\u201cWe\u2019ve come here knowing we\u2019re as prepared as possible and we have some new updates for the car.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think everyone\u2019s pulled up their socks and really worked hard over the last couple of years, particularly after last year\u2019s Le Mans, where I feel like we didn\u2019t have the pace.\u201d<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s 94th running of the French classic has all the ingredients of a real scrap. The Hypercar field is stacked with manufacturers, Ferrari arrives chasing another win after its recent Le Mans resurgence, Cadillac has shown serious one-lap speed, Alpine has come out swinging, and BMW and Aston Martin have both had moments at the pointy end of the field.<\/p>\n
Once the dominant force at Le Mans, Toyota is no longer able to arrive and expect the opposition to roll over. The Japanese marque still has the people, the processes and the race-craft to win the 24 Hour, but they really have their work cut out these days. Gone are the times where a team could simply stay out of trouble, click the laps off and wait for others to fail. The modern Le Mans is now a 24-hour sprint with traffic, strategy, changing temperatures, changing weather and safety cars all waiting to turn the race on its head.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a driver, we play a small part. There\u2019s so many things that need to come together to win this race. You have to have the right team, mechanics and teammates.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to have a bit of luck on track. There\u2019re many things that can happen that\u2019s outside of your control. But when everything comes together, I think that\u2019s one of the best feelings in the world, at least for me.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s not a day that goes by that I don\u2019t think about Le Mans at some point in the day and I think it\u2019s the same for many people on this race team.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, I love Le Mans. I love the team spirit of it,\u201d said Hartley.<\/p>\n
The early practices and qualifying have indicated Toyota may be stronger over a race distance than over one lap. Qualifying underlined just how tight the Hypercar fight has become. Alpine was fastest just ahead of two Cadillacs with Hartley comfortably in eighth before Hyperpole, which sets the final 15 spots on the grid.<\/p>\n
There are two other Kiwis in the Hypercar field with Nick Cassidy in a Peugeot and two-time winner Earl Bamber in a Cadillac. All three Kiwis didn\u2019t fair too well with Bamber\u2019s team being stripped of their pole seating lap due to a pitlane infringement and started 10th. Hartley\u2019s Toyota lined up 15th with Cassidy, who in his first Le Mans 24 Hour, 16th.<\/p>\n
At Le Mans, much like any other endurance race, starting position matters, but it rarely defines the race. The first job is to stay on the lead lap, avoid needless contact in traffic and keep the car clean through the night that leads to the second part which is to be in the fight when the race turns from survival to attack mode on Sunday morning local time.<\/p>\n
For Hartley, the appeal of Le Mans is unchanged. It is a race that rewards speed, but punishes impatience. It demands trust between drivers, engineers and mechanics. It asks for experience without caution and aggression without stupidity. Few in the field understand that balance better than the 36-year-old from Palmerston North.<\/p>\n
His CV at Le Mans is already secure, but a fourth win would move him into rare company and further cement his place among New Zealand\u2019s greatest international racers, especially so as he is also a four-time World Endurance Championship winner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWe\u2019ve come here knowing we\u2019re as prepared as possible and we have some new updates for the car.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":477003,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[8666,92233,6636,113068,15211,20301,19671,3232,215139,5420,1861,11551,14108,61371,6093,16122,3025,3514,111,139,69,7798,20296,1974,6443,52562,213,14907,8220,1361,1961,1733,240270,303,4767,6436,6027,102,6730,2963],"class_list":["post-477002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-aware","tag-brendon","tag-challenge","tag-counts","tag-drivers","tag-endurance","tag-envy","tag-fourth","tag-hartley","tag-hes","tag-history","tag-hours","tag-however","tag-le","tag-little","tag-mans","tag-most","tag-motorsport","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-race","tag-racer","tag-record","tag-returns","tag-sort","tag-sports","tag-successful","tag-targets","tag-that","tag-this","tag-toyota","tag-twicearoundtheclock","tag-very","tag-weekend","tag-well","tag-win","tag-with","tag-would","tag-zealands"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=477002"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477002\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/477003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=477002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=477002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=477002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}