So, Toyota makes it three on the bounce. The Japanese giant, which for so long seemed unable even to buy a win at Le Mans, has now scored three outright victories in a row, with its remarkable 1,000hp TS050 hybrid racing cars. While the result at the 88th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans might have seemed pre-ordained, it was not. As Kazuki Nakajima, (co-driving with Sebastian Buemi and Brendon Hartley) who brought the No.8 Toyota home for the win can tell you, even on the very last lap, in the closing minutes of the race, Le Mans can be cruel...
It would have been nice to have had rather more in the way of competitive opposition for Toyota. The Rebellion Racing team, with its fast, agile R-13 cars, seemed to have caught up with Toyota on raw pace, at least through the early practice and qualifying sessions. In the race itself, aside from a flurry of early laps when the four cars of the two teams ran close together, it wasn't to be. The Toyota steamroller prevailed once again.
Mind you, as ever at Le Mans, nothing is certain. It was the No.7 Toyota of Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, and Jose Maria Lopez which made the early running, but that car was delayed during the night, with turbocharger problems, and was then further slowed by issues with the floor of the car becoming damaged, thus losing downforce.
That the No.7 car was on the podium at all was down to sheer bad luck for Rebellion. US racer Gustavo Menezes was holding a solid third in the second Rebellion car, but slithered off the track at the Indianapolis corner, causing some minor damage to the bodywork. What should have been a quick pit stop for repairs turned into a drama when the car's clutch started to fail and it refused to restart. A flurry of mechanics got it going again, but the No.7 Toyota was past by then.
This was the last year for the LMP1 regulations for the fastest class of cars, and perhaps it was kind of appropriate that - thanks to COVID - those cars had their last run behind closed doors, with grandstands deserted of spectators. Once, the LMP1 class saw huge 24-hour clashes between Toyota, Audi, Porsche, Peugeot, and Nissan. Now, only Toyota, Rebellion, and the small ByKolles team entered LMP1 cars, and only Toyota had the backing of a full manufacturer.
Thankfully, for 2021, the new Le Mans Hypercar regulations - which will see slower, heavier, but much cheaper to run cars - will be brought in and alongside Toyota, we already have confirmed entries for Renault-owned Alpine, Peugeot (coming in 2022), ByKolles, and the American Glickenhaus team. Aston Martin is still rumoured to be working on a car based on its Valkyrie road car.
It was Aston Martin that picked up the GT car prize today too. Well, prizes as the Le Mans GTE category, for racers based on road cars, is split into two - Professional and Amateur. Following a disastrous 2019, when its new V8 Vantage race car was fast in qualifying but nowhere in the race, the works Aston Martin AMR squad deservedly took home the GTE-Pro trophy, following a race-long battle with the AF Corse Ferrari team (technically a private team, but a works Ferrari entry in all but name). Alex Lynn, Harry Ticknall, and Maxime Martin brought the acid-green No.97 car home, having built up just enough of a lead over the No.51 AF Corse car to be able to grab a late pit-stop and emerge still in front, just before a final, late safety car period essentially neutralised the finish of the race.
There was great news for Irish motorsport too, as Aston Martin also took home the GT-Am trophy, with another V8 Vantage being run by the TF Racing squad. That driver lineup featured Belfast's Charlie Eastwood, who brought the bright-red car across the line after he and team-mates Jonny Adam and Salih Yoluc had driven a near-perfect race and been all-but untouchable in an amateur class field that included big entries from teams such as Dempsey-Proton Racing and Weathertech Racing.
Again, though, the GT class was somewhat denuded this year. BMW and Ford withdrew their entries at the end of 2019 and Corvette Racing - which has a new mid-engined car ready to go - decided not to commit to a race that, thanks to worries over COVID, might not have happened at all. That left a field of Aston Martins, Porsche 911 RSRs and Ferrari 488s. Hardly a disappointment, but not the packed grids of old.
The best action was to be found in the LMP2 class. LMP2 is made up of purpose-built racing cars which are also purpose-built to be cheap. They can be only minimally modified by the teams, and all run the same 4.2-litre, 500hp Gibson V8 engine so their performance is pretty well identical. That often produces some great racing, and this Le Mans was no exception. In fact, the decision of the LMP2 win came down to literally the last few laps of the race with the leading No.22 United Autosports car and the second-placed No.38 JOTA Racing car separated by only five seconds. Sadly, the JOTA car needed a last-gasp dash to the pits for fuel, but drivers such as Anthony Davidson and Paul Di Resta (both Sky F1 commentators, but driving rival cars here) put in tremendous performances and raced hard, but cleanly.
We were denied a little history, though, Ex-F1 and Indycar racer Juan Pablo Montoya nabbed a seat with the Dragonspeed LMP2 team, in an attempt to become only the second driver (after Graham Hill) to win the 'Triple Crown' of motorsports - the Monaco Grand Prix, the Indianapolis 500, and Le Mans. Unfortunately, the Dragonspeed car retired with engine trouble. Worse still, it did so on Montoya's birthday!
There was one historical moment when French-born American racer Dominique Bastien took to the track for his first stint at the wheel of the No.88 Porsche of Dempsey-Proton Racing. At the age of 74, that makes Bastien the oldest driver ever to compete in the race, and his performance was decent, even if problems with that No.88 car kept it to a 47th-place finish.
There were also two all-female crews in the race - the No.50 Richard Mille Racing LMP2 car, of Tatiana Calderon, Sophia Floersch, and Beitske Visser, finished in a very solid 13th place overall, and 9th in class, while the Iron Lynx Ferrari 488 GTE-Am car No. 85 driven by Manuela Gostner, Rahel Frey, and Michelle Gatting came home in a decent 34th position, also 9th in class.
We now look forward to next June (hopefully) when 250,000 enthusiastic spectators will (hopefully) throng this great track once again and we will (hopefully) see a new dawn of the top class at Le Mans, as well as (hopefully) a GT class with more entrants.
Until then, to be honest, with the year we've had it was just nice to see the cars running at the historic Le Mans circuit.