Breaking news
WEC 24 Hours of Le Mans
Toyota: We did "right thing" amid late Le Mans drama
Toyota believes it “did the right thing” by not swapping its two cars around after a dramatic final hour of the Le Mans 24 Hours cost the #7 TS050 Hybrid a near-certain win.
Filip Cleeren
Edited: Jun 17, 2019, 11:45 AM
Copy link
Share on Viber
Fernando Alonso, Sebastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima inherited their second Le Mans win in a row in the #8 Toyota TS050 Hybrid after late problems for the dominant #7 sister car of Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Jose Maria Lopez.
The #7 crew virtually led all race until Lopez caught a puncture with just over an hour left to run. Due to a sensor issue the team mistakenly changed the right-front tyre when it was actually the left-rear that needed changing.
That meant Lopez had to nurse the car home for another lap of the 13.626km circuit and make another pitstop - affording Nakajima, who had been over two minutes off the lead, the chance to take the lead and bring the car home for a second Le Mans win.
Toyota LMP1 team boss Rob Leupen was left with mixed feelings after the Japanese marque’s second consecutive La Sarthe triumph.
“It’s very difficult,” a visibly emotional Leupen told Motorsport.com after the finish. “We wanted to make it really boring, but that didn’t happen.
"The #7 car was by far the fastest of the two, they all worked very hard.
"We got into a situation where we caught a puncture at the end, and it hurts a lot that the team didn’t respond well to that.”
Leupen admitted Toyota considered swapping the cars’ positions to let the dominant #7 crew take their first Le Mans win, but ultimately decided against it.
"We thought about doing something [about the running order], but that wouldn’t have been correct,” he explained.
"We talked it through with the drivers and I think we did the right thing. Le Mans chooses its winner again.”
Toyota will face a tough debrief on the #7 car’s side after not electing to change all four tyres when Lopez came in with a puncture.
"The simple question was asked why we didn’t change all four tyres to be safe," said Leupen. "We didn’t do that. It’s all in the game and then you have to make a decision.
"I don’t know what happened [with the sensor]. I don’t think we’re really thinking about that right now. I think the people of the #7 car have a lot of problems with this and we first have to accept it."
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Aston taking on Toyota in WEC like "David vs Goliath"
Next article FIA working on solution to FE/WEC calendar clashes
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Filip Cleeren
"It's horribly painful" - Williams drops 2026 car upgrades to benefit 2027
Formula 1
Formula 1
Sao Paulo GP
3 h
"It's horribly painful" - Williams drops 2026 car upgrades to benefit 2027
The impressive stats underpinning Liam Lawson's career-saving F1 season
Formula 1
Formula 1
Sao Paulo GP
1 d
The impressive stats underpinning Liam Lawson's career-saving F1 season
More from
Toyota Gazoo Racing WEC
Toyota slams “stupid games” by competitors in Le Mans pre-test
WEC
WEC
24 Hours of Le Mans
5 mo
Toyota slams “stupid games” by competitors in Le Mans pre-test
The winners and losers from the 2025 Le Mans 24 Hours
WEC
WEC
24 Hours of Le Mans
Jun 16, 2025
The winners and losers from the 2025 Le Mans 24 Hours
Toyota drivers predict faster lap times and “plenty of fighting” ahead at Le Mans
WEC
WEC
24 Hours of Le Mans
Jun 7, 2025
Toyota drivers predict faster lap times and “plenty of fighting” ahead at Le Mans
Latest news
Why aerodynamics will become "even more important" under 2027 MotoGP regulations
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Qatar GP
42 min
Why aerodynamics will become "even more important" under 2027 MotoGP regulations
Sebastien Bourdais hopes latest WEC success will remind teams of his value
WEC
WEC WEC
Monza
2 h
Sebastien Bourdais hopes latest WEC success will remind teams of his value
"It's horribly painful" - Williams drops 2026 car upgrades to benefit 2027
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Sao Paulo GP
3 h
"It's horribly painful" - Williams drops 2026 car upgrades to benefit 2027
Feature
Discover prime content
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe