Toyota win Le Mans 24 Hours
June 14 : Toyota won the 24 Hours of Le Mans on Sunday after a Hypercar battle with BMW and Cadillac in the 94th edition of the race.
BMW had started from pole position and Cadillac led into the final quarter but Toyota, whose last overall win came in 2022, were first to the chequered flag with Japan's Kamui Kobayashi at the wheel of the number seven car.
It was Kobayashi's second Le Mans triumph after success with Toyota in 2021 and the ex-Formula One driver shared the victory with Britain's Mike Conway, also now a two-time winner, and Dutch driver Nyck de Vries.
"Finally we're back on top," said Kobayashi after the Japanese manufacturer's sixth overall title at the Circuit de la Sarthe.
"The race was relentless, we had lots of challenges come our way, but somehow we always kept going," said de Vries. "There were many moments I thought we were out of contention, but they say Le Mans chooses you to win and I think that’s what happened to us today."
The number 20 BMW of South African Sheldon Van der Linde, German Rene Rast and Dutch driver Robin Frijns finished second, 10.9 seconds behind, with Toyota's number eight car third.
Japan's Ryo Hirakawa shared the eight car with Switzerland's Sebastien Buemi and New Zealand's Brendon Hartley.
Cadillac's 12 car finished fourth with Ferrari, winners of the last three editions of the race, fifth with the 51 car.
Cadillac were one-two in the 14th hour but their number 38 car suffered a power steering problem that led to two pit stops and a plunge down the order before retirement.
That was a bitter blow for French driver Sebastien Bourdais, a Le Mans native who remains luckless at home, as well as New Zealand teammate Earl Bamber and Britain's Jack Aitken.
The number 15 BMW that started on pole with Danish former F1 driver Kevin Magnussen, Swiss-born Italian Raffaele Marciello and Belgian Dries Vanthoor also retired.
In the second-tier LMP2 category, Polish team Inter Europol finished one-two, while Corvette won the LMGT3 class with Ben Keating, Nicky Catsburg and Jonny Edgar.
The race, with 62 cars and 186 drivers, was flagged away on Saturday by Tour de France sprint great Mark Cavendish as official starter.
