The 90th 24 Hours of Le Mans () was a 24-hour automobile endurance event that was held in front of 244,200 spectators on 11 and 12 June 2022 at the Circuit de la Sarthe, near Le Mans, France for Le Mans Hypercar (Hypercar), Le Mans Prototypes (LMP) and Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance (LMGTE) cars that were entered by teams of three drivers each. 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 started from pole position after Hartley recorded the fastest overall lap time in the Hyperpole session. The three drivers led for 274 of the race's 380 laps and finished first, two minutes and 1.222 seconds ahead of teammates Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and José María López (who shared another Toyota GR010 Hybrid). 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 podium, five laps behind in third place.
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 for all but 15 laps. The debuting Prema squad of Lorenzo Colombo, Louis Delétraz and Robert Kubica followed, two minutes and 21 seconds later, and the class podium was completed by the sister Jota trio of Jonathan Aberdein, Ed Jones and Oliver Rasmussen in third place. 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; AF Corse's No. 51 Ferrari 488 GTE Evo, shared by James Calado, Alessandro Pier Guidi and Daniel Serra, was second. 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, 44.446 seconds ahead of WeatherTech Racing's Porsche 911 RSR-19 driven by Julien Andlauer, Cooper MacNeil and Thomas Merrill.
The Alpine trio of André Negrão, Nicolas Lapierre and Matthieu Vaxivière remained atop the Hypercar Drivers' Championship; 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 was first held in 1923 after automotive journalist Charles Faroux, Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) general secretary Georges Durand and industrialist Emile Coquile agreed to conduct a test of vehicle reliability and durability. Considered one of the world's most prestigious motor races, it is part of the Triple Crown of Motorsport. The 2022 race, held at the Circuit de la Sarthe (near 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 host 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. 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 (43 points) and third-place Tommy Milner and Nick Tandy of Corvette (39 points). Alpine led Toyota in the Hypercar World Endurance Championship, and Porsche led Ferrari in the GTE Manufacturers' Championship.
Regulation and circuit changes Following the race, where clerk of the course Patrick Morrisseau was almost struck by an approaching car at the finish line, the ACO allowed Morrisseau to wave the checkered flag from a footbridge in the event of a close finish for safety reasons. For the first time, all entries used Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile-compliant renewable fuel produced by TotalEnergies from wine residue to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions.
A section of the Mulsanne Straight from the Antares roundabout to the first chicane was resurfaced to make it more suitable for public and motor racing use after an inspection discovered that there were signs that the tarmac surface was becoming fatigued as well as damage to the asphalt covering the shoulders.
Entries Entry to the race was initially open from 6 December 2021 to 28 February 2022. In response to the Russian G-Drive Racing team's suspension of its racing programme and measures imposed on Russian drivers and entries by international sporting bodies after the country's invasion of Ukraine, the ACO selection committee invited new applicants to apply for entry to the race from 7 to 9 March 2022. The committee issued 62 invitations, and entries were placed into 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 withdrew their planned entries so they could continue testing their 9X8 Hypercars before homologation.
Automatic entries Teams which 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), received automatic entry invitations. The second-place finishers in the 2021 ELMS in LMP2 and LMGTE championships also received an automatic invitation. Two participants from the IMSA SportsCar Championship (WTSC) were chosen by the ACO as automatic entries, regardless of performance or category. Teams earning automatic entries in LMP2 were allowed to change their cars from the previous year. ELMS LMGTE and ALMS GT teams earning automatic entries were allowed to use them in LMGTE Pro or LMGTE Am. The 2021 European and 2022 Asian LMP3 (Le Mans Prototype 3) champions were eligible to field an entry in LMP2, and the 2021 MLMC Group GT3 (GT3) champion was limited to the LMGTE Am category. The ACO announced the final list of automatic entries on 28 February 2022.
+Automatic entries for the 2022 24 Hours of Le Mans Reason invited LMP2 LMGTE Pro LMGTE Am 1st in the 24 Hours of Le Mans Team WRT AF Corse 1st in the European Le Mans Series (LMP2 and LMGTE) Team WRT Iron Lynx 2nd in the European Le Mans Series (LMP2 and LMGTE) United Autosports Spirit of Race 1st in the European Le Mans Series (LMP3) DKR EngineeringIMSA SportsCar Championship at-large entries Ben Keating Rob Ferriol 1st in the Asian Le Mans Series (LMP2 and GT) Nielsen Racing Inception Racing 1st in the Asian Le Mans Series (LMP3) CD Sport 1st in the Michelin Le Mans Cup (GT3) Iron Lynx
Entry list
The ACO was scheduled to announce the 62-car list on 28 February but due to "administrative reasons", the announcement was delayed; it was published on 10 March. In addition to the 38 guaranteed WEC entries, 14 came from the ELMS, four each from IMSA and the ALMS, and three were one-off Le Mans entries. In addition to the 62 entries invited to the race, six (three each from LMP2 and LMGTE Am) were placed on a reserve list to replace withdrawn or unaccepted invitations. Reserve entries were ordered, with the first replacing the first withdrawal from the race regardless of class. Entries were selected for their sporting and technical quality, fan, media and public interest and commitment, and loyalty to other ACO-administered series.
After publication of the entry list, Racing Team Nederland withdrew its TDS Racing-run Oreca 07 entry from third in the reserve list to enable to team to focus on the IMSA endurance races. On 31 May, Hardpoint Motorsport (which received an automatic invitation through the IMSA for driver Rob Ferriol, who received 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. Proton gave it to the Absolute Racing customer squad, which raced under the Hardpoint Motorsport name in accordance with 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 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; the Toyota GR010 Hybrid and the Glickenhaus SCG 007 LMH cars remained 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 since the WEC season began, and the Porsche 911 RSR-19 received a fuel-capacity increase in both LMGTE categories. Aston Martin's LMGTE Am-category Vantage AMR had its fuel capacity decreased by .
Testing All entrants participated in eight hours of mandatory testing on 5 June, divided into two sessions. The testing took place in mainly-dry weather, with a brief period of light rain. 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 left, demoting Dumas' No. 708 Glickenhaus entry to second. Hartley made 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 driven by Will Stevens lapped fastest at 3:33.964 during the third hour; United Autosport USA's No. 22 entry of Phil Hanson was 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 No. 63 sister 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 placing fourth. Michelle Gatting's No. 85 Iron Dames Ferrari led in LMGTE Am ahead of the No. 52 AF Corse, LMGTE Pro's slowest entry. Some cars went off the track during the session, sustaining damage; it 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.