Brendon Hartley reveals latter stages of Le Mans “was heartbreaking” for #8 car
Brendon Hartley: “For the fans it was a beautiful race, but it was heartbreaking for us at the end. We were in a position to win for quite a lot of the race.”
In contention to win the Le Mans 24h race heading into the final couple of hours, the #8 Toyota was spun out of a podium place when contact occurred with the #51 Ferrari.
Hartley had extremely good pace during all of his stints, and was a leading reason as to why the #8 car was brought back into the thick of the action.
But the spin at Mulsanne corner while Hartley was driving put an end to their hopes of securing victory.
Speaking after the race, Hartley said: “For the fans it was a beautiful race, but it was heartbreaking for us at the end. We were in a position to win for quite a lot of the race.
“We lost some ground in one of the safety car periods but fought back to second, challenging for the lead before I got pushed off.
“That basically put us out of the fight for the win in the last couple of hours. It feels like the victory just slipped away from us.
“I am happy for the team that we got one car on the podium after all the hard work from everyone to get the result here. We just fell a bit short, and it is going to take a few days to get over the emotions.”
Sebastien Buemi, another former F1 driver like Hartley, expressed similar disappointment.
“I am a bit disappointed to finish fifth to be honest,” stated Buemi. “We were leading the race for a long time and without the incident late on I think we could have won.
“We had strong pace and didn’t make any mistakes so it’s frustrating how it turned out.
“The team did a great job, Brendon and Ryo drove really well and the engineers made the right strategy calls, so I think we performed well. Now we just have to work hard for the next race in Brazil.”
Ryo Hirakawa was one of the driver’s that drove a lot during very wet conditions and admitted the team were eager to win after missing out last year to Ferrari once again.
“I don’t know what to say,” began Hirakawa. “We fought together and we did everything we could do in such difficult conditions.
“We worked so hard all week and we really wanted to avenge last year’s defeat. We had a chance, but we didn’t quite have enough luck.
“It’s disappointing, especially because we were at the front for so long and we really pushed hard.
“We need to stay strong, switch focus to the rest of the season and try to bounce back. We will come back stronger.”
