The longest season in FIA World Endurance Championship's short history has concluded and the 87th 24 Hours of Le Mans ended in a Toyota victory for the second consecutive year. It is the 17th time a manufacture has won Le Mans overall in consecutive years and Toyota is the 11th different manufacture to achieve such an accomplishment but in Toyota fashion, it did not come without any drama.
Entering the final hour the #7 Toyota TS050 of José María López suffered a puncture with just over a two-minute gap to the #8 Toyota of Kazuki Nakajima. López limbed to the pit lane but the team only changed the right-front tire when it was actually the right-rear tire that had a problem and a sensor error forced the team to make an extra pit stop. Nakajima lost the led to Nakajima before the Ford chicane coming in for the second stop.
From there, the dye was cast and the #8 Toyota of Nakajima, Sébastien Buemi and Fernando Alonso swept in to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans for a second consecutive year and to clinch the 2018-19 FIA World Endurance Drivers' Championship in style.
The title was not a question for the #8 Toyota. It was focused on the title and it appeared second would be good enough on this day but in a season where the #7 Toyota was snake-bitten once again the misfortune of the sister car led to glory for Nakajima, Buemi and Alonso.
It seemed it would be the other guys' day. The less-heralded lineup of López, Mike Conway and Kamui Kobayashi had carried their weight this season; winning two races only to have problems befell the trio at Le Mans last year, Sebring in March and Spa-Francorchamps last month. It felt after all the missed opportunities of the last year the #7 Toyota, the drivers the world had forgotten would get to stand on the top step of the podium and have their hand prints forever stamped on motorsports history.
It was not meant to be and the glory goes to the men who have been in the sunlight. Alonso, Buemi and Nakajima all had their spells in Formula One, they were all darlings of manufactures. Alonso adds a World Endurance Drivers' Championship to his two World Drivers' Championship won in Formula One almost 15 years ago. This is Buemi's second World Endurance Drivers' Championship and it is added to his great success in Formula E. Nakajima becomes the first Japanese world champion in any series, adding to his domestic success.
Conway, Kobayashi and López all took a longer road to this day. Conway had a wishy-washy career in single-seaters. A Honda F1 test driver but at a time when the manufacture was exiting the series and he turned his career to IndyCar. While suffering a devastating injury that would lead him to step away from oval racing, he showed his teeth on the road and street courses and picked up four victories.
Kobayashi scored points in his second Formula One start and then Toyota withdrew from the series. He spent the rest of his career between Sauber and Caterham and while he scored a fair number of points with Sauber, including a third place finish in the 2012 Japanese Grand Prix, he was more or less a homeless man during his Formula One career, living in the hotels the teams stayed at for each grand prix.
After single-seater success in GP2, López returned to his native Argentina and raced touring cars. He quickly became champion and out of nowhere, he was in line for a shot at Formula One when he was signed to drive for the ill-fated US F1 team. That team never got off the ground but López kept winning in Argentina and that success led to a World Touring Car Championship opportunity. He won the WTCC title in his first three seasons, leading to Toyota picking up López.
For three careers, this would have been the greatest summation of their careers. The careers of Conway, Kobayashi and López are that of 100s of drivers in motorsports, guys with plenty of talent but never ending up in the right opportunity. It is a sprinkling of success mixed with lackluster results but once given their break they made the most of it. Those three were one hour from elevating their careers from the meat the diehards digest to iconized in front of the entire world.
When it comes to the winners, Alonso is 2-for-2 at Le Mans. He becomes the sixth driver to win the 24 Hours of Daytona and the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the same year. The Indianapolis 500 remains the final crown missing but the 12 Hours of Sebring could also be on his radar.
Toyota was not the only successful defense at Le Mans.
The #36 Signatech Alpine of Nicolas Lapierre, André Negrão and Pierre Thiriet took the LMP2 class victory for the second consecutive year and that will earn those three the 2018-19 Endurance Trophy for LMP2 Drivers. It was the team's second victory of the season; the first one came at Le Mans last year. The team finished on the podium in every race. This is Lapierre's fourth LMP2 class victory in the last five years at Le Mans. The one year he didn't win was in 2017 is when he drove a third Toyota entry in LMP1. This is the second time Lapierre has won the top honors in LMP2, he first took this trophy in 2016.
Ferrari was back on the top step of the podium in GTE-Pro with the #51 AF Corse Ferrari of Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado and Daniel Serra, the first Le Mans class victories for Pier Guidi and Calado, Serra's second in three starts. Ferrari's victory keeps the streak at five different manufactures to win GTE-Pro in five consecutive years with the order being Corvette, Ford, Aston Martin, Porsche and Ferrari.
The GTE-Pro battle was soured when the #63 Corvette was caught in the pit lane during a safety car period, allowing the #51 AF Corse to gain an enormous gap while the Corvette had to wait for the next safety to come around and join the pack. The #63 Corvette would have a spin and take it out of contention for the victory, allowing the #91 Porsche and #93 Porsche to round out the podium. The factory Ford GT effort came in and dominated the class in its first year in 2016. While the program does not end with the same level of success, its four cars finish third, fourth, fifth and sixth in class with the #68 Ford GT of Joey Hand, Dirk Müller and Sébastien Bourdais, the class winners three years ago, leading the way.
It was not all sad for the Ford GT and as the factory program says goodbye to Le Mans, the first privateer Ford GT in this era won in GTE-Am. The #85 Keating Motorsports Ford GT took a popular victory for Ben Keating, Jeroen Bleekemolen and Felipe Fraga. It was the first Le Mans class victory for Keating and Fraga with Fraga winning on his Le Mans debut. Bleekemolen's only previous Le Mans class victory was in 2008 driving a Porsche RS Spyder in LMP2. Fraga made it three Brazilians to win in three different classes.
Americans dominated GTE-Am. The runner-up finisher was the #56 Team Project 1 Porsche of Jörg Bergmeister, Patrick Lindsey and Egidio Perfetti and that will hand those three the 2018-19 Endurance Trophy for GTE-Am Drivers. In third was the #84 JMW Motorsport Ferrari of Rodrigo Baptiste, Wei Lu and Jeff Segal. It is Segal's third GTE-Am class podium finish in four starts. In fourth was the #62 WeatherTech Racing Ferrari of Toni Vilander, Cooper MacNeil and Rob Smith.
The 87th 24 Hours of Le Mans ends a historic season, the "super season" that spanned two calendar years as the series shifts to September-June season, similar to what we see soccer leagues around the world but this year's race also sees the future of the World Endurance Championship and the 24 Hours of Le Mans start to take root.
The hypercar regulations have been announced, Aston Martin and Toyota have confirmed their participation and now we wait and see what other manufactures decide to join. After an odd two years with Toyota competing against privateers but with superior equipment there will be one more season before the next chapter of this championship and the 24 Hours of Le Mans begins.
Worry has subsided and excitement sinks in with the future laid out.
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