LM24 Hour 22: Fights to the finish shaping up

With two hours to go at La Sarthe, huge question marks remain over who will come out on top in the Toyota-BMW-Cadillac battle for the overall victory, while a Corvette-Aston Martin duel to the finish looms in LMGT3.

The No. 7 Toyota of Nyck de Vries leads for the first time after an hour, having spent much of the race playing second fiddle to the sister car. The gap is 16 seconds ahead of the No. 20 WRT BMW M Hybrid V8, with Sheldon van der Linde behind the wheel.

This is now a tire strategy showdown, with the No. 7 Toyota and No. 20 BMW both on their third stint with a set of mediums going into the penultimate hour, being chased by the No. 8 Toyota and No. 12 Cadillac (22 and 39 seconds back), who both changed to mediums a stop prior and are into their second stints on their rubber. How will the gaps look once we get through the final stops? It’s the biggest moment to come.

With two cars still very much in the running, Toyota looks to be the favorite, but Cadillac and BMW haven’t given up hope.

“We knew coming into this week that we were going to be in a good position,” Norman Nato, driver of the No. 12 V-Series.R, said after his most recent stint before handing over to Will Stevens. “The team has worked very hard and made some big improvements to the car compared to last year. We have the top speed we were missing before, and overall the package is a step forward.

“I’m really enjoying these 24 hours. We’ve had some great battles out there with the BMW, the sister car and the Toyota, and that’s what we like. For the team and for the fans, it’s amazing to be in this position with a chance to fight for the win.”

In LMP2 it’s now a three-way fight once again with the Forestier Racing by Panis ORECA, which, lest we forget, dropped a lap down earlier in the race, back up to second place. Oliver Gray has been squeezing every ounce of performance out of the No. 29, splitting the two Inter Europol cars. The No. 43 leads, the No. 434 is third.

LMGT3 has a very familiar feel to it – a Corvette vs Aston Martin tussle, which looks set to come alive in the closing stages. Jonny Edgar is in the No. 33 TF Sport Corvette, with Jonny Adam five seconds down the road in the No. 23 chasing Aston Martin. Is a repeat of the frantic end to the 2017 GTE Pro battle on the cards?

There were two retirements in the hour, both related to gearbox failures. The biggest one was the pole-sitting No. 27 Heart of Racing Vantage, which looked on for at least a podium throughout its 291 laps. The No. 69 Team WRT BMW is also out of the race, the team throwing in the towel after a trip to the garage for Parker Thompson, coincidentally, after 291 laps too.

HOUR 22 STANDINGS