Whatshot
Toyota Racing Earns Le Mans Podium
Toyota Racing Earns Le Mans Podium
The #8 TS030 HYBRID of Anthony Davidson, Sébastien Buemi and Stéphane Sarrazin finished second while the #7 of Alex Wurz, Nicolas Lapierre and Kazuki Nakajima completed a satisfying week for the team by taking fourth.
The race was marred by the death of Allan Simonsen, who succumbed to injuries sustained when his #95 Aston Martin suffered a heavy accident just a few minutes into the race. Toyota Racing mourns his passing and sends its sincerest condolences to his family, friends and team.
A chaotic race featured regularly-changing weather causing treacherous track conditions which contributed to 11 safety car periods and made driving extremely difficult for the drivers.
With just over an hour to go, the #7 was in a thrilling battle for third until a very heavy rain shower made track conditions virtually impossible. Nicolas could do little to prevent his TS030 HYBRID sliding off the track and into the barriers.
Nico bravely brought the car back to the pits and superb work from his crew repaired the heavy damage to the front bodywork and suspension within 30 minutes. That allowed him to take the flag in fourth place.
A day of perfect reliability for the #8 saw it push for victory before eventually completing the 24 hours just a lap behind the winning Audi #2.
That second place equals Toyota's best finish at Le Mans as the TS030 HYBRID matched the results of the TS010 (1992), 94C-V (1994) and TS020 (1999).