This year again, in Le Mans 24 hours, it seems that no one can compete with Toyota, whose N.8 will start from the pole position, just before N ° 7, on Saturday at 16:00. After the marked closed session in 2020, and then after the health indicator in 2021, the society is completely rediscovering the race of mythical endurance cars. In his absence, nothing or almost nothing has changed: the hegemonic Toyota has won the last four issues.
There is even a rivalry between two cars of the Japanese manufacturer, which has been spiced up in recent years – Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway և Jose Maria Lopez N.7, which ends the unsuccessful years by winning in 2021.
Read it!Why is Le Mans 24 Hours the most prestigious race in the world?
The No. 8 hypercar, whose staff changed two years ago to take on Brendon Hartley աջակց last year with the arrival of Rio Hirakawa to support Sebastien Buemi’s take on the ball և, therefore sees an opportunity to return to success after his 2018 hat-trick. , 2019 և 2020
Alpin took a risk
«We are delighted to have won the car for the eighth time, which puts Toyota second in the history of the race, equal to Audi.“, The director of the Japanese team Pascal Vaselon was happy. «We are stuck as good as we think we can be.»
Who could compete with them? «We will not underestimate any of our opponentssays Vaselon. «Glickenhouse was a bit behind in the qualifying round, which was a surprise, but we know they are at our level in terms of race.»
Read it!From X-Men to Le Mans 24 Hours, Michael Fassbender continues the tradition of the Hollywood race.
The Glickenhaus n ° 708 և n ° 709 performed well during the tests on Wednesday և Thursday, but still outscored the Nicola Lapierre Alps during the overload. But the French team took the risk of gaining speed in one lap, which is not a guarantee of double the clock performance.
«If we wanted to play with them, we had to be aggressive. We optimized everything we did not doLapierre confessed. «We are four tenths behind, while they have a little + gardening during this session.»
Read it!Why does Peugeot not participate in Le Mans 24 Hours this year?
In any case, Alpine is a natural competitor to Toyota, which is ahead of the World Endurance Championship (WEC) after two races. This unusual delay from the Japanese manufacturer also adds to the challenge of the Sart scheme.
What if Glickenhaus created the surprise?
But, paradoxically, it could be the small American team of New York-based director James Glickenhaus who can come up with two Toyota cars. N ° 708 և n ° 709 demonstrated regularity: reliability throughout the week, important features in this race where the slightest mechanical problem can endanger everything.
«I think we have our opportunity, the car is good, easy to drive, reliable in the long run“, – blows the boss. «We trust. We build and design long cars. Survival may be our chance against Toyota being there at 4pm on Sunday night.»
The N.709 will start from the second row, right next to the Alpine, and the N.708 will be placed in the third row, next to which will be placed the Belgian Oreca-Gibson from the WRT, which is the fastest in the LMP2 category. hyperpol. Its main competitor should be another Oreca-Gibson, United Autosports, McLaren F1 team leader Zach Brown’s team in this category, which combines 27 small prototypes that are slightly slower than hypercars.
At a lower level, the Corvette N.64 will launch in front of six other LMGTE-Pro (derived from production sports cars) և AF Corse team Ferrari N.61, and behind the wheel ahead of Vincent Abril. The other 22 LGMTE-Ams are run especially by professional amateurs. If the weather in Le Mans remained gray on Friday, the weather declared ideal conditions for the race – a mild temperature “bright”.
Source: Le Figaro
