Toyota conquers debut win at Le Mans


A win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans finally came for Toyota, as well the break of a “curse” at the French circuit, and lots of emotion for Fernando Alonso, Kazuki Nakajima and Sébastien Buemi, as well for the whole team.

The race started as intense as it could be with Andre Lotterer binning the No. 1 Rebellion in the back of the No. 10 Dragonspeed BR1 and seeing the front bodywork of the car say goodbye after that. With this, the clouds accumulating around the circuit were also a point to worry about, though the rain remained only a possibility at that point.

The first hour didn’t bring surprises, except to the fact that the No. 17 SMP Racing BR1 was the best of the non-hybrid LMP1s, while the second hour was marked for the punctures due to debris and gravel into the track, so stay outside the better line would be an adventurous trip.

The following hours were particularly punishing to the privateer LMP1 field as various cars were left behind due to problems or other things happening on track, with the highlights being a clutch problem for the No. 1 Rebellion and a race-ending shunt for the No. 4 ByKolles CLM.

When the six hour mark came there was not much changes in the lead outside in LMGTE-Pro as the No. 92 Porsche took the bat from the No. 91 while the No. 93 was the new second in class. Ford still remained a contender in the class but the No. 81 MTEK BMW also appeared wanting a shot at the lead. As the night time approached, the room for mistakes was bigger and this condemned Matevos Isaakyan in the No. 17 SMP Racing BR1, as he crashed after a spin, and despite the efforts to refire it, no success was achieved.

Overnight there wasn’t much changes in the front pack of any of the classes, with the No. 7 Toyota leading comfortably due to a series of slow zone violation penalties of the No. 8 Toyota, though some mighty effort and lots of faster laps was enough to take the lead back, helped by the fact that the No. 7 had the same type of penalties.

Came the morning and the reflexes of so many hours of racing would appear at sometime, and some nasty crashes were the result of it, including the one of the No. 82 MTEK BMW, smashing both ends of the car at the Porsche curves and coming with a blown tire, which mean the end of the race for it. After that a loose drain cover neutralized the race for a long time, and this helped to bring the LMGTE-Pro battle closer, as again the Nos. 92 and 91 Porsche had a pair of Ford on their back wings.

When the final hours came in, the classes were more than decided. The troubles of the contenders dictated the winners, as the No. 77 Dempsey-Proton Porsche was dominant in LMGTE-Am, the No. 92 Porsche secured the German brand on top of LMGTE-Pro, the No. 26 G-Drive Oreca saw no threats in LMP2, and thanks to a pair of penalties, the No. 7 Toyota wasn’t able to catch the No. 8 Toyota.


This is the third time that a Japanese team conquers La Sarthe, and Toyota becomes the second manufacturer to do so, 27 years after the Mazda triumph with the 787B. By the way, Toyota is the first Japanese manufacturer to have a 1-2 finish at Le Mans.

The FIA WEC season will resume on August 17th with the 6 Hours of Silverstone.

PHOTO: Toyota Motorsport GmbH

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