Sabrina faija
08/20/2021 10:10
Clarín.com
sports
Updated 08/20/2021 10:12 AM
There is nothing like it.
Desired and demanding, the 24 Hours of Le Mans test is the desire of pilots around the world, among them the Argentine
José María López
.
With a car that is always a candidate, such as the Toyota GR010 number 7, the man from Cordoba will try to become
the second Argentine to win
this weekend
and thus emulate the success of Froilán González 67 years ago.
"For a motorsports driver, racing Le Mans is already very special, too important. The World Endurance car was born as the Le Mans car and the rest of the races are those that prepare you for Le Mans. It is a whole year. of preparation. Of hours, hours and hours. Of nights. Of risks too, because we do tests at night for 36 hours without stopping and when it is winter there can be fog, rain and four degrees below zero and we continue to walk in the car at any time At night. Really when the moment comes, you look back and you realize that the important thing is coming, that all those hours are going to be defined in those 24 Hours. And I think that also makes it very special, "
he had said. to
Clarin
in an interview at the start of the championship.
The Cordovan yearns for victory and has a Toyota to hope for: on Sunday the number 8 set the pace in the unofficial general rehearsals, he
repeated on Wednesday in the first official practice and on Thursday he made the pole
.
"I'm very happy. It definitely feels like the car was born for Le Mans. It's always the same, you get here and somehow the cars feel alive, you can see their full potential on this track. It was nice to drive," he said. on his first contact with the 13,626 meter circuit of La Sarthe.
🏁 # 7 on top!
It gets better though ... we have two hours of night practice coming up!
🌜 # LeMans24 #GoHyper #ToyotaGAZOORacing pic.twitter.com/bzrMLuRd5y
- TOYOTA GAZOO Racing WEC (@TGR_WEC) August 18, 2021
The season is also going well for Pechito.
Together with his teammates Mike Conway and Kamui Kobayashi they
have just won the 6 Hours of Monza
, for the third date of the WEC, and are second six points behind the Toyota number 8, integrated by Sebastien Buemi-Bertrand Hartley and Kazuki Nakajima, with a test as Le Mans ahead that will deliver 50 points to the winner.
The other Hypercar is the Alpine of André Negrao, Nicolas Lapierre and Matthieu Vaxiviere.
The record, however, does not bring good memories to the Rio Tercero native.
The unforeseen events in endurance racing are even more frequent and he knows it well.
In 2019, a puncture took him the victory and in 2020 he was at the forefront when an engine failure delayed him
, so he finished third.
With the start of the Hypercar era, López dreams of a different ending this time.
And Toyota, with repeating the first place of the last three years.
89 editions and only one Argentine winner
Froilán González and Chueco Fangio shared their race but only the former won at Le Mans.
Photo Clarín Archive
200 kilometers from Paris in western France, the 24 Hours of Le Mans were held for the first time in
1923
and soon attracted riders from all over the world who dreamed of dominating the semi-permanent La Sarthe track for a whole day.
On May 26 of that year, 33 cars of 18 brands started and it was the locals René Léonardy and André Lagache, with a 3-liter Chenard, the winners
at an average of 94 km / h
.
With the passage of time, the test also attracted the great brands and the best pilots in the world, including several Argentines, although (for now) only one emerged victorious from there. On June 13, 1954, with a Ferrari 375 Plus that he piloted with the Frenchman Maurice Trintignant,
Froilán González won the mythical race
that Juan Manuel Fangio had to abandon the four times he tried, the last one in 1955, when it took place. the greatest tragedy in motorsports.
The best performance after that was in the hands of
Oscar Larrauri
from Santa Fe
, the one who participated the most times (9) and who in 1990 finished second in the Porsche 962 that he drove with the Spanish Jesús Pareja and the Swiss Walter Brun.
Pilots like Carlos Reutemann passed in between, while before Pechito the last national representative had been Luis Pérez Companc in 2014.
The 24 Hours of Le Mans are also of particular interest, as they are part of the Triple Crown with the Indianapolis 500 and the F1 Monaco Grand Prix, a symbolic trophy that only has one winner: Britain's Graham Hill for almost 50 years.
F1, present: Fernando Alonso will be in the preview and Kevin Magnussen, in the race with his father
With the return of the public, although there will be only 50 thousand people and will represent 20% of the total capacity, the 89th edition of the race that usually takes place in June will begin on Saturday at 4:00 p.m. (11 in Argentina) although it will begin to vibrate before with Fernando Alonso.
🎉 It's time to celebrate our passion for motorsport!
Just before the start of the # LEMANS24 race on Saturday, a unique parade will bring together the Alpine F1, A470, A110 GT4, A110 Rally and A110S on the world-famous French circuit.
⏰ Stay tuned on Saturday!
pic.twitter.com/SWLZ9GgVGS
- Alpine Racing (@AlpineRacing) August 17, 2021
The first F1 GP winner to win at Le Mans since Michele Alboreto will make the first exhibition with a Formula 1 car in the legendary endurance race.
At 14.10 (local time, five less in Argentina), the parade will start, in which Esteban Ocon and other pilots identified with the French factory will also participate.
Thus, the Spaniard will once again roll on the track where he won in 2018 and 2019 with Toyota Gazoo Racing.
Alonso and Ocon will also meet a former teammate:
Kevin Magnussen
.
The former Haas will be in one of the 62 cars entered for the race, the No. 49 LMP2, alongside his father, former F1 and experienced endurance driver Jan Magnussen, and fellow countryman Anders Fjordbach.
"LMP2 has some teams that are really fast and have great driver lineups, but we should go to win or it doesn't make sense.
It will be a lot of fun to race with my dad
, but we're there to win! I feel excited!" Danish on the official site of the category.
In addition, there will be two paraplegic pilots, the Japanese Takuma Aoki and the Belgian Nigel Bailly, by an initiative of Frédéric Sausset, the first pilot with all his limbs amputated to participate in the legendary test in 2016. Also, two 100% female crews for the second time. time: in LMP2 will be the Colombian Tatiana Calderón, the German Sophia Flörsch and the Dutch Beitske Visser and in LMGTE Am will be the Swiss Rahel Frey, the Danish Michelle Gatting and the Belgian Sarah Bovy. Likewise, along with Pechito,
the other Argentine in the test will be Franco Colapinto,
in the LMP2 class.
Come this season, the Hypercars will contest their third race and their first 24 Hours.
Without competition between the other big brands, Toyota won the last three editions of this legendary test and on the three dates of the season, so it is not unreasonable to predict that the victory will be played between the Toyota No. 7 of the British Mike Conway, the Japanese Kamui Kobayashi and the Argentine José María López and the No. 8 of the Swiss Sébastien Buemi, the Japanese Kazuki Nakajima and the New Zealander Brendon Hartley.
"We do everything necessary to extend this series of victories by becoming the first Hypercar winners at Le Mans," promised Toyota team leader Hisatake Murata.
While the organizer, Pierre Fillon, highlighted the presence of the public in the midst of the pandemic: "Last year it was behind closed doors, it was a real blow. Le Mans is a great race, but above all it is a great party. popular. For this reason, it is almost a return to normality. "
Look also
The Formula 1 graveyard: the teams that won titles and still disappeared
Pechito López, the other Argentine who is a world champion and is not Fangio: from the credit card that did not work to living in Monaco
