Toyota won the Le Mans 24 Hours. Again

Toyota has won the Le Mans 24 Hours for the third time in a row. The #8 Toyota TSO50 of Sébastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima and Brendon Hartley completed 387 laps of the Circuit de la Sarthe to take the outright win, some five laps ahead of the second-place Rebellion of Gustavo Menezes, Norman Nato and Bruno Senna.

The #7 Toyota of Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and José María López, which had qualified on pole and actually led the first half of the race, eventually finished third after a 30-minute pit-stop to fix a dodgy exhaust manifold.

Buemi and Nakajima are now three-time Le Mans winners, having won with Toyota in 2019 and 2018. New Zealander Brendon Hartley has won before too – in 2017 with Porsche, in its final season competing in LMP1. Toyota returned to LMP1 in 2012 after a 13 year absence – next year it’ll race in the new LMH (Le Mans Hypercar) category with the GR Super Sport.

Meanwhile, McLaren CEO Zak Brown’s United Autosports team won LMP2 with drivers Paul di Resta. Filipe Albuquerque and Philip Hanson. Aston Martin took both GTE classes – its best result in years.

COVID-19 meant this year’s Le Mans was held a few months later than usual, in September instead of June, and with no spectators.