Toyota notched up its third consecutive victory in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, with Sébastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima and Brendon Hartley dominating after technical problems hampered the other TS050 Hybrid.
Nakajima and Buemi both scored their third consecutive victory in the endurance classic, which this year was delayed from its traditional June date and held without spectators. Hartley, who took Fernando Alonso's place in the #8 Toyota, scored his second Le Mans win, having previous triumphed for Porsche in 2017.
The #7 Toyota of Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and José María López was a match for the sister car on pace and led into the night after the #8 car lost time with a brake issue. But a 30-minute pitstop to replace a turbo unit cost the #7 car seven laps and any hope of victory.
That allowed the privateer Rebellion Racing machine of Bruno Senna, Norman Nato and Gustavo Menezes to finish second, albeit five laps adrift of the lead Toyota.
Race winner Buemi said: "We went through all the emotions during. It started badly for us, because we first suffered a puncture and then brake problems and lost two laps. At that point, we believed that we had lost all our chances of victory.
"Then a few hours later, things turned in our favour: we found ourselves in the lead and we won the race. This is proof that at Le Mans nothing is certain. "
Toyota's third victory in a row came in the final year that the current LMP1 regulations will be the top class at Le Mans. New Le Mans Hypercar rules will be introduced for next year, when Toyota will switch to racing its new GR Super Sports hypercar.
Toyota had double cause for celebration this weekend, with Elfyn Evans taking victory on Rally Turkey in his Yaris WRC.
