Le Mans, France - Toyota saw its first ever victory at Le Mans cruelly snatched away from the team on the final lap after 24 hours of gruelling, sleepless work unravelled in the space of a few seconds.
Since hitting the front on Sunday morning, the No 5 Toyota of Anthony Davidson, Kazuki Nakajima and Sebastian Buemi proved untouchable, and they looked nailed on to take the Japanese carmaker's first ever success in the Le Mans 24 hours providing they could stay out of trouble.
They did exactly that, but disaster struck when trouble found them. As the Toyota TS050 came onto the start-finish line to start the final lap, the car ground to a halt, allowing the No 2 Porsche of Neel Jani, Romain Dumas and Marc Lieb to pass them and complete the final lap to secure an unlikely victory.
Rainy start
The race began behind the safety car after torrential rain his the Circuit de la Sarthe half an hour before the race was due to get underway. As a result, the honorary starter, Brad Pitt, had to wave the field off from under an umbrella on the grid, rather than on the stroke of 3pm as they exited the Ford Chicane.
While the decision was the right one given the impossibility of seeing beyond the next car due to the spray, fans grew restless for the action to begin and resorted to booing the cars as they came round to grandstand in order to press for the green flag.
After 52 minutes, it came, and finally the action got underway in what proved to be rather dry conditions. A number of cars chose to pit early for intermediates, while others went straight from wets to slicks by staying out longer.
The conditions appeared to suit the Toyotas and, in particular, the No 6 of Mike Conway as he worked his way past both Porsches to take the lead of the race. It was a sign of things to come.
Audi out, Porsche takes charge
No sooner had the first hour been completed than the No 7 Audi of three-time Le mans winners Andre Lotterer, Benoit Treluyer and Marcel Fassler was wheeled back into the pits with what was revealed to be a turbocharger failure, and they lost the best part of five laps to take them completely out of the running, with further issues throughout the 24 hours hampering their recovery attempt.
Once the field made their move to slicks, it was the reigning world champions of the No 1 Porsche out in front as Brendon Hartley built a lead, however Conway would regain the lead midway through hours three and four and the No 6 would hold onto it throughout the night.
Shortly before midnight local time, the No 1 Porsche was taken out of the equation having fought for the lead since the start. With what was eventually revealed to be a water pump and engine temperature issue, they lost 38 laps to the leader after a failed return, and the trio of Webber, Bernhard and Hartley will have to wait yet another year before they can realise their potential and win the Le Mans 24 Hours.
As the race crossed over into darkness, the drivers settled down and got on with the job at hand, only for a dramatic Sunday morning jolting everyone into life.
Toyotas take the lead
The No 6 Toyota, which had led comfortably since about 7pm on Saturday, was leapfrogged by the No 5 of Davidson, Nakajima and Buemi, while the No 2 Porsche also moved ahead of them as Marc Lieb took the fight to the Toyotas.
Once the No 6 was taken out of contention two hours from home after requiring repairs on a damaged floor, a two-horse race developed between the No 5 and No2, but despite threatening and pulling to within a second, the Porsche was not able to do anything about the Toyota.
Davidson managed to build a healthy gap before handing the TS050-Hybrid over to Nakajima, and the Japanese former Formula One driver continued to lead the way right to the finish only for disaster to strike.
"I literally have no words," Davidson said on Twitter afterwards, reporting that Nakajima had said he was ready to cry as he crossed the line, too slowly to even be classified as a finish after the dramatic loss of power that has yet to be explained. Much heartbreak was evident across the Toyota garage.
The No 2 Porsche of Jani, Dumas and Lieb were joined on the podium by the sister Toyota of Conway, Stephane Sarrazzin and Kamui Kobayashi, with the No 8 Audi of Oliver Jarvis, Loic Duval and Lucas Di Grassi taking third after the No 5 was deemed not to have completed the race despite crossing the finish line.
The No 36 Alpine of Gustavo Menezes, Nicolas Lapierre and Stephane Riquelme held off the challenge of the No 26 JOTA Sport/G Drive Racing Oreca to seal LMP2 victory, with the No 37 SMP Racing entry of Vitaly Petrov, Vicotr Shaytar and Kirill Ladygin taking third.
Ford’s victorious return
In GTE Pro, Ford clinched victory on their return to Le Mans 50 years after the GT40 recorded its maiden victory in 1966, with the No 68 Chip Ganassi Team USA entry of Jonny Hand, Dirk Muller and Sebastian Bourdais taking victory after a long battle with the No 82 Risi Competizione Ferrari of Giancarlo Fisichella, Toni Vilander and Matteo Maluchelli, who took second ahead of the No 69 Ford GT of Scott Dixon, Richard Westbrook and Ryan Briscoe.
The Independent