Toyota Gazoo Racing triumphed at the 90th edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans bringing overall victories to five at the legendary Circuit de la Sarthe.
Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa drove a brilliant race in their # 8 GR010 Hybrid, completing 380 laps to take the checkered flag in front of an ecstatic audience. The team’s fourth double at Le Mans was secured by last year’s winners, Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and José María López, in their # 7 GR010 Hybrid, who crossed the line just 2 minutes and 1.222 seconds from first place.
New records for the drivers
Sébastien’s fourth win sets a new winning record for the Swiss drivers, while Brendon’s third triumph makes him the most successful New Zealand driver at Le Mans. Ryo’s first win, in his third Le Mans and his first with Toyota Gazoo Racing, makes him the fifth Japanese driver to get to the center of the podium. The two GR010 Hybrid Hypercars found themselves in a separate race, engaged in an exciting battle for leadership, with the same one that changed hands several times while the race was characterized by different moments and rhythms, with traffic, slow zones and evolution. of the track that came into play.
Over 16 hours of challenge
The challenge at the top lasted more than 16 hours, with the two cars racing within seconds of each other for most of the time. But the race changed decisively on lap 256 when José had to pull up to the side of the track in car # 7 following a front engine problem. José performed a system reset and was able to return to the pits, where further resets solved the problem and allowed the # 7 to continue at normal race pace, albeit almost a lap behind the new leader, Brendon with the GR010 Hybrid # 8.
With very similar lap times, the gap proved too big for the # 7 crew, despite José recording the fastest lap of the race in the last half hour. Brendon, after his spectacular last minute Hyperpole on Thursday, had the honor of seeing the checkered flag and winning the 90th edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. José crossed the line shortly thereafter to complete a grueling 5,177km race.