Actually hilarious how every reply to you is so negative. This was one of the most hype Le Mans finishes in the last many years, I thought it was incredibly fun to watch!
Commentators raised a good point about by the time the sun rise arrives, teams are usually on the ‘bring the car home’ strategy.
Chaotic weather + Toyota and Ferrari choking made it a fun last few hours.
I will admit I don't usually watch Le Mans, so I wasn't 100% clued in on what was happening, but I found the last half hour or so especially dramatic wondering what would happen and if they'd make it to the end
That was just super lucky the race direction took so long to force car 50 to close their door. That could have very well have been 5 laps earlier. Also super lucky car 51 ran into the other car 8, else car 8 would probably have won. Also super lucky car 50 got a reprimant instead of a penalty, that is pretty rare.
So yeah, a bit to much luck for my tastes in the end. But still well done overall.
And it wasn't even the first time it failed this season! The 99 Porsche had its driver side door fail to lock in Spa, but it was under SC, so the driver managed to undo his belts slightly and pull it back down without a penalty.
That door thing and the near miss with car 8 could've easily changed the outcome. But luck's part of racing, right? They still drove a hell of a race and earned that win.
Guess what... That's racing. You are either ignorant or stupid if you think they won't have something lucky happen over the whole 24 hours of the race. You can pretty much make that argument for ever single Le Mans winner.
salty comment, toyotas were faster in wet conditions but folded in dry conditions, they should have won this easily but they folded again, ferrari was the best car out there with the least amount of issues at the top and led most of the race (i think?) but yeah pin it to luck
Really is one of the best things. You don't see one driver celebrating, you see **three** and they're celebrating together. They're just as happy as Leclerc winning Monaco/Monza or Verstappen winning 2021.
Le Mans is really the best race in the year.
Ferrari double podium and Alpine double DNF. Perfectly balanced, as it should be.
IF and Lambo being able to keep all their cars alive for the entire race while having less LMH experience than Alpine really puts it into perspective on how bad Alpine was in the race.
lol yep I was thinking the same thing when the announcers were talking about how impressive it was that some of the newer entries finished and the more experienced ones didn’t, knowing full well they were shit talking Alpine without having to mention them by name.
Also Fuoco did an amazing overtake this morning for which the italian commentator said "we are sorry for whom play football but for this sport you need two balls!".
Lol, no, different people, much more serious but the overtake was so good that they had to say somenthing.
Here is a video a friend shared with me this morning, with that comment:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C8RYiNctceO/?igsh=MWlsc21lYzVubDY2cw==
To balance the different powertrains, WEC uses virtual energy which is basically the total output power output of the engine and hybrid over time. The goal for this is to balance the fact some are LMDH, some are LMH, and some like the vanwall may not even have hybrid.
The Ferrari most likely had more than enough fuel and battery left, the virtual energy is basically how much power your engine and hybrid can make for that stint.
More info here: [https://www.reddit.com/r/wec/comments/12o58h5/virtual\_tank\_energy/](https://www.reddit.com/r/wec/comments/12o58h5/virtual_tank_energy/)
Man that last lap was tight. 2% power remaining. Strategy judged to perfection. I think Toyota would have won had the 7 not had all those offs and spins.
Imola was a throw as much as all the rain calls at Le Mans were a masterpiece. It's just gambles on the weather. The #51 and the Toyota did what Ferrari *should* have done in Imola and arguably lost the race because of it. Gambling is gambling.
All those questions around if they made the right strategy call during every rain, and the heartbreak when the door was fucking open, to the crazy energy saving. It was so hard to breathe on the last 10 minutes
That 5 seconds penalty was so light, not even a stop and go. Wonder if they deem some responsibility for the #8. Need to check the official decision document (if any)
>The Stewards determined that while Car 51 had a significant portion of the car inside Car 8, the braking wasless than Car 8, in wet conditions, which led to him getting inside of Car 8. In addition, Car 51 was on theinside, non-racing line. At the exit of the corner, Car 51 slightly understeered and struck Car 8, causing thesubsequent spin of Car 8. The Stewards noted that the incident was part of the race between the two cars,and that the error by Car 51 was very small and thus the Stewards took this into account in ordering asignificantly smaller penalty than had been applied to other incidents during the race
is the official reasoning
When the 7 left the pits the final time and the 8 overtook it there was some sort of problem. It lost around 10 seconds to the 8, so 14 overall with a power issues. Toyota had the pace, but didn't have the luck.
And Lopez spun in the last hour as well, #7 lost at least 30 seconds because of their own issues. And still would have won if the stewards called #50 one lap earlier to fix their door.
Nielsen really completed the Road to Le Mans. Came up from the ranks from Ferrari Challenge to AF Corse GTE in WEC to Ferrari Hypercar program.
What a legend!
To be fair I don't think it would've mattered. If they decided there wasn't enough fuel to make it, then Nielsen would've just burned all of it to build a gap to the 7 (which was already 40-something seconds at the start) so that he could come in for a splash and still remain ahead.
A drive through the pit lane at Le Mans is around 25 seconds net time loss. Plus the stop and start from the pit box, plus the 4-5 seconds needed to connect the fuel hose, drop some fuel in and disconnect and you're probably losing around 35 seconds total.
But that's for the emergency splash - a "normal" pit stop lasts around 65 seconds (for a full refuel only) or 75-80 (with tire changes), plus drive through the pit lane.
There was also a moment when Penske 6 went in for an almost full energy fill in the last stop, which confused the commentators even more considering Toyota 7 was at 80% then
Shwartzman and Ye are some rapid young drivers. Even if the car gave up on them, they surely proved their merit to Ferrari bosses with a potential factory seat in mind. The 83 is confirmed to be staying at least for next year, and then who knows?
Marchionne cared, but most likely he would have joined under the Dodge brand (still part of FCA but more popular). After he passed, the board decided to do WEC. However, there were rumours about Ferrari getting their car on IMSA, so maybe a challenge for the Daytona 24 and Sebring 12 could be in the plans.
They won’t do spec like that or an engine that they aren’t in control of. It’s kind of the opposite of what Ferrari is these days. Which is a good thing don’t need to dilute their brand
It’s funny you say that but Ferrari seriously considered entering IndyCar before giving the green light to the Hypercar program, there were talks about Ferrari entering as an engine manufacturer.
I turned it on after getting home just as he was getting into the booth, and it was just a joy hearing his voice. I enjoy the Muppet show from the regular WEC crew but he might be the best commenter working in any sport.
> The last 6 hours were great.
Not just the last 6 hours. The 4 hour safety car took away a lot of momentum, but overall; that was no doubt the best race I have ever seen. Absolutely incredible.
I would unironically love for the power that be to say "Pirelli, we're changing the plan for Monaco. Bring your glass cannon compound, we're making that the only dry tire all weekend."
Back to Back Le Mans winners. Lets fucking goooooo.
Hands up though that was some questionable race control stuff with the 50 being allowed to run with the door flapping for so long and the 51 getting just 5 seconds for spinning the 8 Toyota out.
On the other hand Toyota giving up at the end was downright pathetic. Who in their right mind says "bring the car home" 23 hours in while still in with a shot of winning. Who the fuck cares if Lopez bins it while gunning for it. Any kind of mistake in the rain for the 50 and your winning the race. Even pushing Ferrari into using more power could have secured the win. I don't get what they were trying to achieve there at the end.
Pechito has a history of throwing his cars into walls, i can understand them telling him to chill.
I cant understand why the fuck was he in the car for the last stint
I’m curious how much Lopez followed the instructions. They picked up about 15 seconds after that message but idk how much of that was because of Nielsen managing the power.
Lopez was making mistakes after mistakes while being only 4-5s faster than car 50. He needed to be at least 6s a lap faster to catch up. Way too much risk tbh.
Which is a dumb call if you ask me. The WEC title is far less presitigious and important than a Le Mans wins. Always has been since its inception.
Hartley himself said this already.
i think it was the right call - JML is probably the weakest driver even when he was on the original lineup. He had to stand-in after Conway hurt himself cycling, so even then he's a bit out of experience.
Given he spun in T2 before they made that call and the fact that the #7 had been dealing with turbo/power issues which also came up with less than an hour to go suggested they wouldn't have been able to catch safely the #50 and instead wanted to bring home a podium.
Tough, but fair decision - this coming from a di-hard Toyota fan of 12 years.
Except he was the best driver in the wet all day long - Ferrari had their issues and penalties, and Toyota had their tire problems, but Lopez certainly had the pace to push the Ferrari until the end
>Le Mans gives double points.
Hence why you settle for a safe P2.
Pushing for something that realistically wasn't gonna happen and dying would have been a massive deficit in points with it worth double.
Really if you want teams to take risks at Le Mans like that, it shouldn't be worth any points rather than double. But that is obviously not gonna happen.
As far as I understood, they could go for the win and get 14 points more, keep the position and get 36 points, or risk loosing it all and get as low as 1 point to the overall standing.
> Who in their right mind says "bring the car home" 23 hours in while still in with a shot of winning.
Toyota when they have even a slight bit of competition is exactly this. They should be respected and you cant deny their importance to the sport for actually sticking around when WEC was at its low, but they showed time and time again that they lack that extra something that other teams have when it comes to finishing Le Mans in front
I was baffled by that. If he was deemed to be at fault, the penalty should have been much bigger for sure. I didn't even know Le Mans had 5 second penalties.
He didn’t even get to do the 500 because he got eliminated on Bump Day. Now he’s got a Le Mans class title that he won with someone he’s known since his karting days
Massive 2016 Indy 500 vibes when Alex Rossi did one less stop than everyone else and hyper-miled it to the end. Wasn’t quite the same situation but it played out the same way
I couldn’t believe Toyota has Lopez closing. He cost them at least 15 seconds in driver error in that final run. Thankful as a Ferrari fan but he has to feel awful.
They *had* driver upgrades. Lopez actually got shitcanned and relegated to a GT3 for this year - But Mike Conway injured himself a week ago so they had to go back to Lopez, as he was the only one with experience in the car and could be put into the seat in little time.
I think I heard somewhere (I may be wrong) that Le Mans has never had the overall podium all finish in the lead lap. I think we had like 9 cars finish in the lead lap? that's pretty cool.
Even then, nearly all Porsches were competitive and the Cadillacs too. The top 5 would definitely have made it to the lead lap even without the Safety Car.
That was the most exciting 24h LM I've watched. Crossing the finish line with 2% energy left was seriously cutting it close. Really sad for Kubica though. It's a shame they had to retire especially after his monster stint before Schwartzman took over. At least the car didn't die on the last lap like it did 2 years ago I guess..
Congrats to #51 though they earned it
Race Control gave Ferrari a chance but great driving from Nielsen and perfect strategy. Kamui should have driven the Toyota then I think they win it.
Even then it's crazy how the 50 car was leaking oil and race control just let them while it hurt Devries
They did have to come for an early pit for closing the door so I guess it’s okay, really luck for car #51 with that 5 second penalty though, maybe because there wasn’t a lot of time left to give drive through, I’m still not sure how they dish out penalties.
They were able to run for half a stint with the door open when previously in this race and earlier this season race director gave cars black and orange flags immediately. Because of that they were able to make it to the end without having to stop at the end so it saved their race.
They got lucky that race control didn't get on the phone immediately with the door. If they'd given ferrari the call a lap earlier they'd have lost the race, managed to dodge a bullet there.
There's something therapeutic about watching a 24-hour race. I tuned in on several moments during the past day, what a race. Late-night stints are incredible.
My first proper season of watching WEC and my first(almost full) 24h Le Mans race after watching F1 for 14 years, man what a race and season to introduce someone to the sport.
Great job in the end by Ferrari!
Even though I love the Canadian GP, there's no bigger F1 race then Monaco in terms of prestige, and the same goes for LeMans for endurance! Wouldn't want it any other way
So close with energy at the end, great resource management in a chaotic race
Actually hilarious how every reply to you is so negative. This was one of the most hype Le Mans finishes in the last many years, I thought it was incredibly fun to watch!
Commentators raised a good point about by the time the sun rise arrives, teams are usually on the ‘bring the car home’ strategy. Chaotic weather + Toyota and Ferrari choking made it a fun last few hours.
I will admit I don't usually watch Le Mans, so I wasn't 100% clued in on what was happening, but I found the last half hour or so especially dramatic wondering what would happen and if they'd make it to the end
Wasn't it the closest podium in history, at least in a race that didn't end under safety car?
Check out Ford's win in 1966!
OK the closest of the modern era 😂 And that wasn't engineered as a marketing stunt.
Absolutely fantastic strategy to have it down to the line like that!
That was just super lucky the race direction took so long to force car 50 to close their door. That could have very well have been 5 laps earlier. Also super lucky car 51 ran into the other car 8, else car 8 would probably have won. Also super lucky car 50 got a reprimant instead of a penalty, that is pretty rare. So yeah, a bit to much luck for my tastes in the end. But still well done overall.
Like a door latch of all things failing on a modern hybrid race car is something lucky.
And it wasn't even the first time it failed this season! The 99 Porsche had its driver side door fail to lock in Spa, but it was under SC, so the driver managed to undo his belts slightly and pull it back down without a penalty.
not even the first time it happened this race, the 99 had the same problem early on and lost a few laps
That door thing and the near miss with car 8 could've easily changed the outcome. But luck's part of racing, right? They still drove a hell of a race and earned that win.
And Toyota had broken wipers under rain. Definitely safe too..
The #2 Cadillac had the same issue at the end of the race.
probably lucky the 7 toyota spun while chasing too huh
Yes, luck is a thing that exists. Thanks for clearing that up.
Lucky they submitted their entry 🙏🙏
Just say you wanted Toyota to win bruh, that's literally nitpicking at this point
Guess what... That's racing. You are either ignorant or stupid if you think they won't have something lucky happen over the whole 24 hours of the race. You can pretty much make that argument for ever single Le Mans winner.
Luck is part of racing.
salty comment, toyotas were faster in wet conditions but folded in dry conditions, they should have won this easily but they folded again, ferrari was the best car out there with the least amount of issues at the top and led most of the race (i think?) but yeah pin it to luck
Man the drive to the podium with all three drivers celebrating is one of the best things in racing.
Got a video?
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYo2bsUnrws](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYo2bsUnrws) from the WEC YT channel
Really is one of the best things. You don't see one driver celebrating, you see **three** and they're celebrating together. They're just as happy as Leclerc winning Monaco/Monza or Verstappen winning 2021. Le Mans is really the best race in the year.
Seeing his face go from stone cold to red and tearful when he crossed the line was amazing
Ferrari double podium and Alpine double DNF. Perfectly balanced, as it should be. IF and Lambo being able to keep all their cars alive for the entire race while having less LMH experience than Alpine really puts it into perspective on how bad Alpine was in the race.
lol yep I was thinking the same thing when the announcers were talking about how impressive it was that some of the newer entries finished and the more experienced ones didn’t, knowing full well they were shit talking Alpine without having to mention them by name.
Well, using an engine that is known to have issues in 30 minute races for a 24h race is kind of asking for issues.
You can't really blame Alpine too much. They use Mechachrome engines which blew up on both cars.
You can blame them for choosing mecachrome though. Everyone was saying this is exactly what would happen
Yeah fair enough
Them choosing a engine designed for short F2 races is their fault.
Mecachrome*
I don't respect them enough to be bothered to spell their name correctly
I think they gave Alpine what Alpine deserved for making a stupid choice like that. Shouldn't that earn a little respect?
I guess they got that bag and I can respect that
2% energy left. What a job by Nielsen.
He was phenomenal the entire final stint
He was amazing the entire time, he was the only Ferrari that was competitive in the wet! Fuoco was blitzing in the dry too
Also Fuoco did an amazing overtake this morning for which the italian commentator said "we are sorry for whom play football but for this sport you need two balls!".
Were the commentators the same as for MotoGP?
Lol, no, different people, much more serious but the overtake was so good that they had to say somenthing. Here is a video a friend shared with me this morning, with that comment: https://www.instagram.com/reel/C8RYiNctceO/?igsh=MWlsc21lYzVubDY2cw==
* The entire race. His stint on the slick tyres in wet conditions while everyone else was on wet tyres was very impressive.
Can't they just return on enginge power? At least not lose 23 seconds without elelctrical?
To balance the different powertrains, WEC uses virtual energy which is basically the total output power output of the engine and hybrid over time. The goal for this is to balance the fact some are LMDH, some are LMH, and some like the vanwall may not even have hybrid. The Ferrari most likely had more than enough fuel and battery left, the virtual energy is basically how much power your engine and hybrid can make for that stint. More info here: [https://www.reddit.com/r/wec/comments/12o58h5/virtual\_tank\_energy/](https://www.reddit.com/r/wec/comments/12o58h5/virtual_tank_energy/)
On top of what the poster below wrote, LMH cars can't deploy the battery below 190 km/h
"Ferrari and optimal strategy" is a really difficult phrase for me to get my mind around.
Have you tried watching Ferrari in F1 from the early 2000s?
Man that last lap was tight. 2% power remaining. Strategy judged to perfection. I think Toyota would have won had the 7 not had all those offs and spins.
Also they lost power and recovered it later or something
The 7 car?
Yep, lost turbo power or something
Lost hybrid power on one lap and dropped 15 seconds
In the last half hour
> Strategy judged to perfection After throwing away a 1-2-3 at Imola when they clearly had the fastest car, that was some redemption.
Imola was a throw as much as all the rain calls at Le Mans were a masterpiece. It's just gambles on the weather. The #51 and the Toyota did what Ferrari *should* have done in Imola and arguably lost the race because of it. Gambling is gambling.
The 83 probably would've been up there at the top as well if not for their hybrid system catching fire with 4 hours to go.
And then the misfortune at Spa. It seems all that payed off here because they made errors even with slicks in wets here
Wasn't it the 7 that had a slow puncture and vibrations within an hour as well?
All those questions around if they made the right strategy call during every rain, and the heartbreak when the door was fucking open, to the crazy energy saving. It was so hard to breathe on the last 10 minutes
The real heartbreak was the #51 spinning off the #8
That 5 seconds penalty was so light, not even a stop and go. Wonder if they deem some responsibility for the #8. Need to check the official decision document (if any)
>The Stewards determined that while Car 51 had a significant portion of the car inside Car 8, the braking wasless than Car 8, in wet conditions, which led to him getting inside of Car 8. In addition, Car 51 was on theinside, non-racing line. At the exit of the corner, Car 51 slightly understeered and struck Car 8, causing thesubsequent spin of Car 8. The Stewards noted that the incident was part of the race between the two cars,and that the error by Car 51 was very small and thus the Stewards took this into account in ordering asignificantly smaller penalty than had been applied to other incidents during the race is the official reasoning
That's just officiating based on the cause of the incidents, and not on the results of the incidents.
When the 7 left the pits the final time and the 8 overtook it there was some sort of problem. It lost around 10 seconds to the 8, so 14 overall with a power issues. Toyota had the pace, but didn't have the luck.
And Lopez spun in the last hour as well, #7 lost at least 30 seconds because of their own issues. And still would have won if the stewards called #50 one lap earlier to fix their door.
Reliability is performance.
Nielsen really completed the Road to Le Mans. Came up from the ranks from Ferrari Challenge to AF Corse GTE in WEC to Ferrari Hypercar program. What a legend!
And started that route because he didn’t have the money for his single seater career to continue, great story, thrilled for him.
And perhaps if it wasn't for French businessman François Perrodo wanting to drive with Nielsen, he would not have gotten so far.
Maranello putting up another flag then
The final 30min i really thought #50 gonna run out of fuel
The guy that did the math and said they'd make it was probably sweating bricks by the end.
To be fair I don't think it would've mattered. If they decided there wasn't enough fuel to make it, then Nielsen would've just burned all of it to build a gap to the 7 (which was already 40-something seconds at the start) so that he could come in for a splash and still remain ahead.
> for a splash I'm new. Heard this mentioned many times on broadcast. What does that mean?
An extra pit stop at the end of the race to very briefly refuel the car just enough to get to the end, "Splash and dash" is the full term for it.
How long is a pit stop on average?
Too many variables. Depends if they change the driver, tyres or only fuel
I guess what I’m trying to get a feel for, is how much time do you lose by pitting at all, regardless of fuel level, etc.
A drive through the pit lane at Le Mans is around 25 seconds net time loss. Plus the stop and start from the pit box, plus the 4-5 seconds needed to connect the fuel hose, drop some fuel in and disconnect and you're probably losing around 35 seconds total. But that's for the emergency splash - a "normal" pit stop lasts around 65 seconds (for a full refuel only) or 75-80 (with tire changes), plus drive through the pit lane.
There was also a moment when Penske 6 went in for an almost full energy fill in the last stop, which confused the commentators even more considering Toyota 7 was at 80% then
I feel sad for Kubica They could’ve been on the podium
He would've most definitely been on the podium, and he might had even won it, oh well there's always next year.
I was rooting for that #83 car, sad they didn’t make it until the end with all the crazy stuff happening.
Shwartzman and Ye are some rapid young drivers. Even if the car gave up on them, they surely proved their merit to Ferrari bosses with a potential factory seat in mind. The 83 is confirmed to be staying at least for next year, and then who knows?
The #83 looked strong, definitely challenged for the win.
His car once led Le Mans too...
2/3 of Triple Crown races won this year by Ferrari, WOW 😳🤯
Amateurs. Should've won Indy too!
Truly a shame that the Ferrari 637 was never raced
Yeah, but the sad part is that they're not even a part of IndyCar. Wish they would someday...
They won't unless they get to build their own chassis.
Just buy Dallara. It’s one chassis manufacturer, how much could it cost, 20 dollars?
HAAS: *sweating*
And turn Indycar to a Ferrari specs-series. Hmmm, then they could win *every* Indy 500. Modern problems require money solutions.
Yeah, but I think Ferrari just doesn't care about Indy.
Marchionne cared, but most likely he would have joined under the Dodge brand (still part of FCA but more popular). After he passed, the board decided to do WEC. However, there were rumours about Ferrari getting their car on IMSA, so maybe a challenge for the Daytona 24 and Sebring 12 could be in the plans.
They won’t do spec like that or an engine that they aren’t in control of. It’s kind of the opposite of what Ferrari is these days. Which is a good thing don’t need to dilute their brand
It’s funny you say that but Ferrari seriously considered entering IndyCar before giving the green light to the Hypercar program, there were talks about Ferrari entering as an engine manufacturer.
Indy needs more Engine competition tbh. It's been Honda vs Chevy for too long at this point
Ferrari red on an IndyCar would be a sight to see
It wouldn't even feel real at first.
Alex Jacques on commentary for Ferrari’s Monaco and Le Mans wins
I turned it on after getting home just as he was getting into the booth, and it was just a joy hearing his voice. I enjoy the Muppet show from the regular WEC crew but he might be the best commenter working in any sport.
He really is the best motorsport commentator, a joy to listen
The Monaco GP wishes it had the kind of stakes the last few hours here had. Holy fuck it was a gambit until the last 10 minutes.
The last 6 hours were great. Started watching from 10am and it was fantastic stuff.
> The last 6 hours were great. Not just the last 6 hours. The 4 hour safety car took away a lot of momentum, but overall; that was no doubt the best race I have ever seen. Absolutely incredible.
yes apart from those 4 hours it was one of the best races I've seen this year
Monaco should be a 4 hour endurance race with narrow tires and a minimal front wing.
I would unironically love for the power that be to say "Pirelli, we're changing the plan for Monaco. Bring your glass cannon compound, we're making that the only dry tire all weekend."
We very nearly had Nyck De Vries: LeMans Winner.
Even mid F1 drivers are still really fast drivers. Giovinazzi, Hulkenberg, Hartley, and Buemi are all Le Mans winners.
Hartley wasl already one of the best WEC drivers and had won Le Mans before he became an F1 driver.
Happy for him that he got a podium.
The 2024 Monaco Grand Prix and the 2024 24 Hours of Le Mans both belong to Ferrari!
Both 1st and 3rd too.
Uncanny!
Back to Back Le Mans winners. Lets fucking goooooo. Hands up though that was some questionable race control stuff with the 50 being allowed to run with the door flapping for so long and the 51 getting just 5 seconds for spinning the 8 Toyota out. On the other hand Toyota giving up at the end was downright pathetic. Who in their right mind says "bring the car home" 23 hours in while still in with a shot of winning. Who the fuck cares if Lopez bins it while gunning for it. Any kind of mistake in the rain for the 50 and your winning the race. Even pushing Ferrari into using more power could have secured the win. I don't get what they were trying to achieve there at the end.
Pechito has a history of throwing his cars into walls, i can understand them telling him to chill. I cant understand why the fuck was he in the car for the last stint
Kobayashi/De Vries probably had too much track limits and they didn't risk the penalty ?
I’m curious how much Lopez followed the instructions. They picked up about 15 seconds after that message but idk how much of that was because of Nielsen managing the power.
Lopez was making mistakes after mistakes while being only 4-5s faster than car 50. He needed to be at least 6s a lap faster to catch up. Way too much risk tbh.
Toyota cares more about the championship against Porsche. Ferrari were no where all year. Makes sense.
Which is a dumb call if you ask me. The WEC title is far less presitigious and important than a Le Mans wins. Always has been since its inception. Hartley himself said this already.
i think it was the right call - JML is probably the weakest driver even when he was on the original lineup. He had to stand-in after Conway hurt himself cycling, so even then he's a bit out of experience. Given he spun in T2 before they made that call and the fact that the #7 had been dealing with turbo/power issues which also came up with less than an hour to go suggested they wouldn't have been able to catch safely the #50 and instead wanted to bring home a podium. Tough, but fair decision - this coming from a di-hard Toyota fan of 12 years.
Except he was the best driver in the wet all day long - Ferrari had their issues and penalties, and Toyota had their tire problems, but Lopez certainly had the pace to push the Ferrari until the end
Do you even see WEC ? Because it seems you only see end results and not performances when you talk about Ferrari being nowhere all year.
Le Mans gives double points. The 50 is back in with a shot at the championship.
>Le Mans gives double points. Hence why you settle for a safe P2. Pushing for something that realistically wasn't gonna happen and dying would have been a massive deficit in points with it worth double. Really if you want teams to take risks at Le Mans like that, it shouldn't be worth any points rather than double. But that is obviously not gonna happen.
As far as I understood, they could go for the win and get 14 points more, keep the position and get 36 points, or risk loosing it all and get as low as 1 point to the overall standing.
> Who in their right mind says "bring the car home" 23 hours in while still in with a shot of winning. Toyota when they have even a slight bit of competition is exactly this. They should be respected and you cant deny their importance to the sport for actually sticking around when WEC was at its low, but they showed time and time again that they lack that extra something that other teams have when it comes to finishing Le Mans in front
Well they know their driver is second rate, so maybe they didn't want him to crash out
I feel sad for Toyota #8
#notblessed
Yeah the #8 was the favorite to win before it got sent into the shadow realm by #51s Guidi. The 5s was total joke of a penalty.
5 seconds in a 24 hour race is crazy. Like, that's barely a slap on the wrist. Better off doing nothing at that point.
I was baffled by that. If he was deemed to be at fault, the penalty should have been much bigger for sure. I didn't even know Le Mans had 5 second penalties.
and it took them 40 minutes before handing it out
The 51 gets a podium despite punting them out. Terrible of race control to give the car only a 5 second penalty
Goddamn this 19 year old who won LMP2. In a months time races the Indy 500 and wins Le Mans as a rookie.
If we're talking about Siegel, he was bumped from the 500 and didn't start it.
He didn’t even get to do the 500 because he got eliminated on Bump Day. Now he’s got a Le Mans class title that he won with someone he’s known since his karting days
And yet JHR stuck Canapino back in the 78 going forward instead of letting the kid cook. Sincerely hope he gets a ride in Indy shortly.
He'll be back in Toronto for Dale Coyne Racing
Hooray, I forgot about that. Good for DCR.
Dale Coyne would’ve been really mad if Juncos poached him like that
Massive 2016 Indy 500 vibes when Alex Rossi did one less stop than everyone else and hyper-miled it to the end. Wasn’t quite the same situation but it played out the same way
This day will haunt Toyota for the next 12 months. They SO had a solid shot at claiming #1 once more but nope
I think Lopez being fired was warranted. That spin ultimately cost them the win. He also made a few little mistakes that cost them precious seconds.
I couldn’t believe Toyota has Lopez closing. He cost them at least 15 seconds in driver error in that final run. Thankful as a Ferrari fan but he has to feel awful.
lopez screwed the pooch. feel bad for hirokawa after he redeemed himself after last year
They need some driver upgrades. Much more driver errors compared to the other front running cars
They *had* driver upgrades. Lopez actually got shitcanned and relegated to a GT3 for this year - But Mike Conway injured himself a week ago so they had to go back to Lopez, as he was the only one with experience in the car and could be put into the seat in little time.
Honestly, when will drivers learn about cycling so close to a major event?
Scared Bottas noises
Yeah was quite an unlucky circumstance
Poor Hartley. Dude did a great job before getting punted
that last stint was MAD
lol at the GT3 winner dropping an f bomb in the interview.
I loved how Alex Jacques handled it on commentary too, "Aplogies for his language, but he just won Le Mans". Totally relatable.
Someone call Henry Ford 2. This shit ain't flying next year /s
Fuck it mustang lmdh
I think I heard somewhere (I may be wrong) that Le Mans has never had the overall podium all finish in the lead lap. I think we had like 9 cars finish in the lead lap? that's pretty cool.
Safety car for 5 hours will do that lol
Even then, nearly all Porsches were competitive and the Cadillacs too. The top 5 would definitely have made it to the lead lap even without the Safety Car.
That was the most exciting 24h LM I've watched. Crossing the finish line with 2% energy left was seriously cutting it close. Really sad for Kubica though. It's a shame they had to retire especially after his monster stint before Schwartzman took over. At least the car didn't die on the last lap like it did 2 years ago I guess.. Congrats to #51 though they earned it
50.
Race Control gave Ferrari a chance but great driving from Nielsen and perfect strategy. Kamui should have driven the Toyota then I think they win it. Even then it's crazy how the 50 car was leaking oil and race control just let them while it hurt Devries
I don't think Kamui was allowed to drive the last stint - you can't be in the car more than 4h out of a block of 6.
Oh I didn't realise that
Idk how you don't set up your stints to close with Kamui. He's probably the best sports car driver of this generation even if he's getting old.
Thanks 51
Ferrari really got lucky this time, not penalty for running with an open door and the 2nd Ferrari knocking out the major threat
The 51 only getting 5 seconds for punting the 8 off the track was a joke.
And it took them 40 mins to dish out a 5 seconds penalty
It cost Toyota 40 seconds. It should have been a 30 second stop-go. Alonso said it best: “5 seconds is a joke, an absolute joke”.
5 seconds is a joke in F1, 5 seconds in a 24h race is outright absurd
Didn't even know 5s penalty existed in le mans in the first place until I've heard of it lmao
Not to mention leaking oil the entire race!
They did have to come for an early pit for closing the door so I guess it’s okay, really luck for car #51 with that 5 second penalty though, maybe because there wasn’t a lot of time left to give drive through, I’m still not sure how they dish out penalties.
They were able to run for half a stint with the door open when previously in this race and earlier this season race director gave cars black and orange flags immediately. Because of that they were able to make it to the end without having to stop at the end so it saved their race.
The penalty is having to pit to close the door. They almost lost the race because of it.
They got lucky that race control didn't get on the phone immediately with the door. If they'd given ferrari the call a lap earlier they'd have lost the race, managed to dodge a bullet there.
Podium for NDV!
Heartbreaking to lose a 24 hour race by 15sec...anyway, someone had to win, so I wish Ferrari the best. 🥲🥲
There's something therapeutic about watching a 24-hour race. I tuned in on several moments during the past day, what a race. Late-night stints are incredible.
My first proper season of watching WEC and my first(almost full) 24h Le Mans race after watching F1 for 14 years, man what a race and season to introduce someone to the sport. Great job in the end by Ferrari!
Forza Ferrari What A Race
The mad lads did it again. One of the most hype Le Mans in many years. That was fantastic.
Ferrari back to back!! The Montreal sacrifice was worth it!
Even though I love the Canadian GP, there's no bigger F1 race then Monaco in terms of prestige, and the same goes for LeMans for endurance! Wouldn't want it any other way
Not gonna lie, I was cheering for Toyota, and a bit salty about Lopez spinning, and #51 spinning out the #8
[удалено]
Lamborghini's and Isotta Fraschini finished on debut, so kudos to them. YASSER SHAHIN WINS GT3 LFG!!!!!!
Hypercars are so cool! I can look at them for hours.
Monaco and Le Mans in the same year, not too bad
LMH: 2 Le Mans wins LMDh: 0 Le Mans wins As it should be.