Le Mans 24 Hours: Former F1 drivers to watch

The Le Mans 24 Hours returns this weekend with an abundance of former F1 talent involved.

The most famous endurance race in the world takes place two months later than normal due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, with 61 cars entered to tackle the fearsome Circuit de la Sarthe.

Whilst Alpine will field an F1 car with two-time Le Mans winner Fernando Alonso behind the wheel for a demo run ahead of the race, 17 former F1 drivers will tackle the 24 hour event across Saturday and Sunday.

Here is a rundown of who to look out for over the weekend.

Hypercar

Toyota Gazoo Racing fields two of its new GR010 Hypercars as it aims for win number four in a row.

Kamui Kobayashi cemented his status as one of the great Le Mans qualifiers with a stunning pole position in the #7 car, bettering the #8 sister car consisting of three former F1 drivers - Sebastian Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima and Brendon Hartley.

The #8 has won the previous three runnings.

Alpine also fields a car in the Hypercar field, although it is running with old LMP1 machinery.

LMP2

The spec prototype class in Le Mans that fields a semi-professional grid has plenty of F1 talent to get excited about.

The #21 Dragonspeed will be driven by triple-crown chasing Juan Pablo Montoya. The third piece to add to his collection of Monaco and Indy 500 wins will be unrealistic in the secondary class and his prospects for the weekend took a hit with a crash during free practice.

Zak Brown-affiliated United Autosports fields two cars, with Paul di Resta driving the #23 car.

Former Manor driver Roberto Mehri pilots the #25 G-Drive Racing car with Mercedes' Formula E champion Nyck de Vries - who is rumoured to be linked to an F1 drive - in the sister #26 car.

Jota runs two Mercedes-linked drivers in Stoffel Vandoorne [#28] and Anthony Davidson [#38], the British driver on class pole alongside Roberto Gonzalez and Antonio Felix da Costa.

Alfa Romeo reserve driver Robert Kubica will pilot the #41 Team WRT which starts second in class whilst Jan and Kevin Magnussen will pair up for the first time as father and son for High Class Racing's #49 car.

Briton Will Stevens drives for the #65 Panis Racing entry. The car that won the European Le Mans Series race in Monza last time out will start third.

Former Sauber driver Felipe Nasr races for Risi Competizione's #82 machine.

GTEPro

Just the one former F1 driver in GTEPro in Gianmaria Bruni, who drove for Minardi in 2004.

The Italian drives the #91 Porsche factory entrant.

GTE AM

The semi-professional GTE class also hosts just one former F1 driver, but by far the most successful in the sport.

With three wins in 229 grand prix starts, Giancarlo Fisichella has spent his time since exiting F1 in sportscar racing and will drive the #54 AF Corse Ferrari.

Ferrari Academy driver Callum Ilott will take control of the #80 Iron Lynx car.

The 2021 Le Mans 24 Hours starts at 16:00 local time [15:00 BST, 08:00 EDT].

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