It’s a finish that will have everyone talking for years. After running like clockwork for nearly the entirety of the 2016 24 Hours of Le Mans, the leading #5 Toyota TS050 Hybrid of Anthony Davidson, Sébastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima broke down on the main straight just three minutes from the end, giving the chequered flag to the #2 Porsche 919 Hybrid driven by Romain Dumas, Neel Jani and Marc Lieb.
The last few minutes of the race were unbelievably heartbreaking for Toyota Gazoo Racing, which was all set to clinch the overall win for the first time since the world’s largest carmaker started its first Le Mans race in 1985 – right up until Nakajima radioed in from the Mulsanne Straight, less than six minutes until the end of the race, that the car had run out of power.
From there, the Japanese driver limped all the way around in a last-ditch attempt to bag the win, but it was not to be. Jani swept by as the Toyota stopped just after the start/finish line, and went around one last time to clinch the LMP1 trophy – Zuffenhausen’s 18th overall win and its second in a row, extending Porsche’s record as the winningest constructor in the history of the world’s most prestigious endurance race.
Worse still for Toyota, while Nakajima eventually restarted the car and went around the track again to cross the finish line, he was not classified as having finished the race, as his last lap of nearly twelve minutes was more than double the time of the winning Porsche’s.
As such, second place instead went to the #6 Toyota of Stéphane Sarrazin, Mike Conway and Kamui Kobayashi, while the #8 Audi R18 of Lucas Di Grassi, Loïc Duval and Oliver Jarvis nabbed third place – continuing an unbroken string of podium finishes that stretches back to Ingolstadt’s debut in 1999.
Down the order, the #7 Audi of Marcel Fässler, Andre Lotterer and Benoit Tréluyer finished fourth after a turbocharger had to be replaced just two hours in, while the #1 Porsche of Timo Bernhard, Mark Webber and Brendon Hartley finished 13th overall and 38 laps down on their teammates after spending time in the garage twice to fix high engine temperatures.
Elsewhere, the #36 Signatech Alpine A460 driven by Menezes Gustavo, Nicolas Lapierre and Stéphane Richelmi took the LMP2 class victory, while the Chip Ganassi Team’s #68 Ford GT of Joey Hand, Dirk Müller and Sébastien Bourdais clinched the win in GTE Pro ahead of the Risi Competizione #82 Ferrari 488 GTE.
Dearborn’s win on its return to Circuit de la Sarthe marks 50 years of Ford’s first victory – in a GT40, no less, and also beating Ferrari – in fine fashion. Rounding off the winners is the Scuderia Corse #62 Ferrari 458 Italia of William Sweedler, Townsend Bell and Jeffrey Segal in GTE Am.
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- Le Mans 24 Hours 12th- 19th June 2016. Circuit de la Sarthe, Le Mans, France.
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- Porsche Team: Romain Dumas, Marc Lieb, Neel Jani (l-r)
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- Porsche Team
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- Porsche Team: Romain Dumas,
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- Dr. Wolfgang Porsche (Aufsichtsratsvorsitzender der Porsche AG), Dr. Oliver Blume (Chairman of the Executive Board of Porsche AG) (l-r)
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- Porsche 919 Hybrid, Porsche Team: Romain Dumas, Neel Jani, Marc Lieb
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- Porsche 919 Hybrid, Porsche Team: Romain Dumas, Neel Jani, Marc Lieb
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- Porsche 919 Hybrid, Porsche Team: Romain Dumas, Neel Jani, Marc Lieb
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- Porsche 919 Hybrid, Porsche Team: Romain Dumas, Neel Jani, Marc Lieb
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- Porsche 919 Hybrid, Porsche Team: Timo Bernhard, Brendon Hartley, Mark Webber
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- Porsche 919 Hybrid, Porsche Team: Romain Dumas, Neel Jani, Marc Lieb
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- Porsche 919 Hybrid, Porsche Team: Romain Dumas, Neel Jani, Marc Lieb
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- Porsche 919 Hybrid, Porsche Team: Romain Dumas, Neel Jani, Marc Lieb
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- Porsche 919 Hybrid, Porsche Team: Timo Bernhard, Brendon Hartley, Mark Webber
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- Porsche 919 Hybrid, Porsche Team: Romain Dumas, Neel Jani, Marc Lieb
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- Porsche 919 Hybrid, Porsche Team: Romain Dumas, Neel Jani, Marc Lieb
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- Porsche 919 Hybrid, Porsche Team: Timo Bernhard, Brendon Hartley, Mark Webber
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- Porsche 919 Hybrid, Porsche Team: Romain Dumas, Neel Jani, Marc Lieb
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- Porsche 919 Hybrid, Porsche Team: Romain Dumas, Neel Jani, Marc Lieb
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- Porsche 919 Hybrid, Porsche Team: Romain Dumas, Neel Jani, Marc Lieb
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- Audi R18 (2016) #8 (Audi Sport Team Joest), Lucas di Grassi, Loïc Duval, Oliver Jarvis
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- Audi R18 (2016) #7 (Audi Sport Team Joest), Marcel Fässler, André Lotterer, Benoît Tréluyer
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- Audi R18 (2016) #7 (Audi Sport Team Joest), Marcel Fässler, André Lotterer, Benoît Tréluyer
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- Audi R18 (2016) #7 (Audi Sport Team Joest), Marcel Fässler, André Lotterer, Benoît Tréluyer
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- Audi R18 (2016) #7 (Audi Sport Team Joest), Marcel Fässler, André Lotterer, Benoît Tréluyer
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- Audi R18 (2016) #8 (Audi Sport Team Joest), Lucas di Grassi, Loïc Duval, Oliver Jarvis
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cruel, but that’s racing.
that’s why it’s called 24 hours of le mans, not
23 hours 56 minutes of le mans…
that being said, toyota was a serious challenger for the past few years, but due to lack of media exposure, and rotten luck, it didn’t get the recognition it’d deserved.
good luck for the next year. I love the porsche team, but toyota is a respectable competitor.
Should have used Proton instead
Toyota quality nowadays also known for kaput one
now sam loo can say his vios almost win le mans
Continental brands will say they have better reliability than toyota and wun breakdown tepi jalan like them.
Continental brands focus reliability on Le Mans races.
Toyota focus reliability on general production cars.
So buy continental if you always race in Le Mans.
Toyota should see the matter more positively: At least none of it’s drivers was killed by Toyota’s shrapnel airbag…
Spend some time and read more please.
Sam loo MC for 1 week… he demam due to kecewa
Please hear the moment of silence for Toyota.
i watched the race last night, what a drama on the last lap. Pity Toyota, congrats Porsche
‘winningest’…nice new word!
Gotta feel sad for Toyota. They came really close to winning Le Mans in the early 1990s with the Toyota TS010, in 1999 with the majestic Toyota GT1 (TS020) and then bad luck struck them again in the new millenia Le Mans with the TS050 Hybrid. Anyway there’s always next year, maybe Toyota will be back stronger to fight again with the Germans..
Cannot every year blame bad luck. Its payback for toyota as their fans always bad mouth conti cars sui kwan everyday.
Serve them right. TOYOTA never break down? Almost everyday I see them break down and cause jam. Especially those recon toyotas. Hahahahaha!!!
Le Mans 24 is not easy. Teams need to fight hard just to gain an entry spot. LMP or GT class, they need to survive at least 4-6 endurance races before accepted into Le Mans.
I watched a documentary and it’s even tougher than setting a F1 team.
Please don’t bash by just looking at the brand name.
That’s Weird … I though the New Ford GT wont the Le Mans 24-hour race ??
Ford won the GTE Pro category.
I had watched this years LM24 for a good 16 hours – at one time 12 hours non-stop.
I can tell you all of this – it is 100 times better than watching F1. And if you saw what happened to the No.5 Toyota, you will feel so emotionally drained, so devastated – that you then realize, what sort of effect LM24 has on you as a fan of motor racing. No other race comes close to it.