2022 Le Mans 24 Hours Live Commentary and Updates
Live updates for the 2022 Le Mans 24 Hours at the Circuit de la Sarthe
Live Text
Sort by
The #83 AF Corse is able to get back in the race after some repairs in the garage, with Nielsen taking over from Perrodo. The French driver looks devastated at what has just happened.
Well, that caps a dramatic stint, with changes for the overall lead, the GTE Pro lead (twice) and a fair few offs all in the last three hours. I'll take a breather and hand over to James Newbold, who is refuelled and ready to roll.
Thanks Haydn! A superb stint through this morning's carnage. Calado can therefore breathe a sigh of relief with the Corvette no longer on the #51 Ferrari man's tail. But the fight for GTE Pro victory is far from over, as the #91 Porsche was only around 20 seconds behind when both Calado and Fred Makowiecki came into the pits.
The two factory Porsches are currently circulating on track together, but the #92 car remember is many laps down after its dramatic blowout while leading this morning.
We've just had a change of position in the battle for fourth in GTE Am as the #99 Hardpoint Porsche with Martin Rump at the wheel passes Christian Ried's #77 Dempsey-Proton Porsche. That then becomes third when Cooper MacNeil brings the WeatherTech car into the pits.
We've got a battle for sixth in LMP2 looming, with Robin Frijns in the #31 WRT ORECA hunting down the #5 Penske machine driven by veteran Manu Collard. Between them is Paul-Loup Chatin's IDEC car which lost time early on to losing a wheel, but he's not compliant when Frijns tries a bold move through the Porsche Curves and the Dutchman has to back out of it.
All credit to Francois Perrodo, who heads down to the Corvette box to apologise for his clash with Alexander Sims that put the #64 C8.R out of the race. That takes big character.
As a bit of housekeeping, the #83 LMP2 car Perrodo has handed over to Nicklas Nielsen has been given a three-minute penalty for that race-ending contact on the #64 Corvette. We've still got a slow zone between the two Mulsanne Chicanes while barrier repairs are continuing.
Toyota have been more specific on the problem that delayed the #7 car and changed the complexion of the race. It was specifically a reset of the motor generator unit.
We've not mentioned the lead gap for a while, but the #8 Toyota continues to lead by around three minutes with Ryo Hirakawa still at the wheel. Jose Maria Lopez is giving chase in the #7 machine.
Julien Andlauer is back aboard the #79 WeatherTech Porsche that dominated much of the opening half of the race in GTE Am. Five cars are still in contention in that class, which is still headed by the Aston Martins of TF Sport and NorthWest AMR with Henrique Chaves and Nicki Thiim respectively at the wheel.
During the last pitstop for the GTE Pro leaders, Alessandro Pier Guidi hopped aboard the #51 Ferrari. He's 13s ahead of the pursuing Makowiecki in what is boiling towards a straight fight between Porsche and Ferrari for the class win. Antonio Fuoco, in the #52 Ferrari that was delayed earlier by a puncture following contact with a prototype at Tertre Rouge, is almost a full lap behind that pair in third.
Frijns has now passed Collard for sixth in LMP2. Next in his sights is Ye's Cool Racing machine which is 15 seconds up the road.
Twitter
Record-breaking 16-year-old rookie Josh Pierson has just had a trip through the Porsche Curves gravel in the #23 United Autosport ORECA, fortunately without hitting anything. That car's win hopes were hampered by an early puncture for Alex Lynn and then penalties for pitlane contact with a Porsche and not following slow zone procedure, and currently runs eighth.
Now feels like a good time to point out that both United cars are currently in the top 10 of LMP2, which you might have got long odds on after hour 1. Phil Hanson has passed Rolf Iniechen's #32 WRT ORECA for tenth in the #22 United car that found itself in the gravel 200m after the start following contact with Inichen's team-mate Rene Rast.
Glad to be green! Finally. Can't ever remember such a protracted period of slow zones. We went from that triple SZ through a very short time of proper running and then back into another stint of yellows through a period lasting more than 90 minutes. All I can say is that it is better than the alternative. The three safety-car set-up at Le Mans can destroy the racing.
Lilou Wadoux is currently driving the #1 Richard Mille ORECA that runs ninth in LMP2 and survives a brush with Job van Uitert's Panis ORECA that moved across her bows entering the Ford Chicane - causing the Dutchman to go off-line and briefly catch air. That has allowed Hanson to close in the recovering #22 United car, and he's now right on the tail of a machine in which rally legend Sebastien Ogier has completed 98 laps so far.
It's been an eventful race for Michael Fassbender, but the Irishman is back behind the wheel of the #93 Proton Porsche that was nerfed unceremoniously into the barriers at Indianapolis with him at the wheel last night. I was quite surprised to see him bring it back to the pits, but full credit to the mechanics for the rebuild job. He's currently 17th in the GTE Am class.
A small mistake from Wadoux into Arnage gifts the spot to Hanson, who now moves up to ninth in LMP2, one lap behind the sister United Autosports car driven by Pierson.
Fastest lap of the race from Kobayashi in the #7 Toyota. He's set a 3m27.762s as he chases down Hirakawa. The gap is edging down and is now a tad over three minutes.
The gap is coming down gradually in the GTE Pro fight at the front. Makowiecki is now 9.7s behind Pier Guidi with 5 hours 17 minutes to go. This is going to be a fascinating watch.
Crash
Trouble for the #31 WRT ORECA! Robin Frijns has spun exiting Indianapolis and appeared to just touch the gravel with his right-hand wheels which spits the Dutchman across the road to the left and into the armco head-on. Big impact.
Frijns was running sixth in LMP2 and chasing down Yifei Ye at the time. Rene Rast was primed and ready to take over. But the car is still stationery, it remains to be seen whether Frijns can get it restarted. Terrible blow for the pre-event WEC championship leaders, whose race had been one of recovery after Rast was penalised for the contact at the start.
We have a slow zone before Arnage, aside from the fact Frijns's car is still there, he gave the barrier a hefty whack and that will likely need some attention.
Safety car
And now it's a full safety car.
There is a tractor on the road that has lifted up the stricken #31 car. Hugs all around in the WRT box suggest it's game over.
There are a flurry of cars coming into the pits to take advantage of the slower speeds. Expect LMP2 teams with silver time still to use up to install them, likewise GTE Am crews with bronze time to use up.
The first group of cars to have pitted are being held by the red light at the end of the pitlane. They have to wait until the next safety car snake has passed before joining the back end of it. That will mix things up considerably.
The stricken Frijns car has been carried behind the barriers now, but we expect barrier repairs may take some time. We remain behind safety car (three of them, remember around the long Circuit de la Sarthe).
The TV cameras are showing us that the leaders in GTE Pro are line astern behind the same safety car. Alessandro Pier Guidi and Fred Makowiecki are, mouthwateringly, nose-to-tail.
It appears as though the GTE Am-leading TF Sport Aston has been split from the rest of its class pursuers by this safety car. That's doubly bad news for the pursuing #79 WeatherTech Porsche, which currently has its fastest driver Julien Andlauer aboard. He's just ahead of Paul dalla Lana's #98 NorthWest AMR Aston on the road, but not able to pull away as he would do in normal racing conditions.
The two Toyotas also appear to be behind different safety cars, although that's perhaps unsurprising given there were around three minutes between the leading #8 and delayed #7 cars.
The safety car will come in this lap, reports Edoardo Freitas. The battle to watch as the race resumes will be for the GTE Pro lead between Pier Guidi's #51 Ferrari and Makowiecki's #91 Porsche.
Green flag
The safety car has come in and we're back to green flag running.
Hold your breath! Following the restart Makowiecki doggedly tracks Pier Guidi through GTE Am traffic and just about makes a move stick on Paul dalla Lana into the Ford Chicane to keep on the tail of the Ferrari ahead. That was a close one!
Change for third in GTE Am as Dalla Lana loses out to Martin Rump, the silver aboard the #99 Hardpoint Porsche. Meanwhile in GTE Pro Pier Guidi is really having to get his elbows out to hold off Makowiecki into the Mulsanne chicanes.
The gap between #7 and # 8 is out to a little under 3m40s. So that was a bit loss for Kobayashi. Slow zones are definitely preferable in my book.
As they raced into the Slow Zone, which is still out due to barrier repairs approaching Arnage, Pier Guidi managed to get ahead of fellow Ferrari man Giancarlo Fisichella's #80 machine. The ex-Formula 1 racer was very compliant with his colleague, but was uber-aggressive on the brakes into Mulsanne Corner to make sure he kept Makowiecki behind him.
Makowiecki gets Fisichella as they exited the slow zone on the run towards the Porsche Curves and now is closing on the back of Pier Guidi once more approaching the Mulsanne Straight. Here we go again!
By: autosport.com
Published:
Page:
