F1Weekly Podcast # 1152

ON TODAYS PROGRAM…

THREE BRITS ON THE PODIUM…LCH TAKES THE WIN IN BARCA AND TOTO SAYS…MAYBE HIS GIRL FRIEND HAS SOMETHING TO DO WITH IT!!!

LECLERC CONTINUES HIS DOWNWARD SPIRAL

KIMI’S DNF SLOWS DOWN HIS MOMENTUM AND…

SO SO SAD…FERNANDO DEAD LAST IN QUALI…THE FINAL CURTAIN!

TOYOTA WINS LEMANS AND NICK DE VRIES GETS THE LAST LAUGH!

CORVETTE WINS THE GT3 CLASS AND…

THIS WEEK’S NASIR HAMEED CORNER WE HAVE: A MOMENT IN MOTORSPORTS HISTORY…AN INTERVIEW WITH MIKA SALO. MORE GREAT TRIVIA FROM ANDREW.

Congratulations to Lewis (Hamilton). He drove a really impressive race today after being incredibly quick in Qualifying yesterday. Coming into the weekend, I don’t think we expected that pace from Ferrari, so we know we’ve got a challenge coming from them in the races ahead. We will be working hard to tackle that challenge and get back to winning ways.

On my side, the race today was not straightforward. I was struggling with the tyres towards the end of my second and third stints; the Virtual Safety Car didn’t help us either and it would have been a fascinating race with Lewis without that. I will take the positives from this weekend though. It has been clean from the very start and I come away with 18 points, which is 18 points more than I managed across Canada and Monaco!

We will regroup in the week ahead and look to improve for Austria. We’ve got a big double-header coming up with Spielberg and Silverstone and I am already excited for it.

It is very disappointing to retire from P2, but these things can happen in racing. George suffered an issue in Canada and now it’s happened to me; we know our reliability is something we need to work on and I am sure the team will be pushing incredibly hard to improve that. It’s more important points that we’ve lost but we must remember that it is the first year of these new regulations and we are all learning quickly.

Congratulations to Lewis (Hamilton) on his victory today. He is a great driver and has been so much help in my career so far. I am pleased to see him up there once again as he really deserves it. I think we had the pace today to challenge him for the win, but the Virtual Safety Car came out at a bad time for us, and we didn’t get to see how things would have played out.

We have one week without racing before returning in Austria. We have seen our competitors take a step forward here this weekend and we will need to raise our game there if we want to fight for victory again. We will pick ourselves up, learn from this weekend, and come back stronger.

MAX VERSTAPPEN - 4th
"Today we just didn't have the pace to keep up with the cars ahead. I was really just doing my own race as we were a little bit behind the guys that finished in front of me. As a Team we did everything right, it was the winning strategy, so we made the right call there with the tyres. We were just too slow compared to the cars ahead on each compound, unfortunately. We tried our best and put everything into it but ultimately the whole weekend was a bit tough for us. We do struggle more with these high energy tracks with high degradation and we just need to work on things and try to find more pace in the upcoming races."

ISACK HADJAR - 6th
"I felt like I had good pace this weekend once we got to Qualifying and the race, but I had a shocker at the race start with so much wheelspin, so that's one aspect I really want to focus on before Red Bull Ring. We could have fought with Oscar if we had a good start, so it's a bit of a shame. I think we did way better than we thought we would this weekend given the track layout and conditions. Austria will be a better track for us, and we expect to have a stronger car. We just need to work on the starts."

Toyota executed a perfect, textbook strategy throughout the 94th edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans to claim its first victory since 2022, securing a sixth overall triumph and equalling the tally of British marque Bentley.

To spectacular fanfare, Japanese powerhouse Toyota Racing lifted the iconic trophy at a sun-kissed Circuit de la Sarthe for the first time in four years, in front of hundreds of thousands of spectators at the venue and millions more watching around the world. Drivers Kamui Kobayashi, Nyck de Vries and Mike Conway emerged as the team to beat at the end of the race, guiding the #7 Toyota to victory ahead of the sister #8 Toyota Racing entry, the #20 BMW M Team WRT and the #12 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA machine in an epic four-way battle to the chequered flag – underlining the "Platinum Era" status that the Hypercar category is building.

For Kobayashi, it was a second Le Mans victory. It marked a second triumph for British star Mike Conway and, for the first time in 38 years, a historic win for the Netherlands as Nyck de Vries became the latest Dutch driver to conquer Le Mans.

It looked set to be another Toyota one-two, but BMW's never-say-die attitude ensured that the FIA World Endurance Championship points leaders – the #20 crew of Robin Frijns, René Rast and Sheldon van der Linde – claimed second overall and a valuable haul of championship points.

Toyota could still be delighted with third place, although a few costly mistakes and strategy calls denied the #8 Toyota of Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryō Hirakawa another victory.

Meanwhile, Cadillac can take plenty of plaudits once again. A crowd favourite throughout the week, the #12 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA crew gave everything in pursuit of victory, and the pace they demonstrated at Le Mans suggests they will remain contenders for years to come.

It was a grandstand finish in LMP2 as Inter Europol Competition worked well overnight to bring both cars into the rostrum contention, but a second day charge from Forestier Racing by Panis had everyone on the edge of their seats, but after 24 hours of racing the Polish #43 ORECA with pilots Jakub Smiechowski, Tom Dillmann and Nicholas Yelloly win the penultimate race at Le Mans for this specification LMP2 car!

Corvette capture the magic of Le Mans once again with iconic yellow #33 Corvette run by TF Sport took LMGT3 laurels with Ben Keating, Jonny Edgar, Nicky Catsburg taking a popular leap onto the top step of the podium. Akkodis ASP Team put Lexus on the podium for the first time at Le Mans with the #78 car second and the #23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin joins in the celebrations in third.

Top 5 Results - 24 Hours of Le Mans:

Toyota TR010 Hybrid #7 Toyota Gazoo Racing – Mike Conway / Kamui Kobayashi / Nyck de Vries – 381 Laps
BMW M Hybrid V8 #20 BMW M Team WRT – Robin Frijns / Rene Rast / Sheldon van der Linde – + 10.913
Toyota TR010 Hybrid #8 Toyota Gazoo Racing – Sébastien Buemi / Brendon Hartley / Ryo Hirakawa – + 20.417
Cadillac V-Series.R #12 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA – Louis Delétraz / Will Stevens / Norman Nato – +32.381
Ferrari 499P #51 Ferrari-AF Corse – Alessandro Pier Guidi / James Calado / Antonio Giovinazzi – +2:22.423

Category Winners:

• LMP2: Oreca 07-Gibson #43 Inter Europol Competition – Jakub Smiechowski / Tom Dillmann / Nicholas Yelloly - 361 Laps
• LMGT3: Corvette Z06 LMGT3.R #33 TF Sport – Ben Keating / Jonny Edgar / Nicky Catsburg – 336 laps

Fastest Lap: Rio Hirakawa (Toyota TR010 – Hybrid #8 Toyota Racing) – 3:25.041 - Lap 306

Retirements:

• Oreca 07-Gibson #30 Duqueine Team – Doriane Pin / Julien Andlauer / Richard Verschoor
• Ferrari 499P #50 Ferrari-AF Corse – Antonio Fuoco / Nicklas Nielsen / Miguel Molina
• Porsche 911 GT3 R LMGT3 #91 Manthey DK Engineering – James Cottingham / Timur Boguslavskiy / Ayhancan Güven
• Genesis GMR-001-Hypercar #17 Genesis Magma Racing – André Lotterer / Luis Felipe Derani / Mathys Jaubert
• Ford Mustang LMGT3 #77 Proton Competition –  Eric Powell / Ben Tuck / Sebastian Priaulx
• Cadillac V-Series.R #38 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA – Sébastien Bourdais / Earl Bamber / Jack Aitken
• Mercedes-AMG LMGT3 #79 Iron Lynx – Johannes Zelger / Matteo Cressoni / Lin Hodenius
• Ferrari 296 LMGT3 Evo #54 Vista AF Corse – Thomas Flohr / Francesco Castellacci / Davide Rigon
• Mercedes-AMG LMGT3 #61 Iron Lynx (Martin Berry / Rui Andrade / Maxime Martin
• Corvette Z06 LMGT3.R #13 Thirteen Autosport – Orey Fidani / Lars Kern / Matthew Bell