LMP and Bentleys Speed 8.
The rise of Endurance Racing Legends represents a real nod to Peter Auto, the organizer having largely contributed to the history of these cars on the circuits, both in the 1990s with the BPR (Barth-Peter-Ratel) than in the 2000s with the Le Mans Series.
Legal live feeds from the 89th edition of the world’s greatest endurance race will be posted above (the main feed we can get) below (feeds from teams) as and when they are available. This will be updated regularly.