Sebastien Buemi, from Switzerland, Brendon Hartley, from New Zealand, and Ryo Hirakawa, from Japan, are the drivers of the #08 car from Toyota Gazoo Racing, specifically the Toyota GR010 Hybrid. This event took place on June 15, 2024, as part of the FIA World Endurance Championship. It was the fourth round of the championship and was held at the famous Le Mans circuit in France. The race took place on a Saturday.
Sebastien Buemi, leading the race for Toyota, managed to maintain his position even with 14 hours of racing completed. The race was under safety car conditions due to heavy rain. Toyota has been competing in the Le Mans race since 2012 and their cautious and low-risk approach has paid off so far. As the current Hypercar manufacturers’ champion, Toyota is seeking its third victory in Le Mans with its GR010 Hybrid package.
The #7 car from Toyota started last in its category due to a rare mistake made by Kamui Kobayashi during qualifying. However, the #8 car managed to move ahead of the pack. Ryo Hirakawa, the driver of the #8 car, initially faced competition from Laurens Vanthoor in the Porsche Penske 963 #6. However, Sebastien Buemi took over the wheel and increased the gap between them to over 13 seconds.
The rain continued to intensify and affected several areas of the circuit. As a result, the race had to be put back under safety car conditions shortly after returning to the green flag. In the LMP2 category, the chances of the #24 Nielsen Racing team winning the class were interrupted when David-Heinemeier Hansson got stuck in the gravel trap at Porsche Curves in his Oreca 07 car.
En tête de la catégorie LMP2 se trouvait l’équipe #155 AF Corse, dirigée par Francois Perrodo. Ils ont été suivis par la voiture Oreca #22 de United Autosports, pilotée par Nolan Sieigel, et par la voiture Oreca #37 de Cool Racing, pilotée par Lorenzo Fluxa. Les quatrième et cinquième places ont été occupées respectivement par les équipes #34 Inter Europol Competition et #10 Vector Sport.
Dans la catégorie LMGT3, c’était un doublé pour l’équipe Manthey, avec Alex Malykhin dans la voiture #92 en tête, suivi par Yasser Shahin dans la Porsche 911 GT3.R #91. La quatrième place a été occupée par Ian James dans l’Aston Martin Vantage #27 de Heart of Racing, suivi par Sarah Bovy dans la Lamborghini #85 d’Iron Dames et Takeshi Kimura dans la Lexus RC F #87 de l’équipe Akkodis ASP.
© 2024
