LM24 Hour 23: Toyota, Inter Europol surging toward the flag

Toyota Racing enters the last hour of the 94th 24 Hours of Le Mans seemingly destined to win the race, with its two TR010 Hybrids running 1-2 at the top of the hour.

Kamui Kobayashi has been installed into the No. 7 Toyota, which received a fresh set of tires to get the Japanese driver to the end of the race. He currently holds an 18-second lead over the sister No. 8 car driven by Sébastien Buemi, who’ll attempt to quadruple-stint his tires to the finish.

Buemi is holding off Robin Frijns in the third-place No. 20 BMW M Team WRT Hybrid V8, with Will Stevens running fourth in the No. 12 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA V-Series.R.

The No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P (Ye Yifei) runs fifth ahead of its full-factory sister No. 51 499P (Alessandro Pier Guidi) in sixth and the No. 35 Alpine Endurance Team A424 (Ferdinand Habsburg).

Minutes ago, the No. 009 Aston Martin THOR Team Valkyrie suffered a rear suspension failure; Alex Riberas limped the car back to the garage for repairs, though the No. 007 Valkyrie is currently circulating in eighth.

It’s setting up to be a rematch between Inter Europol Competition and a Panis Racing/TDS Racing-run car in LMP2 once again.

Defending champion Tom Dillmann in the No. 43 Inter Europol ORECA 07-Gibson leads, but Esteban Masson in the No. 29 Forestier Racing by Panis ORECA has just caught and passed the fading No. 343 Inter Europol car of Nico Müller for second place, determined to avenge last year’s loss.

Should they falter, Pietro Fittipaldi runs fourth in the No. 26 Vector Sport car. Laurin Heinrich, aboard the No. 4 CrowdStrike Racing by APR ORECA, runs seventh of all LMP2s, and is set to cruise to LMP2 Pro/Am victory for Algarve Pro Racing.

And in LMGT3, the No. 33 TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R leads by around 30 seconds from the No. 78 Akkodis ASP Team Lexus. The only question to answer now is if Jonny Edgar will stay in to the finish, or if Nicky Catsburg will board the Corvette for the final stint.

Jack Hawksworth in the Lexus runs second, followed by the No. 23 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin (Eduardo Barrichello), the No. 21 Vista AF Corse Ferrari (Alessio Rovera), No. 87 ASP Lexus (José Maria López), and No. 34 Racing Team Turkey by TF Corvette (Charlie Eastwood).

HOUR 23 STANDINGS