Le Mans 24 Hours evening report - Toyota runs one-two after early rain chaos

Ewan Gale
Saturday 21 August 2021 20:18 - Updated: 20:18

Toyota holds a one-two after four hours of the 2021 Le Mans 24 Hours despite a pre-race downpour creating chaos and a first corner incident.

The pole-sitting #7 Toyota, currently driven by Kamui Kobayashi, sprinted clear after the safety car start with Mike Conway at the wheel and remains in the lead after four hours with the #8 sister car in second.

That car suffered a disastrous first lap with Sebastian Buemi behind the wheel, being taken out at the Dunlop chicane by the #708 Glickenhaus of Olivier Pla before having to shut the car down and restart on the Mulsanne straight.

Things got worse at Arnage when Buemi went straight on but the Swiss driver fought back to leap ahead of both Glickenhaus cars and the third-placed #36 Alpine, which also lost time with a spin with Nicolas Lapierre at the wheel in the opening stages.

LMP2

The #38 Jota had been in control for the opening two and a half hours before Anthony Davidson found the gravel trap at turn one and dropped to 19th whilst waiting to be recovered.

That leaves the sister Jota #28 car in the lead at the hands of Tom Blomqvist with the #23 United Autosports car following, driven currently by Wayne Boyd.

At the four hour mark there is a three-way battle for third developing between James Allen in the #65 Panis Racing entry, Job Van Uitert in the #29 Racing Team Nederland car and Franco Colapinto for the #26 G-Drive machine.

Robert Kubica opened the race for Team WRT's #41 car, with Yifei Ye taking over in sixth, whilst Kevin Magnussen opened for High Class Racing. Anders Fjordbach is in 15th for the #49 team.

GTEPro

Ferrari looks strong in GTEPro with the #51 leading the #52. Corvette Racing made a great start in the wet to take an early one-two lead but lost time as the track dried up.

Porsche has seen plenty of the run-off areas with the #91 and #92 machines but the non-factory #79 Weathertech Racing 911 RSR lies third.

The balance of performance in this class will ensure close racing through to the end of the race.

GTEAm

The only retirement of the race so far has come from the GTEAm class after Marcos Gomes hit the tyre barriers hard at Indianapolis.

The #98 Aston Martin was in second before retiring, with the incident triggering the first safety car of the race.

Aston Martin does lead the class though with the #33 car at the hands of Ben Keating, with Giorgio Sernagiotto and Scott Andrews battling hard for second in class for the #47 Cetilar Racing Ferrari and the #57 Kessel Racing Ferrari.

Rain remains to threaten the race with light drizzle falling at the Porsche Curves with just under 20 hours remaining.