Toyota win 24 Hours of Le Mans for third year running

Toyota Gazoo Racing secured their third consecutive 24 Hours of Le Mans victory, with the No. 8 car piloted by Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Kazuki Nakajima winning the 2020 edition of the event. With this, Toyota has successfully wrapped up the LMP1 World Endurance Championship, with one round still remaining in Bahrain.

• No. 8 Toyota of Buemi, Hartley and Nakajima win 24 Hours of Le Mans
• United Autosports dominate in LMP2
• Aston Martin win in GTE Pro and Am

COVID-19 forced the 24 Hours of Le Mans to be postponed this year. The event is already considered one of the most demanding tests of endurance and the September slot only made things more challenging for all the drivers, since they had to tackle more hours of night-time racing.

LMP1: Toyota’s hat-trick of wins at Le Mans

With Audi and Porsche pulling out of LMP1, Toyota was always expected to dominate this year’s event. But it wasn’t all smooth sailing for the team at Le Mans.

The No. 7 crew of Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Jose Maria Lopez – which started from pole – held on to the lead in the opening stages. With the sister No. 8 Toyota needing a brake change, the No. 7 car was leading the race by a lap. However, an issue with the exhaust manifold meant that they lost 30 minutes in the garage as the team replaced the car’s turbo. This dropped them to fourth place, while handing the No. 8 car the lead.

Buemi, Hartley and Nakajima were further helped by the fact that both the Rebellion cars suffered their own issues. With the conditions remaining dry throughout, the No. 8 Toyota comfortably crossed the line to win the 2020 24 Hours of Le Mans – a fitting send-off for the TS050 Hybrid on what was its last outing at Le Mans, before the new hypercar category replaces LMP1 next year.

The No. 1 Rebellion of Bruno Senna, Norman Nato and Gustavo Menezes finished second, five laps behind the winning Toyota. Just when it seemed like Rebellion was going to bag a double podium finish, Louis Deletraz crashed the No. 3 car and had to pit for a new front end. The incident also handed the crew a 30sec time penalty, promoting the No. 7 Toyota to third place overall.

LMP2: United Autosports secure title

United Autosports continued their dominant run, with Paul Di Resta, Phil Hanson, and Filipe Albuquerque  (driving the No. 22 Oreca) securing the team’s fourth consecutive LMP2 win. With this, the British Privateer team has secured enough points to clinch the LMP2 title.

The No. 38 JOTA Sport Oreca of Antonio Felix da Costa, Anthony Davidson and Roberto Gonzalez remained on the winning car’s tail for much of the morning. But they were knocked out of winning contention when Davidson was forced to pit for fuel with just two laps to go.

With the No. 26 G-Drive Aurus Oreca suffering suspension damage in the closing stages, the No. 31 Panis Racing Oreca of Nico Jamin, Mathieu Vaxiviere and Julien Canal finished third in the category.

GTE Pro: Aston Martin defeat Ferrari

Ferrari and Aston Martin remained locked in a tight battle in the LMGTE Pro category. But the No. 97 Aston Martin Vantage AMR of Alex Lynn, Maxime Martin and Harry Tincknell gained the upper hand and took home the winner’s trophy.

Last year’s Le Mans GTE Pro winners, Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado and Daniel Serra in the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo finished just 1 min 33 secs behind, in second place. The No. 95 Vantage of Nicki Thiim, Marco Sørensen and Richard Westbrook finished in third place, giving Aston Martin a double podium finish – handing the team it best-ever 24 Hours of Le Mans results.

GTE Am: Aston Martin triumph again

Topping off what had been a great day for Aston Martin, the marquee’s customer team TF Sport ended up winning in the LMGTE Am category.

The No.90 Vantage AMR of Salih Yoluc, Charlie Eastwood and Jonny Adam enjoyed a nearly flawless race and finished 49sec ahead of the No.77 Dempsey Proton Porsche of Christian Ried, Riccardo Pera and Matt Campbell. The No.83 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE EVO of Francois Perrodo, Emmanuel Collard and Nicklas Nielsen finished just 3sec behind.

 

2020 24 Hours of Le Mans results:

POS	CLASS	CAR	DRIVERS	LAPS	GAP
1	LMP1	#8 Toyota	Buemi, Nakajima, Hartley	387
2	LMP1	#1 Rebellion	Senna, Nato, Menezes	382	+ 5 Laps
3	LMP1	#7 Toyota	Conway, Kobayashi, Lopez	381	+ 6 Laps
4	LMP1	#3 Rebellion	Dumas, Berthon, Deletraz	381	+ 39.408s
5	LMP2	#22 Oreca	Hanson, Albuquerque, Di Resta	370	+ 17 Laps
6	LMP2	#38 Oreca	Davidson, Da Costa, Gonzalez	370	+ 32.831s
7	LMP2	#31 Oreca	Jamin, Canal, Vaxiviere	368	+ 19 Laps
8	LMP2	#36 Alpine	Negrao, Ragues, Laurent	367	+ 20 Laps
9	LMP2	#26 Aurus	Rusinov, Vergne, Jensen	367	+ 57.578s
10	LMP2	#28 Oreca	Lafargue, Chatin, Bradley	366	+ 21 Laps
11	LMP2	#42 Oreca	Lapierre, Borga, Coigny	365	+ 22 Laps
12	LMP2	#25 Oreca	Falb, Trummer, McMurry	365	+ 1m31.640s
13	LMP2	#50 Oreca	Calderon, Florsch, Visser	364	+ 23 Laps
14	LMP2	#47 Dallara	Lacorte, Belicchi, Sernagiotto	363	+ 24 Laps
15	LMP2	#17 Oreca	Pilet, Tilley, Kennard	363	+ 51.762s
16	LMP2	#27 Oreca	Hedman, Hanley, Van der Zande	361	+ 26 Laps
17	LMP2	#32 Oreca	Owen, Brundle, Van Uitert	359	+ 28 Laps
18	LMP2	#35 Ligier	Yamanaka, Foster, Merhi	351	+ 36 Laps
19	LMP2	#29 Oreca	Van Eerd, Van der Garde, De Vries	349	+ 38 Laps
20	GTE Pro	#97 Aston	Martin, Lynn, Tincknell	346	+ 41 Laps
21	GTE Pro	#51 Ferrari	Pier Guidi, Calado, Serra	346	+ 1m33.164s
22	GTE Pro	#95 Aston	Thiim, Sorensen, Westbrook	343	+ 44 Laps
23	GTE Pro	#82 Ferrari	Pla, Bourdais, Gounon	339	+ 48 Laps
24	GTE Am	#90 Aston	Yoluc, Eastwood, Adam	339	+ 1m33.407s
25	GTE Am	#77 Porsche	Ried, Pera, Campbell	339	+ 2m23.159s
26	GTE Am	#83 Ferrari	Perrodo, Collard, Nielsen	339	+ 2m26.206s
27	GTE Am	#56 Porsche	Perfetti, Ten Voorde, Cairoli	339	+ 2m34.526s
28	LMP2	#24 Oreca	Grist, Kapadia, Wells	338	+ 49 Laps
29	GTE Am	#86 Porsche	Wainwright, Barker, Watson	337	+ 50 Laps
30	GTE Am	#66 Ferrari	Heistand, Root, Magnussen	335	+ 52 Laps
31	GTE Pro	#91 Porsche	Bruni, Lietz, Makowiecki	335	+ 6.187s
32	GTE Am	#61 Ferrari	Piovanetti, Negri Jr., Ledogar	335	+ 2m49.871s
33	GTE Am	#98 Aston	Dalla Lana, Gunn, Farfus	333	+ 54 Laps
34	GTE Am	#85 Ferrari	Gostner, Frey, Gatting	332	+ 55 Laps
35	GTE Pro	#92 Porsche	Christensen, Estre, Vanthoor	331	+ 56 Laps
36	GTE Am	#99 Porsche	Inthraphuvasak, Legeret, Andlauer	331	+ 1m23.705s
37	GTE Am	#60 Ferrari	Schiavoni, Pianezzola, Ruberti	331	+ 2m58.825s
38	GTE Am	#78 Porsche	Felbermayr, Beretta, Van Splunteren	330	+ 57 Laps
39	GTE Am	#54 Ferrari	Flohr, Castellacci, Fisichella	330	+ 1m11.360s
40	GTE Am	#57 Porsche	Keating, Fraga, Bleekemolen	326	+ 61 Laps
41	LMP2	#34 Ligier	Smiechowski, Binder, Isaakyan	325	+ 62 Laps
42	GTE Am	#62 Ferrari	Grimes, Mowlem, Hollings	325	+ 24.638s
43	GTE Am	#89 Porsche	Brooks, Piguet, Laskaratos	313	+ 74 Laps
44	LMP2	#39 Oreca	Allen, Capillaire, Milesi	357	+ 30 Laps
45	GTE Pro	#71 Ferrari	Rigon, Molina, Bird	340	+ 47 Laps
46	GTE Am	#72 Ferrari	Chen, Blomqvist, Gomes	273	+ 114 Laps
47	GTE Am	#88 Porsche	Preining, Bastien, De Leener	238	+ 149 Laps
48	GTE Am	#75 Ferrari	Mastronardi, Cressoni, Piccini	211	+ 176 Laps
49	LMP2	#37 Oreca	Tung, Aubry, Stevens	141	+ 246 Laps
50	LMP2	#21 Oreca	Montoya, Buret, Rojas	192	+ 195 Laps
51	GTE Pro	#63 Ferrari	Macneil, Vilander, Segal	185	+ 202 Laps
52	GTE Am	#70 Ferrari	Kimura, Abril, Cozzolino	172	+ 215 Laps
53	LMP2	#16 Aurus	Cullen, Jarvis, Tandy	105	+ 282 Laps
54	LMP2	#30 Oreca	Hirschi, Tereschenko, Gommendy	100	+ 287 Laps
55	LMP1	#4 ENSO	Dillmann, Spengler, Webb	97	+ 290 Laps
56	LMP2	#33 Oreca	Yamashita, Patterson, Fjordbach	88	+ 299 Laps
57	GTE Am	#52 Ferrari	Ulrich, Gorig, West	80	+ 307 Laps
58	GTE Am	#55 Ferrari	Cameron, Scott, Griffin	78	+ 309 Laps
59	LMP2	#11 Ligier	Tambay, Maris, D'Ansembourg	26	+ 361 Laps