Sebastien Buemi, from Switzerland, Brendon Hartley, from New Zealand, and Ryo Hirakawa, from Japan, are the drivers of car #08 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 yielded results so far. As the current Hypercar manufacturers’ champion, Toyota is seeking its third victory at Le Mans with its GR010 Hybrid package.
Toyota’s car #7 started last in its category due to a rare mistake made by Kamui Kobayashi during qualifying. However, car #8 managed to move ahead of the pack. Ryo Hirakawa, the driver of car #8, 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 under safety car conditions again 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 the Porsche Curves in his Oreca 07 car.
In front of the LMP2 category was the #155 AF Corse team, led by Francois Perrodo. They were followed by the United Autosports Oreca #22 car, driven by Nolan Sieigel, and the Cool Racing Oreca #37 car, driven by Lorenzo Fluxa. The fourth and fifth places were occupied by the Inter Europol Competition team #34 and the Vector Sport team #10, respectively.
In the LMGT3 category, it was a one-two for the Manthey team, with Alex Malykhin in the #92 car leading the way, followed by Yasser Shahin in the Porsche 911 GT3.R #91. The fourth place was taken by Ian James in the Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage #27, followed by Sarah Bovy in the Iron Dames Lamborghini #85 and Takeshi Kimura in the Akkodis ASP team’s Lexus RC F #87.
© 2024
