Hartley wins 24 Hours of Le Mans

Brendon Hartley has been crowned the winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, claiming his third outright win of the iconic race.

The New Zealand driver shared driving duties with teammates Sebastien Buemi and Ryo Hirakawa. In their #8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid, they had a trouble-free 24 hours around Circuit de la Sarthe.

The same couldn’t be said for the #7 Toyota of Jose Maria Lopez, Kamui Kobayashi and Mike Conway. The car was forced to stop on track so they could reset the electric motor with just four hours remaining.

The setback put the #7 car half a lap behind the #8 Toyota, essentially sealing the win for Hartley’s Toyota.

However, the Toyota pair still managed to come home in the top spots, giving the Japanese team a one-two victory.

Australian driver Ryan Briscoe rounded out the podium, bringing his #709 Glickenhaus home in third.

Fellow kiwi Shane Van Gisbergen competed in the GTE Pro class and crossed the line in fifth place, for 32nd position overall.

The #74 Riley Motorsport team Van Gisbergen was racing for this weekend was aided to fifth by the collision between an LMP2 car and the #64 Corvette which was leading the class at the time.

Victory in the GTE Pro class went to the #91 Porsche RSR driven by Gianmaria Bruni, Richard Lietz and Frederic Makowiecki.

The third kiwi to be racing in the 24 Hours of Le mans this weekend was Nick Cassidy who scored sixth place out of the 23 GTE Am entries. The New Zealander finished the race 39th overall.

As for LMP2, the #38 JOTA Oreca driven by Roberto Gonzalez, Antonio Felix Da Costa and Will Stevens dominated most of the race and ultimately brought home the win by the race’s end.

Just nine out of the 62 race starters retired from the race.