24 Heures du Mans - 2022 - Hypercars - 24 Hours of Le Mans

 

Romain Dumas takes the Glickenhaus 007 LMH through the Dunlop Chicane.  A veteran of Le Mans with 21 starts he has won overall twice but this year finished fourth with the new Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus team.  This photo shows how you can get excellent shots even when firing through the wire net fencing.  You need a long lens which stops you focusing on the fencing.  This was taken at f/11, 1/2000th of a second at 360mm on a Canon 100-400 zoom with a minimum focusing distance of 3 metres. .

It was great to be back at the Le Mans 24 hour race for the first time since 2018.  This was my first time seeing the relatively new Hypercars and this blogpost concentrates entirely on that class.  There were only five cars in this class with Toyota the favourites, Alpine a challenger after their Sebring 1000 miles win and Glickenhaus also hoping to challenge with their two car line up.   Everyone was happy to have the crowds back after a two year hiatus and the lovely sunny weather got everyone in good spirits.   I was taking shots from the public areas between 4pm and 22.30pm on Saturday and then started again at 5.40am on Sunday and continued until just 11am when I decided to leave for the long drive home.  By that time it was fairly clear who was going to win unless a surprise happened, so I said goodbye to Gareth who had been great company all weekend.

Further posts on LM P2, LM GTE Pro and LM GTE Am will be coming soon.

All of the Hypercars and most of the good amateur photo locations are featured below:

Results:

1st Overall and in class.   No.8.  Toyota GR010 Hybrid.  Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley, Ryo Hirakawa. 380 laps.

The winning Toyota in the Dunlop Chicane on Saturday afternoon.  It was on its way to taking Buemi to his fourth LM24 overall win, Hartley to his third win and Hirakawa to his first win.  After years of failing to win Le Mans, Toyota has now won the last five and is now the sixth most successful manufacturer at le Mans ahead of Ford, Matra and Peugeot.  The Toyotas were the only manufacturer running hybrid engines at Le Mans this year, it being a 3.5 litre V8 twin turbo hybrid.

A little after sunrise on Sunday morning Toyota No.8 is in second place to its sister car as it bumps over the curves of Virage du raccordement Motul (renamed for the race in honour of the French oil company). The No.8 car was either in the lead or in second place the entire race.

2nd Overall and in class.  No.7.  Toyota GR010 Hybrid.  Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, Jose Maria Lopez.  380 laps (2 minutes behind).

The second placed Toyota on Sunday morning overtaking a backmarker Porsche as it enters the Esses. Although it only finished second, the No.7 car driven by Jose Maria Lopez did take fastest lap at 3 minutes 27.749 seconds about 30 minutes from the end of the race.

The second placed Toyota, also early on Sunday morning in the Motul Chicane.  This shot was taken from a quick opportunistic visit to the T22 Bob Wollek grandstand. 

3rd Overall and in class.  No.709.  Glickenhaus 007 LMH.  Ryan Briscoe, Richard Westbrook, Franck Mailleux.  375 laps.

On Saturday evening the No.709 Glickenhaus makes its way through the Esses, in front of an LMP2 car, on its way to a podium finish.  It was good to see supercar manufacturer Glickenhaus win a podium at Le Mans at their second attempt.  Their cars are powered by a 3.5 litre twin turbo engine made by Pipo Moteurs in France.

4th Overall and in class.  No.708.  Glickenhaus 007 LMH.  Olivier Pla, Romain Dumas, Pipo Durani.  370 laps.

The fourth placed Glickenhaus at Tertre Rouge early in the race.

23rd overall and 5th in class.  No.36.  Alpine A480.  Andre Negrao, Nicolas Lapierre, Matthieu, Vaxivierre.  362 laps.

The Alpine team didn't have a lucky Le Mans.  Here their single car entry is in the Esses on Sunday morning.  Their cars are powered by a Gibson 4.5 litre normally aspirated V8.

Saturday and Sunday Hypercar Chronology.

Between 10.30 and 10.45 on Saturday morning we saw the Warm-Up.  Here is the pole sitting Toyota entering the Esses during the warm-up.  Brendon Hartley had taken the hyperpole with a time of 3 minutes 24.408 seconds on this 8.5 mile circuit.

Just before the start, La Patrouille de France gave us a fly past.

A photo taken of the beside the track TV screen as Patrick Pouyanné, Chairman & CEO of Total Energies, drops the flag to start the race.

After a 4pm start, the Hypercars lead the rest of the cars on the first lap at the Dunlop Bridge.  Buemi takes an early lead in the No.8 Toyota.

With a quicker first pit stop, Mike Conway leads in the No.7 Toyota with one hour gone and 23 remaining.  Here he is at the Esses.  Second is the other Toyota then the two Glickenhaus cars and the Alpine.

The Goodyear blimp showing how clear the sky was on Saturday afternoon and Sunday.

After the second round of stops, Buemi retakes the lead in Toyota No.8.  Here he is at Tertre Rouge.

The No.709 Glickenhaus has an unexpected pitstop before two hours to change a broken sensor and drops to fifth overall.  Here it is entering the Esses.

In the evening the Alpine had a long pitstop after it failed to get going again, and fell out of contention having fallen 4 laps behind after 4 hours.

As the sun gets low in the sky the No.8 Toyota is back in second place as the lead see-sawed between the two Toyotas.

As I headed for some sleep at about 10.30pm the No.7 Toyota was in the lead.  Here it is at the Esses. However, shortly after the No.8 car led again and was leading at the seven hour mark.

Even at midnight this 24 hour race is only one third complete!  A long way to go.

As sunrise approaches, the big wheel keeps on turning.

At 6.07am Mike Conway in the lead No.7 Toyota exits the chicane onto the pit straight.  His pit board shows him in the lead by 24.5 seconds.  However, it wasn't going to last as the No.7 car stopped on track and had to go through a reset routine and thus lose the lead.

During the night the No.708 Glickenhaus has had some issues and fallen out of the top three.  Here it is early in the morning in the Virage Ford Chicane.

At 7am the Alpine is still going but a couple of hours later it is in the gravel for a second time and is now totally out of contention.  

As the morning develops it become clear that barring the unexpected, the No.8 Toyota will win.  Which of course it did!

A photographic lap of Le Mans with the Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus:

There are a huge variety of shots an amateur photographer can take at the 24 Hours of le Mans outside of the grandstands with just standard access and a standard ticket.  You just need a good DSLR camera, a long lens and some steps.

From the inside of the circuit we see the No.708 Glickenhausen approach the Dunlop Chicane.

From the outside of the circuit we see the No.709 Glickenhaus make the entry into the Dunlop Chicane.

Same place on the track and same car but different time of day and taken from the inside of the track.  Note how the Glickenhaus uses all of the kerb!

Let's stick with the same car but see it in the middle of the Dunlop chicane as seen from the outside of the circuit.

Now attacking the second part of the Dunlop Chicane, the No.709 Glickenhaus is illuminated by the early Sunday morning light.  It then accelerates up under the Dunlop Bridge.

The No.709 Glickenhaus reappears into our view as it takes the bend just after the Dunlop Bridge.

The No.709 Glickenhaus then enters the Esses as we take our picture from the inside of the circuit on Sunday morning..

We now switch to the other team car No.708 for the standard Saturday evening Esses shot taken from the outside of the circuit.

Earlier in the day the No.709 Glickenhaus is seen leading the Alpine at the Esses.

We now go under the tunnel to inside of the circuit to take a picture of the No.709 Glickenhaus in the Esses but taken from the inside of the circuit.

A little further along the inside of the circuit we see the No.709 Glickenhaus cutting the apex at Tertre Rouge.   This picture was taken on a fixed focal length 135mm lens.

We can't go any further than Tertre Rouge so we now rejoin the cars at the Ford Chicane.

Early on Sunday morning and the Glickenhaus No.708 is bumping over the Ford Chicane.  taken from the outside of the circuit.

A little later on Sunday morning and the No.708 Glickenhaus is exiting the Chicane onto the pit straight.

A view from the same spot but showing the full start finish straight as one of the Glickenhaus cars finishes another lap.

John Etherton asserts his copyright to all of the photos on this blogpost.  However, you may post the photos elsewhere on the web as long as you credit the photographer, John Etherton, and this blog post, Rouenlesafx@blogspot.com and provide a link to this page.

John Etherton affirme son droit d'auteur à l'ensemble des photos sur ce billet de blog. Cependant, vous pouvez poster des photos ailleurs sur le web aussi longtemps que vous créditez le photographe, John Etherton, et ce blog, Rouenlesafx@blogspot.com et fournissez un lien vers cette page.\

The Alpine A480 on Sunday morning entering the pit straight.