24 Hours of Le Mans – H1: The #7 Toyota in the lead ahead of an LMP2

The scenario of the 89th edition of 24 Hours of Le Mans was upset when, a few minutes before the official start, rain began to fall on the Sarthe circuit. The extreme conditions forced the organizers to complete several laps behind the “Leading Car” with Derek Bell at the wheel.
Après trois tours de formation, la course a enfin été lancée. Premier virage et premier événement : l’accrochage entre la Toyota #8 et la Glickenhaus #708. La #8 est partie en tête à queue avant de s’arrêter sur le bord de la piste… et de repartir quelques secondes plus tard. Mais la voiture nippone, vainqueur à trois reprises de la course mancelle, est loin de sa consoeur au général. De son côté, la Glickenhaus #708 a reçu une pénalité de 10 secondes d’immobilisation au stand.

And the “real” start is given! And first incident between @Glickenhaus et @TGR_WEC ?# LeMans24 #WEC pic.twitter.com/0KTVoPTQfM

- 24 Heures du Mans (@ 24heuresdumans) August 21

We were heading towards a duel between the Toyota #7 then in the lead, and theAlpine #36 in his exhausts during the first hour of the race. It was before Nicolas lapierre go to fault. No contact with the wall but a loss of several tens of seconds. The French driver is not the only one to have been trapped by the difficult conditions on the track.

It is now theAlpine who goes head to tail at #Indianapolis ! @SignatechAlpine // @FIAWEC #Hypercar pic.twitter.com/HRn47rznON

- 24 Heures du Mans (@ 24heuresdumans) August 21

So, how is the start of the race? ?# LeMans24 #WEC pic.twitter.com/4M2uciW2WJ

- 24 Heures du Mans (@ 24heuresdumans) August 21

Overall, we find Toyota #7 ahead of... an LMP2! The Oreca 07 #38 from the JOTA team. The Portuguese Antonio Felix da Costa had a perfect first hour of racing to hoist his prototype in front of several Hypercars. In the LMP2 category, the #38 is ahead of the #26 Aurius from the G-Drive team with at the wheel Nyck de Vries and the Oreca 07 #29 of Racing Team Nederland.

In the GTE Pro category, the gaps are small and are conducive to battles on the track. In the standings after one hour, we find the #64 Corvette from the Corvette Racing team, driven by Tommy Milner ahead of the Ferrari #52 d’AF Corse et la Porsche #79 du team Weathertech Racing. 

On the GTE Am side, it is the Ferrari #83 from AF Corse which finds itself at the head of the category ahead of the Porsche #88 from the Dempsey – Proton Racing team and the Ferrari #80 from the Iron Lynx team.

In terms of weather, the sun is coming out and the drivers are gradually putting on slick tires. The race direction, however, indicated that drops of rain could fall within a few minutes.