Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Fernando Alonso, Sebastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima – driving the #8 TS050 Hybrid – took a surprise win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans after the sister #7 Toyota car suffered a puncture in the final hour of the endurance race. The result sees Alonso, Buemi and Nakajima secure the World Endurance Drivers’ Championship, adding to the Manufacturers’ Championship title that Toyota had won at Spa.
The #7 TS050 Hybrid – driven by Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez had held a strong lead for majority of the race after starting from pole position. However, with just an hour to go, the car slowed down with Jose Maria Lopez behind the wheel, after already pitting for a suspected puncture. Toyota later confirmed that while the car’s tyre pressure sensors indicated a front-right puncture, it was actually the right-rear tyre that suffered a puncture. As a result, Lopez had to head to the pits once again, handing the lead to the #8 car driven by Nakajima.
Nakajima held on to that lead to cross the chequered flag 16.972 seconds ahead of Lopez. Vitaly Petrov, Mikhail Aleshin and Le Mans debutant Stoffel Vandoorne took 3rd place in the SMP Racing No. 11 car, a distant 6 laps behind the Toyotas.
In the LMP2 class, Signatech Alpine Matmut was able to defend its Le Mans LMP2 title, with Nicolas Lapierre, André Negrao and Pierre Thiriet taking the class victory in the #36 Ligier JSP217 – Gibson car. The team inherited the lead after #26 G-Drive Racing Aurus-branded ORECA – driven by Roman Rusinov, Jean-Eric Vergne and Job van Uitert lost 20 minutes at a scheduled pitstop due to a mechanical issue. The result helped Signatech Alpine Matmut secure the LMP2 title from Jackie Chan DC Racing, with the latter’s #38 Jackie Chan DC Racing Oreca driven by Ho-Pin Tung, Stephane Richelmi and Gabriel Aubry taking 2nd place.
Indian racer Arjun Maini was also contesting his first 24 Hours of Le Mans, racing the #43 Oreca 07-Gibson for British team RLR MSport alongside Norman Nato and John Farano. Unfortunately, the car was running in the top 15 when it retired due to a mechanical issue, just over four hours from the finish.
The #51 AF Corse 488 GTE driven by James Calado, Alessandro Pier Guidi and Daniel Serra took victory in the GTE Pro class, handing Ferrari its first win the class since 2014. Meanwhile, Keating Motorsports' privateer Ford GT driven by Ben Keating, Jeroen Bleekemolen and Felipe Frag overcame a stop-and-go penalty to win in the GTE Am class.
Results
