Less than four hours from the finish of the Le Mans marathon, the factory Toyota hypercars are still leading the race. Car number 8 is in first position, but the second Japanese sports prototype loses nearly three minutes to the leaders, so we can hardly expect to see a fierce battle for victory.
Unless, of course, equipment problems begin, because the backlog of car No. 7 is due to the fact that she had to spend some time in the pits due to malfunctions in the hybrid system of the power plant.
Either way, Toyota’s speed advantage is undeniable. The car of the American team Glickenhouse is in third place in absolute terms, but the fourth and fifth position are taken by the sporty prototypes of the LMP2 class with the numbers 38 and 9 – these are the cars of the JOTA teams, which is played by António Felix da Costa and Prema, where Robert Kubica races. It is these pilots who are now on the track, although they are also more than two minutes apart.
However, in the remaining hours of the race, things could change as for example the second Glickenhouse, although losing nine laps to the leaders, remains on track, quite quickly in 6th place in the absolute with the LMP2 cars.
But in the GTE-Pro class there was a change in the leader: the race favourites, the Corvette sports cars, dropped out and the last of them retired after a collision on the Mulsanne straight with the LMP2 sports cars prototype of the AF Corse team.
corvette no. 64 took the lead, Alex Sims drove the car, but contact developed between the American sports car and Oreca No. 83, after which the Brit flew off the track and crashed into a bump stop. Fortunately, the driver was not injured.
Another Corvette stopped due to technical problems. Now the battle for victory in this class is led by the drivers of the crews of the Porsche and Ferrari factory teams – two eternal rivals. The Porsche No. 91, driven by Gianmaria Bruni, is now ahead, but Daniel Serra is chasing him in a Ferrari 488 GTE Evo and the cars are less than a minute apart, so the category leader could change again.
In total, of the 62 starting teams of four categories, there are currently only 54 cars on the track. Most of the retirements were in the GTE Am class, but WRT’s LMP2 was also retired after Robin Fryance’s elimination.
Source: F1 News
I’m Todderic Kirkman, a journalist and author for athletistic. I specialize in covering all news related to sports, ranging from basketball to football and everything in between. With over 10 years of experience in the industry, I have become an invaluable asset to my team. My ambition is to bring the most up-to-date information on sports topics around the world.
