The No. 7 Toyota prototype driven by Kamu Kobayashi, Mike Conway, and Nick de Vries emerged victorious after a long and dramatic 24 Hours of Le Mans. When it was all said and done, the red-and-white Hypercar crossed the line a brief 10.6 seconds ahead of the second-place finisher, the No. 20 BMW M Hybrid V8, while the No. 8 Toyota rounded out the podium. The gap between first and second represented the fourth-shortest in the race’s history.
Toyota last won the famed race in 2022, which officially concluded the Japanese automaker’s five-year reign at the Circuit de la Sarthe. This year’s victory marked the second one for Kobayashi and Conway, while de Vries became just the third Dutchman to win the race’s overall category. And while it may have looked dominant throughout the race, at least compared to the Ferraris, who had won the last three editions of the race, the No. 7 wasn’t the favorite Toyota to win the race, and it had to fight its fair share of gremlins that had plagued the crew throughout the race.
View Price on AmazonFollowing the race, Toyota’s technical director, David Floury, told Motorsport.com that the car had been fighting intermittent issues that kept causing it to enter “safe mode.” As a result, the leading car was losing up to 5 mph compared to its sister car. For a track as top-speed-heavy as Le Mans, that’s a big deficit that keeps compounding lap after lap.
Even before the sensor issue arose, the Toyota had started the race all the way down in 14th place, and the No. 7 crew had to accept that its No. 8 partner was highly favored to win. After the start, the car was battling tire issues, then a puncture, and later some ill-timed yellow flags and safety cars, which didn’t make the trio’s job any easier. All while the Cadillacs and BMWs were showing great pace.
“I think we had a very challenging week, and even including the race, we were not smooth enough. I mean, we had a puncture, we had a driveshaft sensor issue, so we had no power. It was very tough for us, but we made it in the end,” Kobayashi told the media after the race.
“Robin made it super tense; I think Nyck was closing his eyes in his room for the last hour, hiding from everyone.” “I was pacing around in the drivers’ room, had about 15 toilet breaks in the last 30 minutes! But we got through it, and we’re here – we did the job. I’m incredibly grateful and relieved, as well as happy,” de Vries added.
Source: thedrive.com
