Toyota Racing, in their renamed and revamped TR010, returns to the top step in the 94th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans as the No. 7 team of Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, and Nyck de Vries took overall victory after starting in a record-breaking 14th. This is Toyota's sixth win in the 24 Hours of Le Mans and 51st in the history of their WEC program, keeping their win rate at 50%.
The No. 20 BMW, which was in the battle to win the race, settled for second at Le Mans after starting 4th. Toyota takes a double podium with the No. 8 in third. This win means that the Ferrari dynasty streak ends after three straight Le Mans wins by the last streak holder, as Toyota won the event from 2018 through 2022.
View Price on AmazonSeven Hypercars finished on the lead lap, the second most in the history of the class. Toyota called their shot early, short-pitting both the No. 8 and No. 7 for the majority of the race, this favored the No. 8 crew more. Kobayashi, not only a driver of the No. 7 but the Team Principal for the Toyota program, was the one to close out the win and bring the top honor back to Toyota, beating Robin Frijns in the BMW No. 20 to the line by 10.913 seconds.
"What a week," Kobayashi said from the Winners' Circle. "Amazing fun here. There's always been. Le Mans is something special for us. But I mean, usually, I think that we had quite a long luck during this event. This time we still had something, but we never gave up, we tried until the end." "Of course, we bring a new car here, and that seems to work, I'm very happy. I'm thankful for this opportunity, Mr. Toyota San, and of course, all the spectators here. It's not something that us, the team, or the race car can make happen; it's all the fans that make it happen at these events."
Kobayashi and Conway's first Le Mans win came in 2021 as the fourth in a row for Toyota. This is their teammate, Nyck De Vries ' first-ever Le Mans win. "Given all the challenges we were dealing with, this is a very proud moment for the whole team," De Vries said. especially to bounce back after a difficult season last year. Missing out on my couple of years to be back with Toyota, it's a privilege to be on the top step."
The No. 7 took the lead for the final time with just over 3 hours remaining. They were in pursuit of the No. 12 HTJ Cadillac V-Series.R of Norman Nato for a dozen laps, closing in at the back wing when heartbreak ended the No. 30 Duqueine Team's race in LMP2 as it crashed into the barriers with a broken left suspension and needed assistance off the track. On the restart, the Toyota took it's chance and passed the Cadillac for the lead.
In LMP2, Tom Dillman brought the No. 43 Inter Europol Competition across the line first in the LMP2 class, 28.094 seconds over Nico Müller in the No. 343 Inter Europol Competition. In LMGT3, Jonny Edgar, TF Sport No. 33, held off the No. 78 Akkodis AsP Team Lexus of Jack Hawskworth.
Source: roadandtrack.com
