There is still a long way to go before the 90th edition of the 24 hours of Le Mansbut it seems clear that Toyota’s victory in the general classification is going to be repeated and they will launch the Hypercar era in a big way at the Sarthe track.
Exit: chaos in the first meters
The first third of the 24 hours of Le Mans made it clear that this race chooses its winners. After an already chaotic start, with a touch and leaving the track of the United Autosports #22 and the WRT #41 in the fight for LMP2, leaving them almost ruled out in the first few minutes in that category.
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At the same time, the Alpine also made it clear that this was not going to be their chance to make a splash and was left out of the fight for the lead before reaching the second hour of the race, which meant that Toyota was immediately left alone for the victory.
Although initially it seemed that #7 was going to be the one who was going to lead the test consistently, then it was #8 who was debating the lead until well into the night. The problems of glickenhouseespecially #708, left the fight for victory without an alternative.
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Hour 8: Nightmare for García when he was leading and Molina
The two Spanish representations in the race (in addition to the CD Sport team) had problems as soon as night fell. The first to suffer was Michael Molinawhose Ferrari #52 was also not much in the fight.
Fifth until that moment, he saw how a puncture sent him far from the top of the table that was led by the Corvettes, specifically by the #63, from the start. It was precisely that he had the following problems.
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Anthony Garcia He was comfortable at the front of the race in the LMGTE-Pro category, and it seemed that he was going to be the last winner of this class before his disappearance, but a breakdown destroyed him. As soon as you leave the pits, rear suspension problem it made him lose a good part of his leadership… until he was overtaken.
The desperation was total, because the break caught him at the entrance to Mulsanne, just on the other side of the circuit, and it took him a long time to pit. The other Corvette also failed afterwards, so it was an absolute disaster for the team.
To make matters worse, the great media protagonist of the race, the actor Michael Fassbender, was also rammed. It was not the fault of the interpreter of Magneto in ‘X-Men’.
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Photos: Toyota Gazoo Racing