2022 24 Hours Of Le Mans

The 90th 24 Hours of Le Mans (french: link=no, 90^e 24 Heures du Mans) was a 24-hour automobile endurance event for Le Mans Hypercar (Hypercar), Le Mans Prototypes (LMP) and Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance (LMGTE) cars that occurred on 11 and 12 June 2022 at the Circuit de la Sarthe, near Le Mans, France before 244,200 spectators. It was the 90th edition of the event organised by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest and the third round of the 2022 FIA World Endurance Championship. A test day was held the week before the race on 5 June.

A Toyota GR010 Hybrid shared by Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryō Hirakawa began from pole position after Hartley recorded the fastest overall lap time in the Hyerpole session. The three drivers led for a total of 274 laps out of 380 completed and finished first, 2 minutes and 1.222 seconds ahead of their teammates Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and José María López who shared another Toyota GR010 Hybrid in second. It was Buemi's fourth Le Mans victory, Hartley's third, Hirakawa's first and Toyota's fifth in succession. A Glickenhaus SCG 007 LMH shared by Ryan Briscoe, Franck Mailleux and Richard Westbrook completed the overall podium five laps behind in third.

Jota's team of Roberto González, António Félix da Costa and Will Stevens, sharing an Oreca 07-Gibson car, won the Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) category after leading all but 15 laps. The debuting Prema squad of Lorenzo Colombo, Louis Delétraz and Robert Kubica followed 2 minutes and 21 seconds later in second place, and the class podium was completed by the sister Jota trio of Jonathan Aberdein, Ed Jones and Oliver Rasmussen in third. In the final Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance Pro (LMGTE Pro) race at Le Mans, the No. 91 Porsche 911 RSR-19 of Gianmaria Bruni, Richard Lietz and Frédéric Makowiecki won the category from AF Corse's No. 51 Ferrari 488 GTE Evo, which was shared by James Calado, Alessandro Pier Guidi and Daniel Serra. Aston Martin won the Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance Am (LMGTE AM) class with an TF Sport-run Aston Martin Vantage GTE shared by Henrique Chaves, Ben Keating and Marco Sørensen, winning by 44.446 seconds from WeatherTech Racing's Porsche 911 RSR-19 of Julien Andlauer, Cooper MacNeil and Thomas Merrill.

The result meant the Alpine trio of André Negrão, Nicolas Lapierre and Matthieu Vaxivière remained atop the Hypercar Drivers' Championship but their advantage was reduced to three points over Buemi, Hartley and Hirakawa, who passed Glickenhaus' Romain Dumas and Olivier Pla for second. Bruni and Lietz took the GTE Drivers' Championship lead by three points over their Porsche teammates Michael Christensen and Kévin Estre. Toyota and Porsche left Le Mans as the respective Hypercar World Endurance and GTE Manufacturers' Championship leaders with three rounds remaining in the season.

Background

The 24 Hours of Le Mans first took place in 1923 after the automotive journalist Charles Faroux, the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) general secretary Georges Durand and the industrialist Emile Coquile agreed to hold a test of vehicle reliability and durability. It is considered one of the world's most prestigious motor races and is part of the Triple Crown of Motorsport. The 2022 race, held at the Circuit de la Sarthe close to Le Mans, France from 11 to 12 June 2022, was the event's 90th edition and the third round of the 2022 FIA World Endurance Championship. This was the first Le Mans race to admit a full crowd and be run in June since restrictions were imposed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in France.

Before the race, Alpine drivers André Negrão, Nicolas Lapierre and Matthieu Vaxivière led the Hypercar Drivers' Championship with 57 points. Glickenhaus' Romain Dumas and Olivier Pla were second with 39 points and Toyota's Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryō Hirakawa were third with 27 points. Porsche's Michael Christensen and Kévin Estre led the GTE Drivers' Championship with 57 points ahead of AF Corse's James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi with 43 points and third-placed Tommy Milner and Nick Tandy of Corvette with 39 points. Alpine led Toyota in the Hypercar World Endurance Championship and Porsche led Ferrari in the GTE Manufacturers' Championship.

Regulation changes

Following the edition in which the clerk of the course Patrick Morrisseau was almost struck by an approaching car at the conclusion of the race, the ACO allowed him to wave the checkered flag from a footbridge in the event of a close finish for safety reasons. For the first time in the event's history, all race entries ran Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile-compliant wholly renewable fuel produced by fuel supplier TotalEnergies from wine residues to lower carbon dioxide emissions.

Entries

Entries for the event were open from 6 December 2021 to 28 February 2022; in response to the Russian G-Drive Racing team suspending its racing programme and measures imposed on Russian drivers and entries by international sporting bodies following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the ACO's selection committee invited new applicants to apply for entry to the race from 7 to 9 March 2022. The ACO granted 62 invitations and entries were divided between the Le Mans Hypercar (LMH), Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2), Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance Professional (LMGTE Pro) and Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance Amateur (LMGTE Am) classes. Peugeot Sport chose to withdrew their planned entries to the race so they could further test their 9X8 Hypercar vehicles before they could be ready for homologation.

Automatic entries

Teams that won their class in the 2021 24 Hours of Le Mans, or won championships in the European Le Mans Series (ELMS), Asian Le Mans Series (ALMS), and the Michelin Le Mans Cup (MLMC) earned automatic entry invitations. The second-place finishers in the 2021 ELMS in LMP2 and LMGTE championships each earned an automatic invitation. Two participants from the IMSA SportsCar Championship (WTSC) were chosen by the ACO to be automatic entries, regardless of their performance or category. Teams earning automatic entries in LMP2 were allowed to change their cars from the previous year but not their category. ELMS LMGTE and ALMS GT teams earning automatic entries were allowed to use them in either LMGTE Pro or LMGTE Am. The European and Asian LMP3 (Le Mans Prototype 3) champion was required to field an entry in LMP2. The Michelin Le Mans Cup Group GT3 (GT3) champion was limited to the LMGTE Am category.

The ACO announced the final list of automatic entries on 28 February 2022.

Entry list

The ACO was due to announce the full 62 car list on 28 February; due to "administrative reasons" the announcement was delayed by the ACO. The entry list was published on 10 March. In addition to the 38 guaranteed WEC entries, 14 came from the ELMS, 4 each from IMSA and the ALMS and 3 one-off Le Mans entries. In addition to the 62 entries given invitations for the race, six (three each from LMP2 and LMGTE Am) were put on a reserve list to replace any withdrawn or ungranted invitations. Reserve entries were ordered with the first replacing the first withdrawal from the race, regardless of the class and entry. Entries were selected for their sporting and technical quality, fan, media and public interest and commitment, and loyalty to other ACO-administered series.

Following the publication of entries, Racing Team Nederland withdrew its TDS Racing-run Oreca 07 entry from third in the reserve list to enable to team to focus fully on their participation in IMSA's endurance races. On 31 May, Hardpoint Motorsport that received an automatic invitation through IMSA for driver Rob Ferrirol receiving the 2021 Akin Award as the highest-placed Bronze-ranked IMSA entrant withdrew their LMGTE Am-category Porsche 911 RSR-19 and relinquished the entry to Proton Competition, which in turn, gave it to the Absolute Racing customer squad which ran under the Hardpoint Motorsport name per ACO regulations.

Josh Pierson, driving the United Autosports Oreca 07-Gibson, was 16 years and 117 days old when he competed at Le Mans, beating the previous record set by Matt McMurry in 2014.

Pre-race balance of performance changes

In the balance of performance adjustments, the Alpine A480-Gibson received a performance increase with an extra of power and weight of both the Toyota GR010 Hybrid and the Glickenhaus SCG 007 LMH cars remaining unchanged from the preceding 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps. The LMGTE Pro-class Chevrolet Corvette C8.R had its performance slowed by an engine air restrictor diameter reduction. The Ferrari 488 GTE Evo was equipped with a revised power curve it had on since the WEC season began while the Porsche 911 RSR-19 received an fuel capacity increase in both LMGTE categories. Aston Martin's LMGTE Am-category Vantage AMR had its fuel capacity decreased by .

Testing

A test day on 5 June saw all entrants participate in eight hours of mandatory driving divided into two sessions. Testing occurred in mostly dry weather with a brief period of light rainfall. Driver Paul di Resta helped Pierson in one of the United Autosports Oreca cars while the team waited for Alex Lynn and Oliver Jarvis to arrive at Le Mans from Detroit.

The morning session was led by Toyota with a 3:31.626 lap from José María López's 7 entry with 17 minutes remaining. He demoted Dumas' No. 708 Glickenhaus entry to second. Hartley put the No. 8 Toyota third-quickest, with Franck Mailleux's sister Glickenhaus No. 709 car fourth and the No. 36 Alpine of Vaxivière fifth. In LMP2, Jota's No. 38 car of Will Stevens lapped fastest at 3:33.964 during the third hour with United Autosport USA's No. 22 entry of Philip Hanson second. The quickest Pro/Am sub-class entry was Mathias Beche's No. 13 TDS Racing car in third, and Alex Brundle's No. 34 Inter Europol Competition car was fourth in class. Corvette were first and second in LMGTE Pro with Milner's No. 64 car faster than Nicky Catsburg's sister No. 63 entry by almost two-tenths of a second. The highest-placed Porsche was Gianmaria Bruni's No. 91 car in third with the best Ferrari the privateer Riley Motorsports entry of Felipe Fraga fourth. Michelle Gatting's No. 85 Iron Dames Ferrari led in LMGTE Am from the No. 52 AF Corse, LMGTE Pro's slowest entry. Some cars went off the track during the session and sustained damage. The session was stopped after ten minutes when the No. 65 Panis car of Julien Canal lost a wheel at the Daytona chicane on the Mulsanne Straight and was returned to the pit lane.

Dumas set the early pace in the second test session before López improved to a 3:29.986 lap with almost 90 minutes left to go quickest. Hirakawa's No. 8 Toyota came third and Mallieux was fourth in Glickenhaus' No. 709 car. Late in the session, López briefly went off the circuit during a car safety procedure at Mulsanne Corner and forced testing to end early. Filipe Albuquerque improved the fastest LMP2 lap to a 3:32.099 in the No. 22 United Autosports USA entry and was fifth overall. The No. 38 Jota car of António Félix da Costa fell to second and Lynn placed third in United Autosports' sister No. 23 vehicle. Alexander Sims improved the No. 64 Corvette's quickest lap to top LMGTE Pro from Davide Rigon's No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari and Frédéric Makowiecki's No. 91 Porsche. Ferrari were first and second in LMGTE Am with Kessel Racing's No. 57 car of Mikkel Jensen leading JMW Motorsport's Renger van der Zande by four-tenths of a second. Safety cars were required for Charlie Fagg's stopped No. 777 D'Station Racing Aston Martin at the pit lane exit into turn one due to a sensor fault and the No. 88 Dempsey Proton Porsche of Jan Heylen was beached in the gravel into the Porsche Curves with punctured front tyres.

After testing

Following testing, the ACO and FIA again altered the LMGTE balance of performance. The LMGTE Ferrari 488 GTE Evo received a decrease in turbocharger boost pressure curve across all revolutions, a fuel capacity reduction to to respectively and minimum rear wing angle changes for less performance. The Porsche 911 RSR-19 received a minimum rear wing angle change for increased performance. Both the Pro-class Chevrolet Corvette C8.R and the Am-category Aston Martin Vantage AMR received no performance changes.

Practice

The first three-hour practice session was held on the afternoon of 8 June. Quick laps were initially disregarded as teams tried to conduct race simulations. Light rain had fallen on the circuit and the session was declared wet before cars on slick tyres removed water. Hartley's No. 8 Toyota lapped fastest at 3:29.441 within the last 20 minutes and demoted the No. 709 Glickenhaus of Mailleux to second. Glickenhaus' sister No. 708 entry of Pipo Derani was third from Kamui Kobayashi's No. 7 Toyota. Lynn's No. 23 United Autosports car was quickest in LMP2 and fourth overall at 3:30.238 in the session's final minutes. Félix da Costa's put the No. 38 Jota car second just before practice ended with Prema Orlen Team's No. 9 entry of Robert Kubica third. In LMGTE Pro, Corvette maintained its test day pace with the No. 63 entry fastest after a lap by Antonio García demoted his teammate Milner in the No. 64 vehicle to second. Porsche led in LMGTE Am with the fastest class lap coming from the No. 79 WeatherTech Racing car of Julien Andlauer with brandmate Ben Barker's No. 86 GR Racing car second. Several cars went off the track during the session. The full course yellow procedure was deployed for Ryan Cullen's No. 10 Vector Sport car stopping in the Tetre Rouge esses. The session ended early when Steven Thomas heavily damaged the No. 45 Algarve Pro Racing car's front-left corner against the left-hand side tyre wall entering the Ford chicane.

Algarve Pro installed a new chassis onto the No. 45 car which missed qualifying. Dumas's No. 708 Glickenhaus car set the day's fastest time of 3:28.900 24 minutes into the second session held for two hours later in the evening, lapping 0.348 seconds faster than Kobayashi's second-placed No. 7 Toyota. Toyota's sister No. 8 car was third after a lap by Hartley and Ryan Briscoe's No. 709 Glickenhaus was fourth-quickest. René Rast recorded the quickest LMP2 lap at 3:33.119 in the No. 31 WRT vehicle with Albuquerque's No. 22 United Autosports USA entry second. Dries Vanthoor was third with a lap set late on in Team WRT's No. 32 car. Fabio Scherer stopped the No. 43 Inter Europol car on the start/finish straight with front-right suspension damage sustained mounting the sausage kerbs at the Ford chicane. A flat bed truck returned the car to the pit lane. Catsburg kept Corvette first in LMGTE Pro as Makowiecki moved the No. 91 Porsche to second. LMGTE Am was led by Mikkel Pedersen's No. 46 Project 1 Racing Porsche with a lap set with five minutes remaining to lead Heylen's No. 88 Dempsey-Proton car.

Before the third practice session, a balance of performance adjustment gave the Alpine A480-Gibson with more power and more energy per stint for a total power output of . Both the Toyota GR010 Hybrid and Glickenhaus SCG 007 LMH had no performance changes.

The third practice session lasting three hours on the afternoon of 9 June saw Kobayashi lap fastest early on in the No. 7 Toyota with Hartley's No. 8 car second. Both Glickenhaus cars were third and fourth with Pla's No. 708 entry ahead of Briscoe's sister No. 709 car. Hirakawa stopped between Indianapolis and Arnage corners with a hybrid problem but was able to slowly return to the pit lane for half an hour of repairs. LMP2 was led by Albuquerque's No. 22 United Autosports USA car who was less than one-tenth of a second faster than teammate Lynn's No. 23 vehicle. They were followed by WRT's No. 31 car of Robin Frijns. Tandy's No. 64 Corvette led LMGTE Pro as the No. 91 Porsche of Richard Lietz remained second in class. Pedersen kept the No. 46 Project 1 Porsche's top of LMGTE Am with the No. 33 TF Sport Aston Martin of Henrique Chaves slower by two-tenths of a second. Separate accidents for Philippe Cimadomo's No. 13 TDS Racing entry against the right-hand side concrete barrier at the Porsche Curves at high speed from contact with Sean Gelael's No. 31 WRT car, the No. 39 Graff Racing car of Sebastien Page's spin into the barrier exiting Indianapolis turn and the No. 59 Inception Racing Ferrari's accident against the Ford Chicane tyre wall by Alexander West disrupted the session.

The final two-hour practice session happened on the night of 9 June. Toyota led from the start with López's No. 7 entry going fastest overall at 3:28.322, 0.362 seconds quicker than Buemi's sister No. 8 car. The Glickenhaus team followed in third and fourth with Derani's No. 708 entry faster than teammate Richard Westbrook's No. 708 car. Lynn's No. 23 United Autosport car led in LMP2 at 3:32.226 seconds from Panis Racing's Job van Uitert and Jonathan Aberdein's No. 28 Jota entry. Graff driver David Droux in their No. 39 car went across the gravel and crashed lightly against the tyre barrier at Mulsanne corner. Félix da Costa's No. 38 Jota car and Alexandre Cougnaud's No. 3 DKR Engineering entry collided at the Ford chicane, sending Cougnaud sideways into the tyre wall. Cougnaud drove across the circuit to enter the pit lane for repairs. Corvette continued their fast pace with Catsburg lapping quickest in the No. 63 car in LMGTE Pro with the sister No. 64 C8R of Milner second by 0.021 seconds. Dempsey-Proton led LMGTE Am with Harry Tincknell's No. 77 Porsche ahead of teammate Heylen in the second-placed No. 88 entry.

Qualifying

Divided into two sessions, the first one-hour qualifying session set the race's starting order except for the fastest six vehicles in each class. They qualified for a half-hour shootout called "Le Mans Hyperpole", which determined the entry to begin from pole position in all four classes. Cars were placed in starting order by category, with every Hypercar at the front of the field regardless of lap time, followed by LMP2, LMGTE Pro and LMGTE Am. The vehicles were put with the six qualifying hyperpole cars by fastest hyperpole session lap time first, followed by the remaining non-qualifying hyperpole class vehicles by fastest lap time set during the first qualifying session.

Each of the five entries in the Hypercar category progressed to hyperpole with the fastest lap being a 3:27.247 recorded by Kobayashi's No. 7 Toyota early on before light rainfall came in the second half of the session. In LMP2, the qualifiers were Frijns' No. 31 WRT car along with entries from Jota's Félix da Costa, Norman Nato for RealTeam by WRT, the United Autosports pair of Lynn and Albuquerque and Prema's Louis Delétraz. LMGTE Pro saw the six factory entrants advance to hyperpole. The No. 92 Porsche of Laurens Vanthoor was fastest from García's No. 63 Corvette, Porsche's No. 91 car of Makowiecki, the sister No. 64 Corvette of Tandy and the works AF Corse Ferrari entries of Calado (No. 51) and Antonio Fuoco (No. 52). LMGTE Am saw Nicki Thiim's No. 98 Northwest AMR and Jensen's Kessel Racing Ferrari along with the No. 54 AF Corse Ferrari of Nick Cassidy, Rahel Frey's No. 85 Iron Dames Ferrari, Dempsey-Proton Racing's Tincknell in its No. 77 Porsche and the No. 61 AF Corse Ferrari of Vincent Abril. Actor Michael Fassbender lost control of the rear of Proton Competition's No. 93 Porsche braking for the first Mulsanne chicane due to a front puncture and struck the Armco barrier with the front of the vehicle. Fassbender was unhurt and the session was stopped for around 12 minutes by race control to enable the recovery of the damaged car. The crash resulted in the Proton Competition mechanics replacing the chassis on the No. 93 Porsche.

In hyperpole, Hartley set the fastest lap of 3:24.408 in the No. 8 Toyota to achieve Toyota's sixth consecutive pole position at Le Mans late in the session on worn tyres after being slowed by traffic in the Porsche Curves earlier on. Kobayashi qualified the sister No. 7 Toyota second after his fastest lap was deleted, reinstated and then permanently invalidated for a track limits infringement at Tetre Rouge corner. The No. 36 Alpine qualified third after a lap by Lapierre and the two Glickenhaus entries of Briscoe (No. 709) and Pla (No. 708) were fourth and fifth. The LMP2 pole position was taken by Frjins' No. 31 WRT entry with a 3:28.394 time. Nato's No. 41 Realteam entry was second and held the category pole until Frijins' lap. Following in third to sixth were the lead United Autosports car of Albuquerque, the Jota entry of Félix da Costa, Deletraz's Prema car and Lynn's sister United Autosports car after one of Lynn's laps was invalidated. Corvette Racing took the first two positions in LMGTE Pro with Tandy's No. 63 entry on category pole with the only sub-3:50 class lap from his teammate García's No. 64 car. The two Porsches were third and fourth with Makowiecki's No. 91 car faster than Laurens Vanthoor's No. 92 vehicle. Abril took pole position in LMGTE Am in AF Corse's No. 61 Ferrari early in the session from Jensen's No. 57 Kessel entry and Tincknell's Dempsey-Proton Porsche after a lap from Frey in Iron Dames' No. 85 vehicle was invalidated for violating track limits.

After qualifying, the stewards barred Cimadomo from racing on the recommendation of race director Eduardo Freitas for his and other entrants' safety due to his "not driving to the standard required to safely participate in the remainder of the event" after his involvement in three incidents during free practice. Cimadomo was replaced by Formula E champion Nyck de Vries and TDS' No. 13 car was moved from the LMP2 Pro/Am subclass to the main LMP2 category because De Vries held a Platinum racing licence. The FIA and ACO revised the balance of performance, increasing the LMGTE Ferrari 488 GTE Evo's turbocharger boost pressure and decreasing the A480's engine power by and a loss of of energy allowance per stint.

Qualifying results

Pole positions in each class are denoted in bold.

Warm-up

A 15-minute warm-up session happened on the morning of 11 June. Multiple drivers did not set a fast lap due to incidents during the session. The No. 7 Toyota of Mike Conway lapped fastest at 3:31.236 seconds ahead of the fastest LMP2 entry of Rast in WRT's No. 31 car in second overall and Buemi's sister No. 8 Toyota was 2.313 seconds slower in third and second in Hypercar. The fastest LMGTE Pro lap was a 3:54.788 set by Garcia in the No. 63 Corvette and Toni Vilander's No. 21 AF Corse Ferrari paced LMGTE Am. Mailleux appeared to lose control of the No. 709 Glickenhaus leaving Mulsanne turn due to a malfunctioning traction control sensor before stopping on the circuit's right-hand side. A driveline fault slowed Tandy's No. 64 Corvette slowed him between Mulsanne and Indianapolis corners before entering the pit lane. Nico Müller beaching the No. 10 Vector Sport car in the gravel at Indianapolis corner and Laurents Hörr losing control of the No. 3 DKR entry at the Dunlop Chicane prompted a full course yellow period.

Race

Start and early hours

At the start, the weather conditions were dry with the air temperature between and the track temperature ranging from . There were 244,200 spectators at the circuit. The French tricolour was waved at 16:00 Central European Summer Time ( UTC+02:00) by Patrick Pouyanné, TotalEnergies' CEO, to begin the race, led by the starting pole sitter Buemi. Will Owen's No. 22 United Autosports USA Oreca was pincered between the WRT cars of Ferdinand Habsburg and the LMP2-class pole sitter Rast on both sides of the circuit at the first corner and was sent into the gravel trap. Owen was beached in the gravel and required recovery by crane to return to the pit lane for repairs that lost him two laps to the LMP2 field as Habsurg's No. 41 car sustained front-end damage and a right-rear puncture. The stewards deemed Rast responsible for the accident and imposed a one-minute stop-and-go penalty. This enabled Kubica to move the No. 9 Prema entry on the inside from fifth to the LMP2 category lead. In LMGTE Am, Abril was unable to retain the No. 61 AF Corse Ferrari's class lead as Tincknell used the lifting of a localised slow zone at turn one to overtake Jensen and Abril in Dempsey's No. 77 Porsche.

The race's first hour ended with Alessio Picariello's No. 99 Hardpoint Porsche taking the LMGTE Am lead from Project 1's No. 46 car of Matteo Cairoli. Félix da Costa's No. 38 Jota entry became the new LMP2 leader after passing Prema's No. 9 Prema during the first pit stop cycle. Buemi could not build up a large enough lead over his teammate Conway due to an oversteer and relinquished the overall lead the No. 8 Toyota had held since the start of the race to the sister No. 7 car following both their pit stops since Conway's stop was faster than his teammate. Tandy had an downshifting fault braking for Mulsanne corner and drove across the roundabout to rejoin the circuit but forfeited the No. 64 Corvette's hold on the LMGTE Pro lead to the sister No. 63 Corvette of García. The LMGTE Am class lead became a battle between the No. 99 Hardpoint Ferrari and the No. 79 WeatherTech Racing Porsche which saw Andlauer take the category lead with an overtake on the inside of Picariello at Indianapolis corner. Glickenhaus' No. 709 car of Mailleux was forced to the garage for three minutes for mechanics to replace a faulty engine sensor detected by telemetry just before the beginning of the third hour and fell to 10th.

By the third hour's conclusion Dane Cameron and Felipe Nasr's pace brought the No. 5 Team Penske Oreca car from ninth to second in LMP2 ahead of Lorenzo Colombo's third-placed No. 9 Prema car that drew to within a second of Nasr. Lapierre was observed speeding in a slow zone and the No. 36 Alpine was imposed a drive-through penalty that dropped the car off the lead lap. Team Project's No. 46 Porsche of Nicolas Leutwiler became beached in the Mulsanne Corner gravel and required extraction to recover to the pit lane before the car was retired on safety grounds with irreparable ride height damage. The No. 7 Toyota forfeited the overall race lead the car had held to the sister No. 8 car when López went across the gravel at the second Mulsanne chicane on an out-lap. Vaxivière would later bring the Alpine into the garage to repair an electronic clutch unit fault that took 13 and a half minutes of clutch bleeding and dropped the car out of contention for a strong result. Porsche began closing up to the Corvette LMGTE Pro leaders since they were lapping faster in the cooler conditions, and overtook the No. 64 Corvette that had downshifting issues after Tandy locked the car's brakes at Mulsanne turn to second and third in class.

Sims brought the No. 64 Corvette back to second in LMGTE Pro, overtaking Laurens Vanthoor's No. 92 Porsche on the inside at the second Mulsanne chicane. In the sixth hour Nasr's No. 5 Penske entry relinquished its hold on second in LMP2 to Ricky Taylor's No. 37 Cool Racing vehicle when debris caused a front-left tyre delamination which damaged the car's front-left corner. An unscheduled pit stop that took 2 minutes and 15 seconds to complete and dropped the car to third in LMP2 saw brake duct and front-end assembly replacements. The No. 8 Toyota ceded the overall lead to Kobayashi's sister No. 7 Toyota when Hirakawa was impeded by a slower GT car after exiting the pit lane. Corvette lost their hold on the top two in LMGTE Pro when Tandy brought the No. 64 car into the garage for an unscheduled stop to rectify a right-rear brake pressure fault by switching brake discs and the No. 63 entry of García was forced slowly into the garage for a left-rear suspension replacement. This promoted Christensen's No. 92 Porsche to the LMGTE Pro lead and Bruni's sister No. 91 car to second.

Night to morning

As night fell, Pla lost control of the third-placed No. 708 Glickenhaus and damaged its rear-left suspension against the right-hand side guardrail barrier exiting Tertre Rouge corner after striking the kerb. Pla drove the vehicle slowly to the pit lane for repairs and relinquished the No. 709 car's hold on third to Mailleux's sister No. 708 Glickenhaus. The No. 7 Toyota experienced a slow pit stop changing tyres and driver switch from Kobayashi to Conway and Buemi's No. 8 Toyota retook the lead. Conway reclaimed the lead by being permitted to overtake Buemi entering the Daytona Chicane on the Mulsanne Straight. Buemi would return the No. 8 Toyota to the overall lead ahead of Conway's No. 7 entry to begin the ninth hour and extended the car's advantage to half a minute when a slow zone was enforced to dry a coolant spill laid between Tertre Rouge turn and the first Mulsanne Straight chicane. The No. 709 LMGTE Am-category D'Station Racing Aston Martin of Charlie Fagg sustained chassis and wishbone damage that caused the car to be driven into the garage and retired from the event. That category became a two-car battle for the lead between the No. 79 WeatherTech Porsche and the No. 33 TF Sport Aston Martin of Marco Sørensen after Sørensen lapped faster than Paul Dalla Lana's No. 98 Northwest entry.

The No. 31 WRT Oreca had recovered from its early stop-and-go penalty to move to second in LMP2 after a quick stint by Frijns before Deletraz's No. 9 Prema overtook Frijns' co-driver Gelael on the main straight by forcing Gelael towards the pit lane barrier. At half distance Hirakawa's No. 8 Toyota led López's No. 7 car by almost 19 seconds and both cars were two laps ahead of Briscoe's third-paced No. 709 Glickenhaus. LMP2 was still led by Jota's No. 38 Oreca of Félix da Costa with a one-lap advantage over Prema's No. 9 entry of Deletraz due to the No. 38 team's fast pace and others dropping back as well as slow zones. Porsche's No. 92 car team had built up a 100 second lead over the No. 64 Corvette in second. TF Sport's No. 33 Aston Martin of Chaves took the LMGTE Am lead from WeatherTech's No. 79 Porsche when driver Cooper MacNeil lost one minute during a single lap making a pit stop just before half distance. The No. 8 Toyota continued to lead before it lost the position it had held for 86 consecutive laps when a slow zone was deployed to recover West's retired LMGTE Am-category No. 59 Inception Ferrari from the Mulsanne Straight, catching Buemi off guard and allowing Conway's No. 7 car past during a pit stop cycle. Porsche brought the No. 92 car into the garage for a routine brake disc and pad switches and lost the LMGTE Pro lead it had held for 104 laps to Pier Guidi's No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari.

LMGTE Pro became a close battle between Milner's No. 64 Corvette and Pier Guidi's No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari with both drivers running close by for multiple laps along with Porsche's No. 92 RSR driven by Christensen. Milner was able to slipstream past Pier Guidi on the Mulsanne Straight and on the outside of the Daytona chicane to return to the category lead. The No. 92 Porsche bowed out of the battle for the class lead when Christensen understeered into the gravel at Mulsanne corner. Christensen sustained a front-right puncture when he built up speed on the approach to Indianapolis corner and the resulting heavy damage to the front of the car required him to drive slowly to the pit lane for repairs. This promoted Sims' No. 64 Corvette back to the category lead with Daniel Serra's No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari second. Before the 16th hour was over, López stopped the No. 7 Toyota at the exit of the right-hand Arnage corner with a front-axle motor–generator unit issue that necessitated López to perform a power cycle to restart the car and return to the pit lane for further troubleshooting. The car lost a lap and the lead to Hartley's sister No. 8 Toyota. Brendan Iribe was caught off guard under braking for the Daytona chicane and struck the left-hand side Armco barrier with the front of the No. 56 Team Project 1 Porsche hard enough to warrant the car's retirement from third in LMGTE Am. Iribe was unhurt and extricated himself from the car.

In the 18th hour, just after the No. 63 Corvette was retired with rear-end mechanical damage, the No. 83 AF Corse Oreca of François Perrodo was overtaking Sims' No. 64 Corvette and Algarve Pro's No. 47 Oreca driven by John Falb on the Mulsanne Straight following the first chicane when he veered left hoping Falb would make a manoevure. Perrordo made minor left-hand side contact with Sims, who was sent into the left-hand side barrier at high speed and caused enough damage to the No. 64 Corvette for it to be retired. Perrodo, who was imposed a three-minute stop-and-go penalty for causing the crash, slowly entered the pit lane for rear-end suspension repairs and Calado's No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari took the LMGTE Pro category lead with Makowiecki's No. 91 Porsche second. Frijns lost control of the No. 31 WRT Oreca going onto the gravel at the exit of Indianapolis turn and crashed into the left-hand side Armco barrier from sixth in LMP2. While Frijns was unhurt, he was transported to the medical centre since the blue impact light illuminated. The accident also forced the No. 31 car's retirement and the safety car's first (and only) deployment to enable repairs to the Armco wall. As the safety cars were recalled after fifteen minutes, the period had allowed the first two cars in LMGTE Pro to be right together and Pier Guidi lost the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari's advantage to Makowiecki's No. 91 Porsche. Pier Guidi sustained a right-rear puncture into the Porsche Curves that forced an unscheduled pit stop and went off the normal pit stop cycle, promoting the No. 91 Porsche to the LMGTE Pro lead. The safety car period meant the LMP2-class leading No. 38 Jota Oreca's gap was reduced from one lap to half lap by being required to remain in the pit lane and wait for the nearest safety car.

Afternoon to finish

Claudio Schiavoni in the No. 85 Iron Lynx Ferrari collided with an LMP2 entry and struck the left-hand Karting corner tyre barrier leaving the Porsche Curves with four minutes of the 21st hour remaining. Schiavoni was unhurt but the accident forced the Ferrari's retirement. He was transported to the medical centre and was later released. The second-placed No. 9 Prema car of Colombo and later Kubica in LMP2 decreased the gap to Roberto González's class-leading No. 38 Jota car while the sister No. 28 Jota entry of Aberdein in third made an unscheduled pit stop to replace a slow puncture. Sebastian Priaulx brought the No. 77 Dempsey-Proton Porsche into the pit lane from third in LMGTE Am to repair a failed lower-front wishbone that affected the handling of the car and lost the position to the No. 98 Aston Martin of David Pittard. Thomas Merrill made a driver error entering the Porsche Curves in WeatherTech's No. 79 Porsche and entered the gravel trap. Merrill avoided striking the barriers and continued without relinquishing the No. 79 car's hold on second in LMGTE Am.

Hartley maintained the overall lead the No. 8 Toyota had held for the previous 125 laps and finished first after 380 laps, achieving Buemi's fourth Le Mans victory, Hartley's third, Hirakawa's first and Toyota's fifth in succession. They finished 2 minutes and 1.222 seconds ahead of the sister No. 7 Toyota in second and Glickenhaus completed the overall podium for the first time at Le Mans in third with its No. 709 car five laps down. Jota's No. 38 Oreca was undaunted in LMP2 and led all but 15 laps to finish 2 minutes and 21 seconds ahead of the debuting second-placed No. 9 Prema car in Jota's third category victory (their first since ) and the maiden LMP2 Le Mans win for Félix da Costa, González and Stevens. The sister No. 28 Jota entry completed the LMP2 podium in third. The LMP2 Pro/Am subclass victory was claimed by the No. 45 Algarve Pro team of James Allen, René Binder and Thomas by one lap over the No. 24 Nielsen Racing car of Matt Bell, Ben Hanley and Rodrigo Sales. In the final LMGTE Pro race at Le Mans, Porsche achieved their first class victory since with the No. 91 RSR ahead of the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari by 42.684 seconds. Aston Martin won in LMGTE Am with the No. 33 TF Sport car leading the final 105 laps in the first category victories for Chaves, Ben Keating and Sørensen. WeatherTech Racing placed second in the class, 44.446 seconds behind the class-winning Aston Martin. There were 53 cars of the starting 62 that completed the event, a race record.

Post-race

The top three teams in each of the four classes appeared on the podium to collect their trophies and spoke to the media in separate press conferences. Hirakawa reflected that he did not expect to win the race in his first year with Toyota and said his next objective was to as many as possible. Hartley admitted to being emotional over winning, "I was really overwhelmed with emotions when I crossed the line; the emotions really came out today. It was an amazing race because we were pushing each other so hard. We were giving it everything: there was nothing left on the table because it was so evenly matched." López acknowledged there was no ease in making a car run perfectly. Toyota's technical director Pascal Vasselon praised the speed of the Glickenhaus 007 LMH cars as "remarkable" considering the inexperience of that team. Briscoe described Glickenhaus finishing on the podium as "a massive accomplishment" but expressed disappointment to not match the pace of the Toyotas. Westbrook said coming third felt like a victory and Mallieux exclaimed a podium result was "so unreal".

Félix da Costa commented on the LMP2 win: "The win is special but the way to get there takes a lot. It's a collective victory." González said it was Jota's dream to win, something they had prepared for the previous three years. Bruni said luck was a factor to win in LMGTE Pro when the Corvette and the No. 92 Porsche encountered issues: "This is part of racing. Sometimes it works well, other times it works bad. For sure they were not lucky, Corvette was unlucky. In the end Le Mans chooses hetheryou win or not. This is the special thing of Le Mans. Sometimes she recognises you, other times not." Lietz commented: "To be honest, we had a lot of bad luck and difficulty and the last two years we could not fight for anything in Le Mans. After these years it feels really good that we were finally the lucky ones again." Keating felt his LMGTE Am win gave him a "little bit of vindication" after being disqualified from first in 2019 due to an post-race fuel disqualification. "Somebody asked me what it feels like to win Le Mans, I told them this my second! Everyone knows we won it in 2019, the difference is this one will be in the record books. There's something special about that", he said.

Perrodo and AF Corse team principal Amato Ferrari visited Corvette Racing's garage to apologise for the accident that caused the No. 64 car's retirement. Perrodo said he had no excuse for causing the accident: "I made a terrible mistake. It's like a small movement with huge consequences. So I had to apologize to Corvette. It's the least I can do. I know that nothing will make them feel better at this stage. It's horrible. It's horrible for me, for them, but of course particularly for them." Sims reflected: "It's never nice when things happen outside of your control, but we're on track with 60 other cars and people make mistakes. I'm sure Perrodo didn't plan it, we were just in the wrong place, wrong time." Owen believed Rast was overly aggressive on the first lap, adding: "That's how you cause accidents, honestly. I couldn't even react fast enough before I hit the blue car on my left and was just in the gravel. Of course, it took five or six minutes to get the car unstuck. That was quite a setback." Rast thought that the cars behind him jumped the start and said he followed the race director's instructions: "Everybody who knows me knows that I'm a fair and hard driver, but I'm not taking somebody out on purpose. So yeah, it was the drivers behind me just jumping the start and I got the penalty for it."

The result kept Lapierre, Negrão and Vaxivière atop the Hypercar Drivers' Championship with 81 points with race winners Buemi, Hartley and Hirakawa moving from third to second, three points behind. WIth 69 points, Dumas and Pla fell from second to third. Bruni's and Lietz's LMGTE Pro win promoted them atop the GTE Drivers' Championship with 84 points ahead of their teammates Christensen and Estre by three points. Toyota and Porsche left Le Mans as the respective Hypercar and GTE Manufacturers' Championship leaders, with three rounds of the season left.

Race classification

The minimum number of laps for classification at the finish (70 per cent of the overall race winner's distance) was 266 laps. Class winners are denoted in bold and with .

Championship standings after the race

Notes

References

External links

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2022
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24 Hours of Le Mans