Hartley completes Le Mans hat-trick

Brendon Hartley took the chequered flag as Toyota Gazoo Racing’s number-eight car clinched victory in the Le Mans 24 Hours.

The Kiwi driver’s efforts in the GR0101 Hybrid helped Toyota secure its fifth consecutive win in the legendary race at the Circuit de la Sarthe and a one-two finish for the second year in a row. 

The winning hypercar completed 380 laps and was also driven by Switzerland’s Sebastien Buemi and Japan’s Rio Hirakawa.

Hartley has now won the race three times and is New Zealand’s most successful Le Mans driver. 

“It was a great feeling to be behind the wheel for qualifying and to get pole position, and it was even more special to take the race finish,” he adds.

“It’s the first time I’ve been able to do that and I was overwhelmed with emotions when I crossed the line.

“During the whole race you are trying not to think about the finish because we have seen what can happen in the last laps … So when you cross the line, all the emotions come out and it’s a great feeling.”

Toyota Gazoo Racing’s fourth one-two finish at Le Mans was secured by last year’s winners, Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez. They finished in the number-seven car two minutes and 1.222 seconds behind the victors.

Both the team’s cars traded the lead several times over the first 16 hours as the race ebbed and flowed, with traffic, slow zones and track evolution all coming into play.

Only a few seconds had separated the leading pair up until lap 256 when Lopez had to pull to the side of the track following an issue relating to the front motor.

He was able to return the vehicle to the pits and get going again but it saw the number-seven car slip nearly a lap behind Hartley, which proved too big a deficit to make up.