Toyota overcomes the 24 Hours of Le Mans

At the end of his 20th participation, Toyota wins his first victory in 24 Hours of Le Mans by signing a double for the 86th edition. It was the TS050 Hybrid n°8 which won with its steering wheel Sébastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima and the rookie Fernando Alonso all three of whom achieved their first success in Sarthe. Nakajima is the third Japanese to win Le Mans after Masanori Sekiya and Seiji Ara. No. 7 of Kobayashi-Conway-Lopez ranks two rounds. This is the first victory for a Japanese manufacturer since Mazda in 1991 with the 787B.

Rebellion takes the podium and takes victory among the Non-Hybrid LMP1s. The No. 3 R-One of Menezes-Laurent-Beche completes the podium 12 laps behind the winners, ahead of the sister car of Lotterer-Jani-Senna by one lap. The #6 Ginetta of Rowland-Brundle-Turbey arrived at the bottom of the standings, unlike the #1 SMP Racing BR11 on which Jenson Button was racing (with the Russians Mikhail Aleshin and Vitaly Petrov) who abandoned in the last hour even though she was several dozen laps from the lead of the race.

G-Drive Racing also scored its first category success in Sarthe with the No. 07 Oreca 26 of Pizzitola-Rusinov-Vergne which dominated the category by finishing two laps ahead of theAlpine A470 of Stone-Thiriet-negrao. Graff Racing saves its place on the podium with the No. 39 of Capillaire-Hirschi-Gommendy, Tristan Gommendy having resisted the pressure of Loïc duval, driver of the No. 28 of TDS Racing (with Perrodo-Vaxivière).

The Ligier JS P217 of Idec Sport Racing of Lafargue-Chatin-Rojas and the No. 23 of Panis-Barthez Competition driven by Buret-Canal-Stevens competed for places on the category podium before being betrayed by the mechanics in the last hours of the race.

Porsche celebrates its 70th anniversary with a double in GTE Pro with the victory of the No. 92 in the “Pink Pig” livery of Christensen-Estre-Vanthoor which beat the No. 91 in the “Rothmans” colors of Makowiecki-Lietz-Bruni. Frédéric Makowiceki defended second place for a long time against the attacks of Sébastien Bourdais. The #68 Ford GT of Hand-Müller-Bourdais finally completed the podium ahead of the #67 of Priaulx-Ticknell-Kanaan.

The BMW M8 GTEs revealed their true racing potential by playing at the front before being betrayed by mechanical problems. On the other hand, the Corvette C7R, the Ferrari F488 GTE and Aston Martin Vantage were unable to keep pace with the 911 RSR and Ford GT.

Dempsey-Proton Racing takes victory in GTE Am with the No. 911 77 RSR from Campbell-Ried-Andlauer. Julien Andlauer achieves success for his first participation in the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Discover the analysis of the 24 Hours of Le Mans carried out by our special correspondents in issue 2170 of AUTOhebdo, available from Monday evening in digital version on all platforms, and from this Wednesday on newsstands.