Dutchmen Nick de Vries and Tejmen van der Helm finished fourth in the LMP2 class for the 24 Hours of Le Mans on Sunday. The victory in the famous long-distance race in France went to Toyota for the fifth year in a row.
De Vries only heard on Friday that he will be racing for Team TDS Racing as a replacement for Philippe Cimadoumo, who has been banned after various mishaps in practice.
The Formula E world champion started out behind with eighteen-year-old newcomer Van der Helm and Swiss Matthias Beech, but the trio worked their way forward during the race.
A place on the podium in the LMP2 class seemed possible for a long time, but in the end De Vries, Van der Helm and Beche came in less than third place. Now went to Oliver Rasmussen, Ed Jones and Jonathan Aberdeen in a Jota Sport.
The British team also claimed a victory in the LMP2 class with Roberto Gonzalez, Antonio Felix da Costa and Will Stevens. The second place went to former Formula 1 driver Robert Kubica and his teammates Luis Deletraz and Lorenzo Colombo (Prima).
Robin Frijns, who won the LMP2 class on behalf of the Jota Sport last year, pulled out of Le Mans on Sunday just over five hours ago. The Dutchman came out of a very wide bend and fired at the bumpers. He went out unharmed, but couldn’t get the Belgian WRT’s Oreca 07-Gibson to work.
Toyota won the 24 Hours of Le Mans as expected.
Toyota won the 24 Hours of Le Mans as expected.
picture: France Press agency
Toyota wins by a clear margin as expected
As expected, Toyota Gazoo Racing won the 90th Class One edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Swiss Sebastien Buemi, New Zealander Brendon Hartley and Japan’s Rio Hirakawa completed 380 laps and that was enough to win.
For Buemi, this is the fourth victory in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Hartley was credited with his third win and it was Hirakawa’s first.
A second Toyota (Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez) finished second after just two minutes. The American Glickenhaus, as might be expected, was no match for the Toyotas. Ryan Briscoe, Richard Westbrook and Frank Mello were third, five laps behind the winners.
Next year, Toyota is expected to face much greater opposition. Then Peugeot, Cadillac, Porsche and Ferrari return to battle for the overall victory.
