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WEC - Dramatic Start to the 89th 24 Hours of Le Mans

  • gb
21.08.21

After heavy rain saw the race start behind the Safety Car, there was drama at the first corner as the #708 Glickenhaus 007 LMH hit the #8 Toyota Gazoo Racing GR010.  There were plenty of spinners and gravel trap moments as the tricky conditions caught drivers out.

After 60-minutes of racing the no7 Toyota of Mike Conway is leading overall.  Corvette lead in LMGTE Pro, while Antonio Felix da Costa stars in the #38 JOTA in LMP2, while #83 AF Corse Ferrari is ahead in LMGTE Am category. 

Hypercar  
  • #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 
  • #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 #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 #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 
  • #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 #52 Miguel Molina  
  • After pit stop shake-out to take on slick tyres as track dries out the Corvette re-assume the lead as #64 car driven by Tommy Milner leads #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 #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 #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 #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 
  • #23 United Autosports USA entry hits trouble on opening lap as Nico Jamin spins but re-joins to continue 
  • #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 #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 
  • #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