24 Hours of Le Mans: Risk of a thunderstorm at first

The start of the 24 Hours of Le Mans at 4:00 pm on Saturday could be stormy, with hazards between 3:00 pm and 5:00 pm, followed by rare rain until midnight, according to the Météo France forecast in the morning. .

In the context of the Covid-19 epidemic, this 89th edition is being held at the end of August instead of mid-June and has been changed in order to welcome 50,000 spectators (20% of the usual number), after a sad closed session in 2020. At Circuit de la Sarthe, The Toyota N.7 of Britain’s Mike Conway, Japan’s Kamui Kobayashi and Argentina’s Jose Maria Lopez will start from first place.

Their goal: to win the event for the first time and to become the first winners in the new first category, the Hypercar, introduced this season. She will run first on the starting grid with her sister N.8, the event’s triple champion, entrusted to Swiss Sebastien Buemi, Japanese Kazuki Nakajima and New Zealander Brendon Hartley.

The Alpine N.36 and Glickenhaus N.708 will be in the second row, followed in the third row by the fifth and final supercar, the Glickenhaus N.709, and the first LMP2, the Oreca N.38. The key to Toyota’s favorite cars may be reliability, with its new prototype entering its first 24-hour race.

In addition to 5 Hypercars, 24 LMP2 (more sluggish and standardized prototypes), 8 LMGTE Pro (derived from production sports cars and representing three brands, Ferrari, Porsche and Corvette), 23 LMGTE Am (amateur driven for special teams) and a car were introduced. Innovative” (driven by two paraplegic pilots), that is, 61 crew.