2021 Le Mans 24 Hours 9H Report | Toyota gains from Alpine off, WRT 1-2 in LMP2

2021 Le Mans 24 Hours: Overall Classification after 9hrs of 24hrs

Toyota maintained a firm grip on the 2021 Le Mans 24 Hours as the fight for glory whittled down to a head-to-head between the two factory Hybrid cars for the time being after Alpine lost crucial ground with a spin.

Save for a frantic first few minutes when the #8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid was spun around at the very first turn, stalled and then collided with an LMP2 car at Arnage,  the Japanese giants have otherwise enjoyed a fairly trouble-free race so far with the #7 car having held the lead from the start.

The car - shared by Kamui Kobayashi, Jose Maria Lopez and Mike Conway - is out of sync with the #8 car after Conway pitted earlier than expected for its tenth stop, but the margin between the pair remains around 1m 20secs after 9 hours.

Glickenhaus held the final podium position at the turn of the ninth hour as it continued to exceed cautious expectations on reliability, but has since been overtaken again by the recovering Alpine, which picked up a puncture while overtaking a Porsche and promptly spun into the gravel trap. Needing a grabber to get it out of the kitty litter, the Alpine dropped two laps but is now back to third.

Top sportscar outfit-turned-Le Mans LMP2 rookies Team WRT took control of the intermediate category having held a 1-2 spot for most of the three-hour stint, led by the Louis Deletraz, Robert Kubica, Ye Yifei Oreca.

United Autosports USA leads the chase in seventh, followed by another first-time Le Mans 24 Hours team, Panis Racing - headed up by ex-F1 driver Olivier Panis - while the #28 Jota and Interpol Competition Oreca-Gibson round out the overall top ten.

However, there was disappointment for thre Team Racing Nederland car - which was running as high as second in class earlier in the race - after it collided with the JMW Ferrari and spent a lengthy period in the gravel trap.

In GTE Pro, AF Corse began to pull a gap courtesy of the #51 488 GTE of Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado and Come Ledogar, followed by the leading #63 Corvette and the #92 Porsche.

In GTE Am, AF Corse is also heading up the gentleman class steered by Nickles Nielsen, Francois Perrodo and Alessio Rovera.