24h of le Mans this weekend, LMP1 and GTEPro looking interesting

walkerlv (54)in #sports • 7 years ago

The Greatest race of the year is on this weekend, the 24h of le mans, at the legendary Sartre ciruit.

Last year I attended the qualifications, this year I'm watching the race from home.

The first qualification session was yesterday night, and the second is on it's way right now.

What's looking interesting this year is that the winners of last year are not amongst the best qualifiers.

In the top class, the LMP1, it was a real thriller last year as the leading Toyota car lost power in the very last lap, seeing a hardfought victory baing handed to Porsche.

This year The Toyota's appear to be killing the Porsche's in qualifying, with ex F1 driver Kamui Kobyashi just breaking the fastest lap record by over 2 seconds. (3minutes 14 seconds 7 tenths), while the porsches are running 3 minutes 18 seconds.

These are the only two factory teams remaining since Audi left the le Mans circuit (apparently running a LMP1 team costs about 150 million$ a year).

In the GTEpro class last year saw the return of Ford as a team, and what a return. They managed to take the first two places, with great racing, and with a beautiful car as well. It's also nice that they each car (they run four) is lit up with a different light colour, making them easily distinguishable at night.

But these as well are apparently suffering this year, currently the first Ford is 3rd, about half a second slower than the leading Aston Martin.

Start of the race is Saturday at 3PM, and the race finishes 24 hours later, 3PM, Sunday.