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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After almost three hours at the wheel, Julien Andlauer has now vacated the WeatherTech Porsche from the lead in GTE Am. Thomas Merrill jumps aboard, and second-generation racer Seb Priaulx cycles to the lead in the Proton-Dempsey car.
In GTE Pro, Bruni has been passed for third by Porsche team-mate Christensen. That's explainable by a one stint offset in tyre life between them, with Bruni now on his second stint after only a single stint for Fred Makowiecki due to a troubling vibration for the #91 car's starting driver.
Meanwhile, Dries Vanthoor has moved up into fifth in LMP2, following Ye past Jamin. The 2021 GTE Pro polewinner is having a much better time of it than last year when his HubAuto Porsche was turned around on lap one and never recovered.
From the back of the grid, Vector Sport is continuing its comeback and now has Sebastien Bourdais at the wheel. The in-form Frenchman, who has four poles from six IMSA starts so far this year, is running P12 but right on the tail of David Heinemeier-Hansson and Reshad de Gerus ahead.
A 3m28.809s last time around from Lopez is the fastest lap of the race so far. He's currently 23s to the good ahead of Hartley, with Dumas now 1m21s behind in third. Westbrook is now just 16s behind of the Alpine of Vaxiviere in fourth.
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One of 12 drivers to have raced in F1 on the grid, Jack Aitken is getting his first Le Mans experience aboard the #47 Algarve Pro car. But it's looking like one that will be chalked up for experience with the car already five laps down at the foot of the LMP2 field.
Taylor has a lead around the half-minute mark on Milner in GTE Pro. It's early days yet, but Corvette will be delighted with how the race has gone so far.
A couple of 3m29s laps there for Westbrook as he strives to make up for that time loss in the pits with a sensor change. I was going to say that's at least on a par with the leading Toyota, but Lopez has just banged in a 3m28s.
Yifei Ye has made a superb move on Nico Jamin for fifth in LMP2 at Arnage. The order was shaken up a bit by the last round of pitstops, but it's still the #38 Jota ORECA that leads with Will Stevens behind the wheel. Dane Cameron is second for Team Penske, with Lorenzo Colombo still third in the #9 Prema entry that led early on with Robert Kubica. Ed Jones is fourth, chased by a gaggle of cars comprising Ye, Jamin and Dries Vanthoor - who took over from Bortolotti aboard the #32 car in the last round of stops.
There were some good battles on track in the GTE Pro ranks, which resolved themselves as we were typing. Tommy Milner closed in and passed Gianmaria Bruni's #91 Porsche, with fresher tyres aboard his #64 Corvette, for second and Michael Christensen's #92 Porsche took fourth from Antonio Fuoco in the #52 Ferrari.
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Well that didn't take long. Pittard now takes third place in the #98 Aston he shares with Nicki Thiim and Paul dalla Lana. He's still the only non-Porsche in the top five, which has riled poleman Vincent Abril - the AF Corse Ferrari #61 he qualified on pole is currently running sixth with Louis Perette at the wheel.
We suggested that Pittard was a man to watch, and sure enough the Briton has passed Haryanto for fourth in GTE Am. Next in his sights is Leutwiler, the bronze in the #46 Porsche, just 4s between them last time around.
Brendon Hartley, who took pole on Thursday, and Romain Dumas have jumped aboard the #8 Toyota and #708 Glickenhaus. Both are two-time Le Mans winners, both with two different manufacturers - Hartley with Porsche (2017) and Toyota (2020), while Dumas's wins came with Audi (2010) and Porsche (2016).
Eleven laps there for both Toyotas and the #708 Glickenhaus as they come in to the end of their triple stints on a set of Michelin tyres. Remember these are heavy old cars. The days when Audi went straight into quadruples from the beginning of the race seem a distant memory.
There's pit callers everywhere you look at the moment. In comes Buemi and Pla, who had run one lap longer than Conway, while the LMP2 leaders also come in, with Da Costa swapping out for Will Stevens.
Former IndyCar racer Ed Jones has now replaced Aberdein aboard the #28 Jota ORECA in LMP2. That has been stopping a little before the rest of its class rivals at each pit cycle.
In comes Mike Conway for his third pit visit of the race. The reigning WEC champion vacates the #7 Toyota, with Jose Maria Lopez jumping aboard.
Out at the front in Hypercar, Buemi has dropped 19.4s behind Conway, but no problems to report for the Toyotas. Pla is 50s down in third, while Westbrook has taken over the #709 car which made a brief visit to the garage due to a problematic sensor, dropping him behind Vaxiviere in the Alpine.
Only 10 laps there for the Alpine. The old girl - a car that started out as the Rebellion R-13 - has proved that it can do 12 laps. Guessing the early stop is down to those four Michelin tyres being more than ready for a change.
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Tandy jumped out of the #64 Corvette at the most recent round of stops, and handed over to Tommy Milner. The American has dropped to third behind Bruni in the #91 Porsche, the Italian now on his second stint with those tyres.
Following the most recent GTE Am stops, Andlauer has continued aboard the #79 WeatherTech Porsche and continues to lead. We've now got Seb Priaulx in second, having taken over the #77 Dempsey-Proton car, and Nicolas Leutwiler in the #46 Project 1 car in third after Tincknell and Cairoli stepped out for a well-earned rest. Behind fourth-placed Andrew Haryanto, who like Leutwiler is a bronze and has taken over the #99 Hardpoint Porsche started by Picariello, is David Pittard in the #98 Aston. Expect the Nordschleife expert to take fourth before too long.
Colombo has now moved into third in LMP2, passing Aberdein. Fresh rubber undoubtedly doing the trick for the Italian, with Aberdein now scampering after Bortolotti ahead. It's been a quietly effective opening so far for the DTM racer, who we'll surely be seeing more of at Le Mans in the future with Lamborghini committed to LMDh from 2024.
Rast is still aboard the polesitting #31 WRT ORECA and is trying to recover after being hit with a one-minute penalty for that early contact with Will Owen's United car. But he's being thwarted by Mathias Beche's rear-guard action in the #13 TDS machine, the Swiss unwilling to let go of his 16th position.
Huge moment for Pierre Ehret in the #75 Iron Lynx Ferrari, who spins off at the Porsche Curves when he doesn't see Francois Perrodo come flying down his inside in the AF Corse LMP2 ORECA. Ehret does well to slow it down and avoid a hefty prang with the tyres.
We've had the leader in GTE Pro come in - Garcia, who unseen by us passed Tandy, has swapped over to Jordan Taylor. He's one of two Corvette drivers, the other being Alexander Sims, to be sporting 'Topgun' tribute moustaches this weekend.
Sebastien Ogier is now out on track in the Richard Mille ORECA. He joins a long list of rally starts to take the challenge of Le Mans: Rohrl, Ragnotti, Darniche, McRae, Loeb. I could go on. I won't name check the late, great Vic Elford here, too much of a regular on the circuits and the stages, and a grand prix driver after all.
Strategising when to use your Bronze is always a fascinating element of the GTE Am class. Some elect to run longer with their Pros early in case of a safety car - remember, there are three different trains around the long Circuit de la Sarthe lap, and being split off from the pack can be costly. But saving the Bronze time until the night when they're likely to be less confident in reduced visibility is a brave move indeed.
Erstwhile GTE am leader Picariello has just come into the pits and handed over to the #99 Hardpoint crew's bronze driver Andrew Haryanto. He rejoins sixth and is the highest-placed of the Ams currently circulating, with Andlauer, Cairoli, Tincknell, Thiim and Nick Cassidy ahead all Pros who started their respective machines.
In LMP2, Da Costa continues to lead in the #38 Jota car with Bortolotti second and Aberdein third - that trio all starting drivers remaining aboard for a treble stint. Kubica has handed over the #9 Prema car to Lorenzo Colombo and the ex-Formula 3 racer is hassling Aberdein hard. Dane Cameron has replaced Nasr and runs fifth in the Penske entry, with Lorenzo's former contemporary Bent Viscaal sixth in the leading pro/am entry for ARC Bratislava.
A drive-through penalty for abusing track limits has been dished out to Alessandro Pier Guidi in the #51 Ferrari. Somehow, it doesn't look like that crew is going to be defending its race victory from 2021.
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It's predominantly nine-lap stints for the P2 runners. That's going to make for a pretty frenetic race for the teams and the poor mechanics - a pitstop every half hour or so!
The top seven in LMP2 are all in the pits. We'll update you shortly on who remains aboard and who stays on for a triple stint in the baking hot sun.
A sharp intake of breath there as Andlauer makes a fully-committed pass on Picariello into Indianapolis to snatch the GTE Am class lead. He almost looked like he was going to run into the back of the #99 machine, but Andlauer ducks out just in time and seizes the inside line. Cairoli is still there in third, keeping a watching brief.
It may only be for seventh in LMP2, but the battle is raging hot between Job van Uitert and Ricky Taylor - the Panis and Cool Racing cars drawing ever closer to Charles Milesi's Richard Mille Racing entry in sixth. Don't forget, eight-time World Rally Championship title-winner Sebastien Ogier will be hopping aboard that fittingly-numbered #1 machine later on.
A few laps ago Cairoli was hot on Picariello's tail for the GTE Am class lead, but he's now just been shuffled back to third as Julien Andlauer makes a decisive move into the first Mulsanne Chicane aboard the WeatherTech Porsche. Tincknell is still there in fourth, making it an all 911 RSR-19 top four, with Thiim's #98 NorthWest AMR Aston Martin the best non-Porsche in fifth.
Buemi and Pla now make their second stops in the #8 Toyota and #708 Glickenhaus. Conway continues to lead in the #7 Toyota.
An engine change meant the Vector Sport LMP2 car featuring three-times Le Mans runner-up Sebastien Bourdais didn't set a time in qualifying and had to start from the back - along with the #45 Algarve Pro car which Steven Thomas crashed in FP1. But Nico Muller has made good progress so far and runs 14th in class, currently pressuring Richard Bradley's Duqueine machine. He's 70s off the lead, still held by Da Costa.
That was 13 laps for the #7 Toyota. The target stint length for the energy allocation in the Hypercar class is 12 laps of Le Mans. Nothing to stop you going longer, though. Note that the Toyotas were lapping two or three seconds off their early pace for much of that second run.
By: autosport.com
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