Toyota scored a fifth straight victory in the 90e edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans on Sunday, continuing its unchallenged domination of the legendary Sarthe circuit. The No. 8 Toyota of New Zealander Brendon Hartley, Swiss Sebastien Buemi and Japanese Ryo Hirakawa returned to success after its hat-trick of 2018, 2019 and 2020, with other drivers, ahead of its No. 7 sister car, winner last year.
The Japanese manufacturer signs a new victory in front of the public of the most famous endurance car race in the world, finally complete after two years of health restrictions. This quintuple in the top category of hypercars comes a year before the return of the big names in motorsport: Ferrari, Porsche, Audi, BMW, Cadillac… All will start at Le Mans for the centenary of the race, in June 2023.
No serious accidents this year
It is also the fourth victory at Le Mans for Buemi, 33, who has also driven in F1 and who has been one of the main drivers, since its creation, of the Formula Electric championship (champion in 2016). At the bottom rung, Team Jota’s #38 Oreca, which had been leading since Saturday afternoon, won LMP2 and Team Porsche’s #91 Porsche won LMGTE Pro , taking advantage of the rout of the two Corvettes which had to retire twenty minutes apart at the start of the morning.
In LMGTE Am, the #33 TF Sport Aston Martin took the win. In total, 8 of the 62 cars at the start did not finish the race, but no serious accident is to be deplored.
