New Zealand racing star Brendon Hartley has managed to claim second place in a drama-filled Le Mans 24 Hour while.
Though Hartley could only manage a P2 finish, Toyota's other car crossed the line in P1, making for a Toyota 1-2, and claiming the brand's fourth consecutive victory at the iconic race.
Toyota's win was basically confirmed early on in the race as Alpine, the team's closest competitor in the Hypercar class, made a costly error and fell three laps behind.
From that point forward, it was a matter of the two Toyota Hypercars battling it out to see which one would cross the finish line first.
“It wasn’t disappointing,” Hartley said.
“For the team to take 1-2 here was incredibly important. To take the Hypercar and get it to last 24 hours was a big achievement.”
Hartley's No.8 suffered from an unsolvable fuel issue that caused the car to come in for fuel stops far more frequently than anticipated.
“We were struggling to get all the fuel, so we started doing five lap stints, sometimes six,” Hartley said.
“We weren’t sure we were going to get to the end of the race.”