Toyota’s ‘unlucky’ crew kicks off new era with long-awaited win
So, Toyota scored the 1-2 most Le Mans fans expected last weekend. But it was no easy run – as Gary Watkins explains at the start of our bumper report on page 16, there was an underlying issue with both cars that could have handed the initiative to Alpine and Glickenhaus.
The fact that all five Hypercars finished in the top five is a good start for an era that looks set to feature epic battles between multiple manufacturers. Former Audi squad Veloqx is the latest name linked with a return (p4), while the fact that hydrogen-powered cars are being lined up to contest overall victory in the 24 Hours from
2025 could bring yet more interest to the top of endurance racing.
One of the feel-good factors of the 89th Le Mans was that Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez finally had the luck – or perhaps the absence of misfortune – they had been denied in previous editions. Their success was fully deserved.
On the other end of the spectrum, it was incredibly cruel that the
#41 WRT ORECA of Robert Kubica, the impressive Yifei Ye and Louis Deletraz lost LMP2 victory on the last lap (p24). Even though the sister car did take a very narrow win for the team, the failure has to be right up there with Toyota in 2016, Brun Porsche in 1990 and Pierre Levegh’s 1952 Talbot as among the harshest of late Le Mans heartbreaks.
Looking ahead, Ferrari’s GT double (p28) bodes well for when the famous team arrives to take on Toyota et al in the top class from 2023…