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24 Hours of Le Mans
2022 Le Mans 24 Hours Live Commentary and Updates
Live updates for the 2022 Le Mans 24 Hours at the Circuit de la Sarthe
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In GTE Pro, the leading #92 Porsche pits and retains the lead. The #91 Porsche has dropped to fourth in class behind the #51 AF Corse Ferrari and the #64 Corvette.
The #7 Toyota has lost valuable time in the slow zone. Lopez has dropped 27s behind the leading #8 entry with Hartley at the wheel.
With nine hours of racing in the books it's time for a class leaders update. In the Hypercar class, the #8 Toyota holds a 26s lead over the sister #7 car. In LMP2, the #38 Jota ORECA continues to dominate the class. The #92 Porsche leads GTE Pro from the #51 AF Corse Ferrari. In GTE Am, the #79 Weathertech Racing Porsche holds a 55s margin over the #98 NorthWest AMR Aston Martin.
Right, it's time to handover to my esteemed sportscar racing journalist colleague, James Newbold for the next stint.
Many thanks Tom - a top stint there from our WRC correspondent, who has been emulating Sebastien Ogier by stepping into unfamiliar territory. Speaking of the eight-time world champion, he's back behind the wheel of the #1 Richard Mille Racing ORECA and is currently P13 in the LMP2 class after serving a one-minute penalty earlier on for a pit indiscretion.
The best battle on the track at the moment is over sixth place in LMP2, with Ed Jones currently fending off Tijmen van der Helm in the #13 TDS ORECA. Both have just passed the Inter Europol #43 car of David Heinemeier-Hansson.
That battle is broken up as van der Helm comes into the pits. That's the car, remember, to which Nyck de Vries was added to the driver lineup when Philippe Cimadomo was barred from starting after an incident-filled practice.
Given he's the bronze in the #79 Weathertech Porsche, Thomas Merrill is doing a great job in the GTE Am lead, and has been lapping quicker than the team's Silver driver Cooper MacNeil. David Pittard is chasing him down in the NorthWest AMR Aston, but not making huge inroads right now with the gap around 57s.
Richard Westbrook has just been into the pits aboard the #709 Glickenhaus which remains comfortably in third. Aside from a brief visit to the garage to check a sensor issue, that car has run cleanly thus far.
Would you just look at who is currently running third in LMP2? It's the #31 WRT car with poleman Robin Frijns at the wheel, and he's just five seconds back from Robert Kubica's second-placed Prema ORECA despite losing bags of time to that one-minute stop-go early on. We could be in for a fight soon...
The obligatory shots of mechanics asleep are rolling in now. Yes, it's that time of year again.
Jota continues to lead serenely out in front of the LMP2 pack, and has done pretty much since the #31 WRT car served its stop-go penalty after the first round of pitstops when it jumped ahead of the #9 Prema car. But its Silver driver Roberto Gonzalez has only done 36 laps so far. Stevens and Da Costa have been doing the heavy lifting of late, will we see Gonzalez back in next?
From second in LMP2, Kubica has just come into the pits which cycles Frijns ahead. His 3m32.136s is the best lap of the LMP2 class so far.
Frijns now comes in from second in LMP2. Will he cycle out ahead of Kubica?
In the Hypercar Toyota battle, Hartley currently leads aboard #8 by 17.9s over Lopez, who has clawed back nearly 10 seconds in the #7 after losing out in a slow zone on his outlap. Impressive going from the Argentine, who is a five-time world champion like his famous compatriot Fangio thanks to his successes in the WTCC (3 titles) and WEC (2 titles).
Into the pits has come Daniel Serra in the #51 Ferrari, which cycles the #91 Porsche back to second in GTE Pro. But Richard Lietz is currently 2m08s behind the sister #92 car of Michael Christensen in the lead after his car was delayed by a track limits drive-through earlier on in Fred Makowiecki's hands.
Lopez has come into the pits for his latest stop in the chasing #7 Toyota.
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We pondered earlier on whether Frijns would leapfrog Kubica by running one lap longer, and the answer was yes. But the Envision Formula E star doesn't have second locked down yet, as the Panis ORECA of Nico Jamin is 8.7 seconds up the road ahead of him.
As the #66 JMW Ferrari of Renger van der Zande gets a drive-through penalty for not respecting slow zone procedures, the #92 GTE Pro class-leading Porsche of Michael Christensen has a spin at Mulsanne Corner. He's fortunate not to dump the car into the gravel and keep it on the black stuff, but only just courtesy of the extended run-off area.
One lap after Lopez's stop, Hartley has come in and rejoins with a 22-second lead. Meanwhile the top two in LMP2 have come in. Will Stevens remains aboard the #38 Jota machine, while Jamin is relayed in the Panis ORECA by Julien Canal, making the Frijns/Kubica battle one for second.
Meanwhile in GTE Am, leader Thomas Merrill has pitted and goes back out again in the #79 WeatherTech Porsche, while his pursuer David Pittard jumps out of the #98 NorthWest AMR Aston and is replaced by Paul dalla Lana. He rejoins third, behind the TF Sport Aston of factory driver Marco Sorensen.
After his little, ahem, excursion a few minutes ago Christensen is back up to speed in the GTE Pro class-leading Porsche #92 and was faster last time around than pursuing team-mate Lietz. What a difference 10 months makes for Porsche after a horrible Le Mans last August when it was just languishing off the pace to a distant third and fourth. The 911s are sitting pretty right now in first and second places.
Unfortunately the Riley Ferrari hasn't really been at the races in GTE Pro, the only non-works car in the class unable to match its factory counterparts. And that's a shame because double Supercars champion Shane van Gisbergen is currently at the wheel for his Le Mans debut, but is 96 seconds down on Davide Rigon's #52 Ferrari ahead of him and unable to make any inroads.
Julien Canal is still finding his bearings in LMP2, having just been inserted into the Panis Racing ORECA that currently runs fourth. But he's not being helped by having Nicklas Krutten climbing all over the back of him in the Cool Racing ORECA - the young German eager to get past.
Merrill is continuing to impress with his pace as the bronze aboard the WeatherTech Porsche in GTE Am, the #79 car not shedding time to pursuing factory driver Marco Sorensen behind. Merrill was seven seconds quicker last time around than Dalla Lana in the third-placed Aston, and nine faster than Proton boss Christian Reid who is fifth in the car that led early doors with Harry Tincknell.
Krutten did get past Canal for fourth in LMP2, but couldn't pull away and now comes into the pits, following in Kubica - who hands over the Prema car to Louis Deletraz. Will Stevens continues to lead serenely aboard the #38 Jota ORECA.
A big spin for Richard Bradley in the Duqueine LMP2 car almost catches out the following Mathieu Vaxiviere in the Alpine Hypercar, the Frenchman leaping over the kerb and bouncing across a strip of gravel in avoidance. Bradley does a good job of getting the car out of the middle of the road and getting back into the action.
Laurens Vanthoor has now taken over the #92 Porsche from Michael Christensen and leads by 91s from Daniel Serra's #51 Ferrari. But the Brazilian has Alexander Sims right on his tail, and the Mahindra Formula E man could soon move the #64 Corvette back into second. One to keep an eye on.
There are a few positional battles shaking up in LMP2 at the moment. Tijmen van der Helm in the #13 TDS ORECA has Oliver Jarvis in the #23 United Autosports car right on his tail in the battle for P8, while Dries Vanthoor's #32 WRT ORECA and the #1 Richard Mille car of Charles Milesi were running nose-to-tail before the latter came into the pits in their squabble over P11.
Here comes the #38 Jota car into the pits again from the LMP2 class lead. Will Stevens continues aboard. Behind him meanwhile, Sean Gelael is now aboard the #31 WRT car which has recovered so strongly to second from its early penalty but has Louis Deletraz closing on him in the #9 Prema car. Let battle commence.
Following the most recent pitstop for the TF Sport Aston, Marco Sorensen has rejoined fourth in GTE Am. His next target is Paul dalla Lana, the amateur in the NorthWest AMR car, with Martin Rump having passed the Canadian in the #99 Hardpoint entry to move into second. All the while, Thomas Merrill is continuing serenely out front in the #79 WeatherTech Porsche, fulfilling his role as 'Super Bronze' to the tee.
Gelael got stuck in the Ford Chicane behind the #77 Proton-Dempsey Porsche GTE Am car of bronze driver Christian Ried, and that was all the invitation Deletraz needed to snatch second in LMP2 on the pit straight. Gelael tried to throw the block, but it came just too late to deny his former Formula 2 sparring partner.
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Sims is going great guns, but he's one of a number of cars who will have five seconds added at their next pitstop for not respecting the slow zone procedure - another of them is Rump in the #99 Hardpoint Porsche who lies second in GTE Am.
The inevitable has happened and Sorensen moves up ahead of Dalla Lana into third in GTE Am. Next target for the Aston factory ace is Rump, who is 29s up the road but with a five-second penalty to serve remember.
At the sharp end of the order, Hartley is 29.8s up on Lopez in the #7 Toyota, that gap having stabilised after Lopez charged after the #8 car in his first stint aboard the car. The bulk of that came when Lopez lost out in a slow zone on his outlap, the two cars having been almost welded together in the laps prior.
Deletraz comes in for his latest pit call in the #9 Prema car, which cycles Gelael back to second in LMP2 aboard the #31 WRT ORECA. The quickest LMP2 driver on the track at the moment is Felipe Nasr in the #5 Penske car, currently running seventh in class.
Thomas Merrill has stepped out of the GTE Am leading WeatherTech Porsche after a fine stint, and hands over to Cooper MacNeil. Meanwhile Nicki Thiim has just jumped aboard the #98 NorthWest Aston Martin GTE Am, the Aston factory driver aiming to make back some of the time lost by the car's bronze Paul dalla Lana with Martin Rump's #99 Hardpoint Porsche first in his sights.
Lopez has made some inroads into Hartley, with 23.5s now between the two Toyotas in the Hypercar class. Lots of racing still to go though, as we inch closer towards the halfway mark.
By: autosport.com
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