Toyota scored its fifth consecutive victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, with the No. 8 crew of Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa winning the 2022 edition of the iconic endurance racing event. This is the first time a factory manufacturer has secured five straight wins at Le Mans since Ferrari achieved this feat between 1960 and 1964.
- Toyota wins 1-2 as Alpine hits trouble
- Porsche defeats Ferrari for LMGTE Pro win
Hypercar: 1-2 for Toyota
Toyota never really faced a challenge from Glickenhaus and Alpine throughout the 24 hour race. Instead, the No. 8 and No. 7 cars swapped the lead a few times. The No. 7 crew had a brief scare when Jose Maria Lopez stopped on track and had to perform a full system reset. This allowed Hartley to take the lead in the No. 8 Toyota.
By the time Lopez was in and out of the pits, the No. 7 car (shared by Lopez, Mike Conway and Kamui Kobayashi) was over a lap down. This gave the No. 8 car a clear run to victory – Buemi claiming his fourth Le Mans win, Hartley his third and Hirakawa winning at Le Mans for the first time. The No. 7 Toyota did make up some time and finished 2mins 1.222secs off the lead.
With double points at Le Mans, both Toyota crews also collect some much-needed points after a rocky start to the 2022 World Endurance Championship. Lopez crashed out of the Sebring season-opener, while the No. 8 car suffered a hybrid issue at Spa.
Glickenhaus finished third and fourth, respectively. The No. 709 crew of Ryan Briscoe, Franck Mailleux and Richard Westbrook had to make an early, unscheduled pit stop for a sensor change, but they fought back up the order to secure the final podium spot.
A clutch issue, an accident and other smaller issues meant the sole Alpine entry could only manage finishing 23rd.
LMP2: JOTA takes victory
Antonio Felix da Costa, Roberto Gonzalez and Will Stevens in the No. 38 JOTA dominated the LMP2 field from early on to take class victory. The car took the lead after the first round of pit stops and there was no looking back from then on.
The No. 9 Prema Orlen car of Robert Kubica, Louis Deletraz and Lorenzo Colombo was second, followed by JOTA’s second entry – the No. 28 crew of Ed Jones, Oliver Rasmussen and Jonathan Aberdein.
LMGTE Pro: Porsche beats Ferrari
Frederic Makowiecki, Gianmaria Bruni and Richard Lietz took a hard-fought victory in the LMGTE Pro class. This handed Porsche its first Le Mans LMGTE Pro win since 2018, and it was also the Porsche GT Team’s 20th win in the World Endurance Championship.
The LMGTE Pro class proved to be competitive with all three manufacturers – Porsche, Ferrari and Corvette – leading at some point.
With both Corvettes out of the race, the battle for victory was down to the No. 91 Porsche 911 RSR-19 and the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari. Alessandro Pier Guidi had to pit to fix a rear-right puncture, allowing the No. 91 crew to take the lead, and eventually, class victory.
Miguel Molina, Davide Rigon and Antonio Fuoco finished third in the No. 52 AF Corse Ferrari.
LMGTE Am: TF Sport win
The No. 33 TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage of Ben Keating, Marco Sorensen and Henrique Chaves took the lead from the No. 70 WeatherTech Porsche 911 RSR-19 early on Sunday and went on to seal victory.
There were two Aston Martin crews on the podium, with the No. 98 Northwest AMR of Paul Dalla Lana, Nicki Thiim and David Pittard taking third place.
Suraj Viswanathan
