Magazine: Le Mans 24 Hours review

Toyota scored the 1-2 most Le Mans fans expected last weekend. But it was no easy run – as Gary Watkins explains at the start of our bumper report, there was an underlying issue with both cars that could have handed the initiative to Alpine and Glickenhaus.

One of the feel-good factors of the 89th Le Mans was that Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez finally had the luck they had been denied in previous editions.

Watkins also picks out his standout memories from the race – in which event debutant Glickenhaus features strongly – and explains the dramatic scenes that unfolded in LMP2.

It was incredibly cruel that the WRT ORECA of Robert Kubica, the impressive Yifei Ye and Louis Deletraz lost LMP2 victory on the last lap. Even though the sister car did take a very narrow win for the team, the failure has to be right up there with Toyota in 2016, Brun Porsche in 1990 and Pierre Levegh’s 1952 Talbot as among the harshest of late Le Mans heartbreaks.

James Newbold also reports on Ferrari’s fine GT double, which bodes well for when the famous marque arrives to take on Toyota and many other new rivals in the top class from 2023.

Former Audi squad Veloqx is the latest name linked with a return and leads our news pages, while the fact that hydrogen-powered cars are being lined up to contest overall victory in the 24 Hours from 2025 could bring yet more interest to the top of endurance racing.

Elsewhere, driving standards came under scrutiny in the IndyCar and DTM contests last weekend and we cover both, plus there’s the usual news and reports from the UK motorsport scene in our 18-page National section.

Lewis Duncan also argues why Silverstone is the right place for this weekend’s British MotoGP, while Stephen Lickorish investigates how F1000 is booming again in its 25th season.

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