90th 24 Hours of Le Mans Results, Notes: Toyota Gazoo Cruises, Glickenhaus Makes the Podium

After a long, and for many contenders, a star-crossed night and day, as the 24 Hours of Le Mans wound down to its 4 p.m. (local time) completion, the question became: Could Toyota, JOTA, Porsche and TF Sport make it to the checkered flag without any problems? They did, and there were no last-lap battles for the lead.

Toyota had a blessed race with only minor issues and, as expected, coasted to a one-two Hypercar and fifth straight overall victory. The biggest, and perhaps only surprise was that the American privateer Glickenhaus 007s ran a spectacular race, with one having to climb up through nearly the whole LMP2 field after a suspension failure to make it back to fourth place.

The fact that Glickenhaus earned a legitimate podium finish, four laps back from the winning Toyota, is a massive accomplishment, the first time an American designed and built car has done it since 1969.

The overall win went to the No. 8 Toyota with Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa sharing driving duties.

“It was a great responsibility, but also a great feeling to take the qualifying, take the pole position and also take the race finish, I think it’s the first time I’ve done that," Toyota Gazoo's Hartley said. "Yeah, I was overwhelmed with emotions when I crossed the line. The whole race you try not to think about the finish. We’ve all seen what can happen on the last laps even in the last couple of years, four or five years ago with Toyota. So, really crossing that line, all the emotions come out."

Buemi was equally choked up after the overall win.

"It’s hard for me to speak right now," Buemi said. "It’s an amazing feeling, especially with Ryō and Brendon. It’s the second one with Brendon, but Ryō joined us this year, so to be able to win it the first time we race together is amazing. He’s done an amazing job and I’d like to praise him very much for the job he’s done.

"Obviously, the team, our crew have done a fantastic job as well. And we did the job as well in the car, we didn’t do any mistakes, we did not damage the car so it’s an amazing feeling and it’s going to take a little bit of time until it sinks in, you know. It’s hard to realise what we achieved today."

Hirakawa became the fifth Japanese driver to win the 24 Hours.

"To join this legend, to be honest, I still cannot believe we realized my dream," Hirakawa said. "Yeah, my dream came true. I hope there is more to come to catch up to these legends."

Jota’s No. 38 car dominated LMP2 near the end and won a deserved class victory and fifth overall ahead of the No. 9 Prema Orlen car and the No. 28 Jota teammate in third. The No. 5 Penske car, entered largely to gain Le Mans experience, often ran in the top three and in the end settled for a top-10 position. Josh Pierson, the 16-year-old hoping to become the youngest driver in Le Mans history, finished sixth in class in the number 23 United Autosports entry.

In LM GTE Pro, the two Corvettes qualified on top and led through the first quarter until mechanical disaster struck. In the end, Porsche and two Ferraris would make up the podium, with the No. 91 Porsche on the top step. The Corvettes would finish in last and next to last place in the class. In fifth was the American Bee Safe Ferrari entry, led by veteran Bill Riley.