H + 14 – Toyota neck and neck

The leaders by category at 6 a.m.

Twenty-four seconds. That’s all that separates the two Toyotas leading the 2021 24 Hours of Le Mans, ten hours from the checkered flag. The two Japanese prototypes continue to lead a very solid race, with however to deplore a straight ahead of Kamui Kobayashi in Indianapolis at the wheel of the # 7, for a loss of about 25 seconds. The # 8 came back on its heels and took the lead on the occasion of the pit stops, Brendon Hartley having been followed closely by José María López. Toyota asked Hartley to let the sister car pass because of the different strategies, and the # 7 widened that 24-second gap in under an hour.

Further down, Alpine # 36 is still three laps behind, and now a relatively small lead over Glickenhaus # 708: barely a minute. The # 709 remains stuck in the LMP2 peloton.

Team WRT prances ahead of LMP2

In LMP2, it’s very lively, again with a duel for victory between two sister cars: those of Team WRT. Yifei Ye (# 41) passed Charles Milesi (# 31) for first place, before a battle between Louis Delétraz (# 41) and Ferdinand Habsburg (# 31). The latter now has about thirty seconds in advance.

The # 22 entered by United Autosports held third place, but Fabio Scherer spun off before an alternator problem left him in the garage, putting him out of the top 3 race. # 65 of Panis Racing is on the provisional podium, but almost one lap behind the lead car.

The night was rough for # 29 of Racing Team Nederland, with yet another exit from the track by Frits van Eerd as he approached Tertre Rouge, followed by a fault by Giedo van der Garde in the Porsche corners. On the High Class Racing side, the # 49 suffered at the hands of Jan Magnussen, without the Dane having much to be ashamed of: he was caught by the # 26 G-Drive, then one of his tires was damaged. exploded as a result, causing contact with the wall. The pleasure of sharing the car with his son Kevin is « the only good thing to take from this weekend », he launches with self-mockery. As for G-Drive # 25, it retired following an accident by Rui Andrade at the Dunlop chicane.

On the GTE Pro side, the Ferraris of AF Corse kept the advantage, the # 51 ahead of the # 52 and the Corvette # 63, three cars which were held in a pocket handkerchief with an equal number of stops, but the # 52 is unexpectedly returned to the garage shortly before 6 a.m. and was wasting precious time. The Italian team also dominates the GTE Am with the # 83, followed by the # 33 Aston Martin of TF Sport.