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#7 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 - Hybrid Hypercar, Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, Jose Maria Lopez and #8 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 - Hybrid Hypercar, Sebastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima, Brendon Hartley

The standout memories of Le Mans 2021

OPINION: With four of the five Hypercar entries unproven in a 24-hour race, it would not have been unexpected for at least one of them to suffer serious reliability trouble. That they all managed to make it through the race relatively unscathed, says GARY WATKINS, was something of a surprise.

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What will I remember most about Le Mans 24 Hours in 2021? The start of what we believe is going to be a bright new era for sportscar racing? Toyota's fourth victory in a row? A finish so close in LMP2 that it was almost beyond belief? The return of a crowd to the greatest motor race of them all? None of the above, actually.

What has stuck in my mind so far was the block of a single colour at the top of the timing screens at the finish. Each of the World Endurance Championship's four classes has its own signature colour that provides the backdrop to each race number on the car and up on the timing screen. Hypercar's colour is red. There were five cars in class and five blocks of red at the top of the order. That's memorable to my mind because it was so unexpected.

Previous article Why Toyota's Le Mans victory was not as simple as it looked
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