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 at 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 make its way to the front 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 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 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.
En la categoría LMP2, el equipo #155 AF Corse, dirigido por Francois Perrodo, lideraba. Le seguían el coche Oreca #22 de United Autosports, conducido por Nolan Sieigel, y el coche Oreca #37 de Cool Racing, conducido por Lorenzo Fluxa. El cuarto y quinto lugar lo ocupaban los equipos #34 Inter Europol Competition y #10 Vector Sport, respectivamente.
En la categoría LMGT3, el equipo Manthey hizo un doblete, con Alex Malykhin en el coche #92 liderando el camino, seguido por Yasser Shahin en el Porsche 911 GT3.R #91. El cuarto lugar fue ocupado por Ian James en el Aston Martin Vantage #27 de Heart of Racing, seguido por Sarah Bovy en el Lamborghini #85 de Iron Dames y Takeshi Kimura en el Lexus RC F #87 del equipo Akkodis ASP.
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