Brendon Hartley has described his team’s fifth-place finish in the 24 Hours of Le Mans as ‘heartbreaking’ after he was spun from contention in the final hours.
The three-time Le Man’s winner and Toyota Gazoo Racing teammates Sebastien Buemi and Ryo Hirakawa led long portions of the famed race and were on track for a strong result until contact from the #51 Ferrari sent the Toyota into a spin at Mulsanne.
Hartley, who was at the wheel at the time, was forced to wait for a gap in traffic before rejoining, losing over a minute on the team’s rivals and handing their sister car, the two Ferraris and the #6 Penske Porsche, the advantage.
Speaking after the race, Hartley said: “For the fans, it was a beautiful race, but it was heartbreaking for us at the end.
“We were in a position to win for quite a lot of the race. We lost some ground in one of the safety car periods but fought back to second, challenging for the lead before I got pushed off. That basically put us out of the fight for the win in the last couple of hours.
“It feels like the victory just slipped away from us.
“I am happy for the team that we got one car on the podium after all the hard work from everyone to get the result here. We just fell a bit short, and it is going to take a few days to get over the emotions.”
Buemi and Hirakawa shared similar sentiments, recognising that Toyota had the pace to go all the way.
“I am a bit disappointed to finish fifth, to be honest,” said Buemi, a four-time Le Mans winner.
“We were leading the race for a long time, and without the incident late on, I think we could have won.
“We had strong pace and didn’t make any mistakes. It’s frustrating how it turned out. The team did a great job. Brendon and Ryo drove really well, and the engineers made the right strategy calls, so I think we performed well. Now we just have to work hard for the next race in Brazil.”
Hirakawa added, “I don’t know what to say. We fought together and we did everything we could do in such difficult conditions.
“We worked so hard all week, and we really wanted to avenge year’s defeat. We had a chance but didn’t quite have enough. It’s disappointing, especially because we were at the front for so long, and we really pushed hard.
“We need to stay strong, switch focus to the rest of the season and try to bounce back. We will come back stronger.”
The #7 of Kamui Kobayashi, Jose Maria Lopez and Nyck De Vries salvaged valuable championship points for Toyota with a second-place finish, behind the #50 Ferrari and ahead of the 2023 Le Mans-winning #51 Ferrari.
“Obviously, it was a very tough race for us,” said Kobayashi, who is also Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Team Principal.
“We could have won, but we had a few issues. It was not a smooth 24 hours for the #7 car, but the whole team did such a great job throughout a very tough week. It was a phenomenal race through 24 hours, with every manufacturer fighting non-stop.
“Everyone wants to win this race and we were very close. Such a close finish makes us hungry to come back stronger next year, and we will do our best to achieve that.
“Thank you for all the support and hard work from TOYOTA GAZOO Racing in Japan and Germany. Thank you once again to Morizo san as well. He has supported us a lot since we found out about Mike’s [Conway] injury and all through the week.
“We fight together with Morizo san as TOYOTA GAZOO Racing, and we will get strong next year.”
The World Endurance Championship returns for the 6 Hours of Sao Paulo on July 12-14.
Header Image: Toyota Gazoo Racing
