Toyota breaks three-year draught with sixth Le Mans 24 hours win
· Citizen
Toyota ended Ferrari’s three-year winning streak at the 24 Hours of Le Mans on Sunday by taking its first victory since 2022.
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First and third
A victory which sees it equal Bentley’s tally of six overall first-place finishes, the winning #7 TR010 of Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries crossed the line after 381 laps with a victory margin of 10.9 seconds over the second placed BMW M Hybrid V8.
For the former pair, victory in the 94th running of the French endurance classic represented their third and the first for de Vries.
In an event dominated by BMW and to some extent Cadillac early on, a completely different strategy early on yielded progress for the TR010 in its first race at La Sarthe, which serves as the third round of the World Endurance Championship.
Initially playing second fiddle to the sister #8 car of Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryō Hirakawa, the #7 gradually made its way to the front during the pit stop stages.
At the same, it also broke the record for the lowest starting place victory having only qualified 14th.
South Africa second
Having held the lead for a large portion of the race from Saturday afternoon to early Sunday morning, the #20 BMW of South Africa’s Sheldon van der Linde, Robin Frijns and René Rast settled for second place despite its greater speed advantages.
South Africa’s Sheldon van der Linde finished second in the BMW M Hybrid shared with Robin Frijns and René Rast. Photo by Lou BENOIST / AFP.Forced to lift and coast in the latter stages of the race to save fuel, the runner’s up spot still represented Munich’s best finish at Le Mans since their overall victory with the V12 LMR in 1999.
Quick fade
Having run ahead of its teammates as the best placed TR010 for much of the race, a less cleaner run for Hirakawa and ex-F1 drivers Buemi and Hartley still resulted in a third place finish.
The initial progress showed by Cadillac fizzled out throughout the night as only one of the works Hertz Team Jota entries, the #12 of Louis Delétraz, Norman Nato and Will Stevens finished.
Its second car, the #38 of one-time leaders Jack Aitken, Earl Bamber and Sébastien Bourdais, retired early on Sunday with power steering failure.
The privately entered Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac of Filipe Albuquerque, Jordan Taylor and Ricky Taylor had a similar scruffy race after the former clocked up no less than three penalties for various pit lane infringements.
It still finished ninth overall between the best place Aston Martin Valkyrie of Tom Gamble, Ross Gunn and Harry Tincknell and the second works Alpine A424 of Jules Gounon, Makowiecki and Victor Martins.
Often the fastest throughout the race, the Alpines also faded early on, with its erstwhile leaders António Félix da Costa, Ferdinand Habsburg and Charles Milesi being the best placed in sixth.
Event for Ferrari to forget
The event, however, proved one to forget for Ferrari as last year’s winners, Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen retired during a safety period on Sunday morning with mechanical troubles.
Having also been involved an accident on Sunday with an LMP2 car less than four hours into the race, the #50 AF Corse-run 499P never recovered and often lingered at the bottom-end of the Hypercar class .
Its teammate, the #51 of James Calado, Antonio Giovinazzi and Alessandro Pier Guidi, crossed the line fifth and the private semi-works entry of Phil Hanson, Robert Kubica and Yifei Ye seventh.
LMP2
In the LMP2 class, comprising identical Oreca 07’s, Inter Europol Competition recorded a 1-2 finish, with Tom Dillmann, Jakub Śmiechowski and Nick Yelloly leading home Reshad de Gerus, Bijoy Garg and Nico Müller.
Victory for the Polish-entered #43 only came after long-time leader, the #30 Duqueine entry of Julien Andlauer, Doriane Pin and Richard Verschoor retired with brake failure with less than five hours to ago.
As such, it also became the only LMP2 entrant not to finish the 24 hours versus the four Hypercar that recorded DNFs.
Included on the “did not finish” list was the pole-sitting BMW of Kevin Magnussen, Raffaele Marciello and Dries Vanthoor, who dropped back after mechanical troubles and a puncture during the night.
The subsequent damage eventually resulted in their retirement on Sunday morning.
The Forestier Racing by Panis Oreca of Oliver Gray, Esteban Masson and Louis Rousset took the final step on the LMP2 podium.
LM GT3
In the LMGT3 class, which saw 17 of the 25 entries finished, the TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette of Nicky Catsburg, Jonny Edgar and Ben Keating became the surprise winners from the first of the two Akkodis ASP Lexus RC F’s of Hadrien David, Jack Hawksworth and Tom Van Rompuy.
The works supported Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage of Jonny Adam, Eduardo Barrichello and Gray Newell occupied the final step on the podium.
Of the high profile GT3 casualties was the class pole-sitting Heart of Race Aston Martin that broke its gearbox on Sunday morning and the Manthey DK Engineering Porsche 911 of Timur Boguslavskiy, James Cottingham and Ayhancan Güven, whose race ended dramatically after broken steering sent Güven into the tyre barriers that resulted in one of the two safety cars.