Hartley wins at Le Mans
Toyota Gazoo Racing (TGR) has made it three in a row with its win at Le Mans, while New Zealander Brendon Hartley added the title to his previous victory there in 2017.
Hartley, Sebastien Buemi, and Kazuki Nakajima completed more than 5,000km of the gruelling race and won by five laps on September 20 in the #8 TS050 HYBRID to take the lead in the drivers’ FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC).
For Buemi and Nakajima, it was their third consecutive Le Mans triumph and they join only seven drivers to have achieved that feat in the race’s 97-year history.
Andrew Davis, general manager of TGR NZ, says: “Brendon’s association with Toyota goes back to his early days of success as an open-wheeler rookie in the Toyota Racing Series [TRS]. Last year he joined TGR as a reserve driver in the WEC and earned himself a seat in the team when Fernando Alonso retired.
“At just 15, Brendon won the first TRS race in 2005. Fifteen years later at 30, he is at the very peak of the motor-racing world with his second Le Mans win.”
TGR finished the race with two teams on the podium. The pole position #7 TS050 HYBRID of Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez had looked on-course for their first win at La Sarthe until an exhaust problem, although they fought back to earn third in a dramatic final 70 minutes.
While the #8 also had problems early in the race and required a 10-minute pit-stop to fix a brake issue, the team drove a flawless and composed second half of the race and won by five laps.
Hartley says there were some little issues at the beginning, but the team then had a perfect race.
“After 24 hours of racing we didn’t have single scratch on the car, which says a lot about myself and the team and how we managed to get through a very long and demanding race,” he says. “I’m very happy to be on the top step with my new team and with Toyota.”
The victory in the penultimate round of the WEC means TGR has been crowned teams’ world champions thanks to its unassailable 57-point lead over Rebellion Racing – its third title following those in 2014 and 2018-2019.
