2022 24 Hours of Le Mans | 21H - Toyota closes on fifth consecutive Le Mans win
The #8 Toyota of Brendon Hartley, Sebastien Buemi and Ryo Hirakawa is closing on a fifth straight victory for the Japanese manufacturer as the race entered its final three hours.
A race that has built in momentum across all categories, Toyota has been the standard throughout in terms of performance, with both cars proving evenly matched on pace as they stretched away from the Glickenhaus and Alpine Hypercar threat.
However, the #8 GR010 Hybrid has been the more reliable of Toyota’s cars, the Kiwi-Swiss-Japanese trio consolidating the extended advantage they attained when the #7 car of Kamui Kobayashi, Jose Maria Lopez and Mike Conway was forced into an unscheduled stop due to issues with the Hybrid system.
Putting almost a lap between the two cars, with three hours of the race to go the manufacturer nevertheless remains on course for a 1-2.
Having run reliably from the start, the #708 Glickenhaus remains on course for the American team’s maiden 24 Hours of Le Mans podium in third place courtesy of Ryan Briscoe, Franck Mailleux and Richard Westbrook.
The #708 Glickenhaus remains sixth on the overall classification and fourth in class, while the Alpine soldiers on down in 25th place.
The LMP2 class remained static as the morning progressed with the #38 Jota Sport of Antonio Felix da Costa, Rodolfo Gonzalez and Will Stevens retaining its comfortable lead over the #9 Prema Orlen and the #28 Jota, with the #5 Team Penske and the #32 WRT entries.
In GTE Pro the #91 Porsche and #51 AF Corse are still duking it out for glory in GTE Pro, with the TF Sport Aston Martin being reeled in again by early leaders WeatherTech Racing.
