2021 Le Mans 24 Hours 6H Report | #7 Toyota moves clear as night and rain falls

2021 Le Mans 24 Hours - 6H of 24H - Classification

The #7 Toyota of Kamui Kobayashi, Jose Maria Lopez and Mike Conway continued to pull clear in the 2021 Le Mans 24 Hours at the quarter-mark point in the race as sporadic rain created some frantic on-track moments at times.

After the race was started behind the safety car due to wet weather, promoting numerous spins as those less familiar of the part-permanent, part-road circuit in rainy conditions caught several drivers out.

As dusk descended into night, bursts of rain at different parts of the circuit would add to the lottery of tyre choice depending on where you were on the circuit when the heavens opened, though the Hypercar Toyotas remained metronomic out front with the #7 - which has led from the start - extending its advantage over the sister #8 Toyota to around 1m 20secs.

The Alpine with its smaller fuel tank is now a lap behind but a comfortable third position, while the #708 Glickenhaus has managed to iron out its glitches to sustain a run of form that puts it only a lap behind the Alpine in fourth.

LMP2 has provided the lion’s share of the action up at the front, kicked off by Jota throwing away a large lead established by Antonio Felix da Costa before Anthony Davidson slid off as heavens opened, dropping it right down the order.

With the lead changing around the pit-stop periods, on the sixth hour it was Team WRT of Louis Deletraz, Robert Kubica and Ye Yefei in front, with the United Autosports USA moving front shortly afterwards until Fabio Scherer spun twice within minutes.

As such, Team WRT is back in front from Panis Racing and the recovering United Autosport USA, the latter trio being the Anglo-British team’s sole frontrunning effort after a bizarre incident involving the other two entries.

Seemingly prompted by Manuel Maldonado losing his car and taking to the gravel trap on the inside of the Turn 1, before coming back onto the circuit and finding the sister #23 car being driven by Wayne Boyd, damaging both cars. 

There wasn’t much more luck for the all-female Richard Mille Racing trio either after Sophia Floersch crashed in avoidance of a spinning G-Drive Oreca, before being hit side-on by the Eurasia India despite the slow zone as she was attempting to get going again.

In GTE Pro, AF Corse Ferrari remain out front in a 1-2 with the #52 leading at the turn of the hour, but the leading Porsche and Corvette aren’t far behind.

In GTE Am, the TF Sport Aston Martin was in front at the sixth hour, but has since pulled in with technical problems, moments after the Team Project 1 Porsche that was running third also smashed into the barriers at Michelin.

As such, the AF Corse Ferrari - a trio that includes Giancarlo Fisichella - leads the way at 22.30CET