Toyota Gets Podium Finish at Le Mans

It was a hard race, which saw bad weather, skids, yellow flags and crashes. The race was also marred by the death of Allan Simonsen, who crashed his #95 Aston Martin in the first few minutes of the race and passed away due to internal injuries. We would like to send our sincerest condolences to his family, friends and team.

The #8 TS030 Hybrid of Anthony Davidson, Sebastien Buemi and Stephane Sarrazin achieved second place, equaling their result with the TS010 (1992), 94C-V (1994) and TS020 (1999), while the #7 of Alex Wurz, Nicholas Lapierre and Kazuki Nakajima got fourth due to the harsh weather just an hour left before finnish. A sudden rain shower took #7 by surprise with its slick tires causing it to loose control in a bend and hit the tire wall, loosing third position.

“Firstly, congratulations to Audi for their victory. It was great to compete with them in such an exciting race. I am very proud of our team today; we truly performed like a team and we earned this result.” said Toyota Racing Team President Yoshiaki Kinoshita. “We never gave up or lost focus, even in difficult circumstances. To get both cars to the finish and to stand on the podium was a very satisfying result. I will always remember the determination and team work showed by everyone after the #7 was damaged. It was very emotional for me to see this because it showed our team spirit. So I would like to say thank you to the team and also the drivers, who gave everything for us. I am happy with this result but my dream is to win Le Mans so I am determined we will come back even stronger next year.”