Le Mans – A bitter-tasting podium for the No. 8 Toyota

The 82e edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans will not have allowed Toyota to achieve its first victory in Sarthe even if the TS040 Hybrids were favorites against the Audi R18s and the Porsche 919 Hybrid after the two victories won at the start of the season by the n°7 of Sarrazin-Wurz-Nakajima. The Japanese manufacturer responded by dominating a good part of the race with the latter finally abandoning following the start of a fire. But with only two cars entered, the Japanese brand lost part of its chances following the accident of the No. 8 Toyota.

Nicolas lapierre was involved in the collision at the start of the event where several cars (the Audi n°3 and the Ferrari n°81 AF Corse) remained on the floor. “The safety car allowed us not to lose too many laps during repairs (nine compared to the leader of the race)”, explains the Frenchman. “We then crossed our fingers that the car would last until the end because we always had a slight doubt after such an impact. In the end, we were the only ones not to experience any technical problems after this collision. We were able to come back thanks to the fantastic work of my teammates and we took this third place. I would certainly have said that I was disappointed at the start of the race but I think we can be satisfied with what we accomplished. »

Sébastien Buemi however, struggled to hide his disappointment after seeing the sister car dominate the event until its retirement at the 14th hour. “Our goal required us to also focus on the Championship,” underlines the former pilot Toro Rosso. “We were able to move up positions by taking advantage of the bad luck and problems of others. However, we came here to win. Audi did a superb job, like everyone else, and we congratulate them. But it is certain that we are a little disappointed with the result. »

Anthony Davidson shares the sentiment of his Swiss teammate and intends to turn the page during the next round scheduled for September 20 in Austin (USA). “We had an epic race with three manufacturers leading the event at one point and the spectators can be happy with the spectacle on offer,” comments the Briton. “As Sebastian said, the No. 8 team is quite disappointed but now they have to be satisfied with this third place. The positive point is that we are improving our position in the Championship (against Wurz-Nakajima-Sarrazin who retired at the wheel of the No. 7 Toyota) which became our priority as soon as the error was made at the start of the race in very difficult conditions. Any one of us could have committed it. We are already proud to be here and I hope we will be even more so at the end of the season. »

Photos from the 82nd edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans can be viewed on this link.

Discover the analysis of the 82nd edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans carried out by our special correspondents in issue 1965 of AUTOhebdo, available from tomorrow evening in digital version, and from Wednesday on newsstands.