Tue, Aug 24, 2021 page16

• ‘Unreal’ to win Le Mans 24 Hour: Kobayashi

  • AFP, LE MANS, France
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  Winning the Le Mans 24 Hour Race felt “a bit unreal,” Japanese driver Kamui Kobayashi said, after he, Mike Conway and Jose Maria Lopez on Sunday finally came good after years of ill-luck to claim Toyota’s fourth straight success in the iconic event.

  Toyota’s second car, winner in the past three years, took the runner-up spot with Kazuki Nakajima, Sebastien Buemi and Brendon Hartley sharing the driving.

  After 1,440 minutes, 370 laps, more than 5,000km and 33 pit stops, Toyota’s No. 7 car avoided the misfortune that had ruined its chances in 2017, 2019 and last year to take the checkered flag at the end of motorsport’s mythic endurance test, at last.

  

  Race director Patrick Morisseau waves the checkered flag to the winner, Toyota’s Japanese driver Kamui Kobayashi, left, next to second-placed Kazuki Nakajima, also driving for Toyota, on the finish line of the Le Mans 24 Hours endurance race in Le Mans, France, on Sunday.

  Photo: AFP

  Nakajima pitted behind Kobayashi in the leading car shortly before the finish to ensure they passed the line virtually in tandem, albeit with two laps separating them in the classification.

  “We went through so many experiences before we got there. At Le Mans, you always have to work and this time too we had problems during the race,” former F1 driver Kobayashi said.

  “It wasn’t easy, we tried to maximize what we could do to survive and we did it. It’s a bit unreal. Often, Le Mans brought us nothing but bad luck, but today we are winning. It’s awesome,” he said.

  Conway said he cried “like a little girl” after seeing Kobayashi take the checkered flag.

  “We came close so many times, and to get it done here with the new hypercar, as well with these boys ... teammates did a stellar job as always,” Conway told Eurosport.

  “I was crying like a little girl. It’s a bit of everything, you work so hard for it each year you forget how hard it is,” he said.

  In third, four laps adrift, came the elite hypercar category rival Alpine of Andre Negrao, Nicolas Lapierre and Matthieu Vaxiviere.

  The two entries from US film director Jim Glickenhaus, at 71 supervising events from the pits in a Stetson, completed the top five.

  The stands and campsites were occupied again after last year’s Le Mans was held behind closed doors, with COVID-19 restrictions keeping the traditional crowd numbering 250,000 at home.

  With capacity capped at 20 percent, the 50,000 die-hard fans burning the midnight oil were treated to another demonstration of Toyota dominance, as Le Mans ushered in the hypercar era.

  Kobayashi, a former F1 driver with Toyota and Sauber, had ensured the prime spot on the grid after setting the fastest time in qualifying on Friday.

  Last year, he and his teammates set out from pole, but finished third after a lengthy pit stop for a turbo change.

  In 2019, they were coasting in front only for a puncture one hour out to end their hopes of victory.

  They also took second in 2018 and the year before Kobayashi and Conway were part of the team that took pole, but failed to finish with clutch issues.
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