LE MANS, France – Toyota Gazoo Racing’s No. 7 GR010 shared by Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez triumphed during the 89th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans Sunday at Circuit de la Sarthe.
The victory for Toyota gave the organization its fourth-straight overall victory in the legendary French endurance event.
The No. 7 team controlled the race from the outset, taking the lead at the start of the race Saturday when the sister No. 8 entry spun in the first corner after contact with the No. 708 Glickenhaus 007 LMH of Oliver Pla.
The No. 8 entry, shared by Sébastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima and Brendon Hartley, was able to work its way back up through the field and finished second overall and in the headlining Hypercar class. Buemi, Nakajimi and Hartley finished two laps behind the No. 7 entry.
Both Toyota entries battled fuel pickup issues, but it was the No. 8 entry that suffered the most. At one point Buemi stalled on the side of the track as he tried to reset the car. Toyota was able to overcome the fuel issues, leading to the one-two finish Sunday led by Kobayashi in the No. 7.
The No. 36 Alpine entry shared by Andre Negrao, Nicolas Lapierre and Matthieu Vaxiviere finished third overall and in the Hypercar class, four laps behind the winning Toyota.
In LMP2, drama struck on the final lap just as the WRT squad appeared to take a one-two finish in the class. The leading No. 41 shared by Robert Kubica, Yifei Ye and Louis Deletraz slowed to a stop with Ye behind the wheel.
That gifted the class win to the team’s second entry, the No. 31 ORECA 07 shared by Robin Frijns, Ferdinand Habsburg and Charles Milesi. The No. 28 JOTA entry shared by Stoffel Vandoorne, Tom Blomqvist and Sean Gelael finished second in the class, less than a second behind the winners.
In GTE Pro it was a two-horse race between the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari and the No. 63 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R. In the final hours it was the Ferrari shared by Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado and Come Ledogar that emerged as the winner, outrunning the Corvette trio of Antonio Garcia, Jordan Taylor and Nick Catsburg by a little more than 40 seconds.
The AF Corse Ferrari program completed a sweep of the GTE divisions by also winning the GTE Am. The No. 83 entry shared by Nicklas Nielsen, Alessio Rovera and Francois Perrodo took a comfortable victory ahead of the Aston Martin Vantage AMR shared by American Ben Keating, Dylan Pereira and Felipe Fraga.