2023 LM24, Hour 9: Disaster For The Toyota #7!

The #7 Toyota Gazoo Racing GR010 HYBRID is out of the 24 Hours of Le Mans after a bizarre, multi-car accident at Tertre Rouge.

It began right at the top of the hour when Giedo van der Garde in the #39 Graff Racing Oreca 07-Gibson and Charlie Eastwood in the #25 ORT by TF Aston Martin Vantage GTE slowed down approaching a Slow Zone.

Kamui Kobayashi brought the #7 Toyota to a near-complete stop behind them. But out of nowhere, he was hit in the left rear by the #66 JMW Motorsport Ferrari 488 GTE EVO of Louis Prette and simultaneously in the right-rear by the #35 Alpine Elf Team Oreca of Memo Rojas – both trailing cars came to the scene carrying way too much speed.

Prette’s Ferrari was left stranded in the middle of the road and Kobayashi’s beaten #7 Toyota crawled slowly to a stop not far from where it was struck. Van der Garde went back to the pits for his team to repair the damages, while the #35 Alpine was in and out in just under 20 minutes.

Prette was able to get out of his car and has been taken to the medical centre for further evaluations, but he and the other drivers involved are okay.

The #7 Toyota was running solidly in the top three at the time of the crash, but now Kobayashi, Mike Conway, and Jose Maria Lopez have been dealt another cruel blow at Le Mans which has, to date, only been broken by a single moment of shared glory in 2021. They become the second retirees from the Hypercar class, following the #75 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 (fuel pressure).

Not long after, the Safety Car was deployed for the third time in this race.

The #94 Peugeot TotalEnergies 9X8 will restart from the lead in the next hour, with Nico Muller aboard.

Ryo Hirakawa still ensures that Toyota has one more bullet in its arsenal, he rides second in the #8 Toyota.

Alex Lynn is back into third aboard the #2 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R, followed by the two Ferrari AF Corse 499Ps, the #50 of Antonio Fuoco and the #51 of Alessandro Pier Guidi.

Team WRT now leads LMP2 as Rui Andrade pilots the #41 Oreca,

He’ll restart ahead of the Inter Europol Competition #34 of Jakub Smiechowski, and the Panis Racing #65 of Manuel Maldonado, occupying second and third.

Paul Loup Chatin is fourth in the IDEC Sport #48, and Daniil Kvyat runs fifth in the Prema Racing #63. Seventh in LMP2 is the Pro-Am class-leading AF Corse #80 with Ben Barnicoat driving.

Racing Team Turkey’s #923 Oreca now joins the list of retirees in the LMP2 category that began with the Tower Motorsports #13 and Nielsen Racing’s #14, the damage from Salih Yoluc’s crash in the rain two hours ago was too great to continue.

The #85 Iron Dames Porsche has taken the lead of GTE-Am, with the lengthy Safety Car to recover the #66 JMW Ferrari and #7 Toyota GR010 scrubbing the almost 80-second gap held by the #56 Project 1 – AO Porsche.

The Safety Car had split the pair, with the #56 Porsche electing to pit from their safety car train, dropping to the rear of the next safety car train which included the #85 Porsche, as well as the #54 AF Corse Ferrari, who now sits in second.

With the wave-around and class Drop Back still to happen, only 5 cars are currently on the lead lap. The #911 Proton Competition Porsche and #57 Kessel Racing Ferrari are in fourth and fifth, two safety car trains behind the leading trio.

GTE has continued to be a war of attrition, with an additional car out since midnight. The #66 JMW Motorsports Ferrari was involved in an incident on the entry to Tertre Rouge, bringing an early end to the seven-year run for the Ferrari 488 chassis the team debuted here in 2017.

To recover the #51 Ferrari beached at the Daytona Chicane, a Slow-Zone was called for Zone 3, including Tertre Rouge. Prette was caught out by the slowing #39 Graff Racing LMP2 and the #7 Toyota GR010, and made contact with the rear of both cars, with the broadcast showing the Ferrari climbing over the rear of the #39 Graff machine. Prette has been taken to the medical centre for checks, but has been reported to be okay.

This leaves 14 GTE cars still in the race, with the top ten rounded out by the recovering #33 Chevrolet Corvette, two laps down.

The #85 Iron Dames Porsche is sitting in a great position with an even distribution in their driver times thus far. While the #56 Project 1 AO Porsche and #54 AF Corse Ferrari have been faster in patches, both teams have done so off the back of Pro-rated Matteo Cairoli and Davide Rigon respectively.

Bronze-rated Sarah Bovy and Silver-rated Michelle Gatting have done almost a full stint more than their Am-rated counterparts in the top three – an encouraging sign for them as the race continues.

The Garage 56 Camaro has had a trouble-free run this hour, sitting in 37th overall, a lap behind the GTE-Am leaders.