Toyota scores Le Mans hat-trick as Aston Martin wins GTE

Sébastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima confirmed their own personal hat-tricks to win comfortably in their #8 TS050 Hybrid, with Brendon Hartley replacing Fernando Alonso this time as the third wheel, the Kiwi claiming his second Le Mans victory to add to his maiden Le Mans success with Porsche in 2017. The trio prevailed despite an unscheduled stop for a right front brake change that could have turned the race against them – until the sister Toyota hit more serious trouble.

Tough luck for Conway once again

Britain’s top Le Mans racer must be wondering what he’s done to deserve such luck at the Circuit de la Sarthe. Mike Conway had previously finished second three times out of four attempts for Toyota and returned to the race with another great chance to go one better. But once again it wasn’t to be.

His #7 TS050 Hybrid, shared with former Sauber grand prix driver Kamui Kobayashi and Argentine Jose Maria Lopez, led by a lap going into the 12^th hour, only for a power problem to force the car to pit. The trio lost half an hour to a turbo change thanks to a problem eventually traced to an exhaust manifold, and that was more than enough to scotch their hopes for another year. This time, they didn’t even finish second, only inheriting a podium third place in the last hour when Louis Deletraz had an off in the non-hybrid #3 Rebellion R-13 he shared with Nathanael Berthon and Romain Dumas.

Between the two Toyotas, Rebellion’s #1 entry driven by Bruno Senna, Gustavo Menezes and Norman Nato finished second, five laps behind the winner, on the Swiss team’s final appearance not only at Le Mans but likely at any race. The team, which is disbanding, is unlikely to run at the World Endurance Championship season finale in Bahrain in November, now that Toyota has the title almost in its grasp. For a team that beat the hybrid cars twice this season thanks to favourable performance equivalency rules, a runner-up finish at its final Le Mans was hardly a surprise – and perhaps even an anti-climax. Still, it had been clear from practice that a fairy-tale victory would only have been on the cards if both Toyotas had hit trouble. As it turned out, one major problem was not enough to gift Rebellion the race.

United Autosports wins LMP2 and the WEC title

McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown was on hand to watch his United Autosports team claim a convincing LMP2 class victory from pole position, as Sky F1 presenter Paul di Resta, Filipe Albuquerque and promising young Brit Phil Hanson scored their and the squad’s maiden Le Mans win. The team Brown co-owns with old friend Richard Dean, who runs the Yorkshire-based company, was always on the front foot at Le Mans, following an incredible unbeaten run in the WEC. The 24 Hours marks United’s fourth consecutive victory at this level and continues its winning streak since the end of lockdown, having also won a couple of rounds of the European Le Mans Series.

Spare a thought though for the drivers of the sister ORECA. Alex Brundle, Job van Uitert and Will Owen might have trumped the lead car and they headed the class until an oil leak undid their effort. Instead, Jota Sport’s ORECA chased the di Resta car hard, with Formula E champion Antonio Felix da Costa, Sky F1 man (yes, another one) Anthony Davidson and Roberto Gonzalez finishing second.

Late fuel top-up pitstops for both leading cars gave the battle an extra edge in the closing stages. But the day was United’s, as Brown joined his drivers on the podium. What a shame they didn’t have the usual sea of people below them to complete the experience.

Double top for Aston Martin

In GTE, Aston Martin claimed a resounding class double by winning both the Pro and Am categories this year.  The #97 Vantage of Alex Lynn, Maxime Martin and Harry Tincknell defeated the #51 AF Corse Ferrari of James Calado, Alessandro Pier Guidi and Daniel Serra by just over a minute and a half, in a race where Porsche’s two Pro entries found themselves out of contention with technical problems that ruined their 2020 Le Mans.

In GTE Am, TF Sport delivered Aston another class win as Jonathan Adam, Charlie Eastwood and Salih Yolac comfortably took the spoils, topping up a great haul of British success at the ‘Big One’.

What next for Le Mans?

The 2020 race marked the last Le Mans for the premier LMP1 class, which in one guise or another has been the mainstay of world endurance racing since the end of the Group C era in the early 1990s. Before the weekend, the Automobile Club de l’Ouest announced further details about the new Hypercar category that becomes the focus for next year. But with only Toyota committed for the first season and Peugeot coming in 2022, it might be an underwhelming start to the new era – unless other manufacturers big or small sign up between now and next June.

The LMP2-based LMDh rulebook that’s to be used in the US IMSA series will also be adopted for Le Mans and the WEC – but only for 2022. So could a so-called ‘grandfathered’ LMP1 entry, such as Alpine’s, undermine the Hypercars next year? If so, Alpine is running a Rebellion. Perhaps the departing Swiss entrant can still have the last laugh after all.

Images courtesy of Motorsport Images.