Le Mans starts, which celebrates its 100 years of speed and resistance with several pretenders to victory

At 11 a.m. in Argentina, the 92nd edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans will begin this Saturday, the fourth date of the World Endurance Championship and which will celebrate its 100 years of life after competing in the first edition in May 1923 with the victory of the pairing Lagache-Leonard, with a Chenard-Walker.

A century passed until the 2023 edition, which convenes again on the shortest night of the year in La Sarthe, France, around the 13,629-kilometre circuit that must be covered in 24 hours. Four-time NBA champion LeBron James will kick off the test.

Le Mans will dress up as a party to receive 16 units from the World Endurance Championship, which will once again offer a duel of brands and drivers like it has not been seen for years. There will be two Toyota Hybrids, two Ferrari 499 P, two Peugeot 9×8, four Porsche 963, three Cadillac, two Glikenhaus and a Vanwall on the track, to which a Nascar car (a Chevrolet Corvette) will be added, especially for this race.

The duel of brands is guaranteed and Ferrari, after many years, will seek to return to victory. But Toyota wants to maintain the undefeated status that it has maintained since 2017 and that had its winner in 2021 in Cordovan José María López.

“Pechito” will compete with his usual companions, the British Mike Conway and the Japanese Kamui Kobayashi, who is also the director of Gazoo Racing in the race. “Winning Le Mans is like being a world champion,” said “Pechito” a few hours ago after qualifying, which did not leave him very satisfied, due to the dominance exercised by Ferrari and, above all, the speed imposed by the Ferrari AF Corse team, where He achieved 10 km/h more speed than the rest.

Along with the Cordovan there will be three Argentine drivers on the track: Nicolás Varrone, who is part of the Chevrolet Ciorvete team that set the best record among the GTE AM; Esteban Guerrieri (Vanwall), who will debut at Le Mans; and Luis Pérez Companc (Ferrari 388 of the GTE AM), who returns to the test after four years.

In this way, the number of Argentines present in 1953 is equaled and it will be the seventh consecutive edition at Le Mans with albiceleste pilots.

Front rows to start at Le Mans 2023

After qualifying on Wednesday and the hyperpole on Thursday, Saturday’s race will integrate its front row with the two Ferrari 499 P (50 of Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen; and 51 of Alessandro Pier Luigi, James Calado and Antonio Giovinazzi). In the second will be the Toyota GR010 number 8 of Sebastien Buemi-Brendon Hartlley and Ryo Hirakawa, next to the Porsche 963 of Felipe Nars-Nick Tandy and Mathieu Jaminetm; while in the third will be the Toyota No. 7 of López-Kamui Kobayashi and Mike Conway, along with Cadillac of Earl Bamber-Alex Lynn and Richard Westbrook.

Luis Pérez Companc (Ferrari 488) will start fifth in his group and Esteban Guerrieri, with the Vanwall 680, will form a team with Tom Dillmann and the Canadian Jacques Villeneuve starting from the middle of the peloton among the 62 teams qualified to run the 92nd edition of Le Mans .