Hartley on spinning teammate Toyota: 'Could happen to anyone'

Five consecutive times Toyota managed to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans, but in the exhilarating 2023 edition, the Japanese marque had to leave the ultimate honour to Ferrari. Possibly because of the extra ballast of the Balance of Performance, there was little left of the dominance the team showed at the World Endurance Championship (WEC) races up to Le Mans this season.

Chasing leader Ferrari, Ryo Hirakawa of the only remaining Toyota spun in the closing hours of the race. The Japanese then had to go to the pits, putting victory completely out of sight. Without this slip, Toyota might still have won the race in the final stages, as the Ferrari did not move from its place for several seconds at its final pit stop.

Hartley: 'We were underdogs'

'What if' doesn't count in motorsports. So this time Brendon Hartley was on the podium not in first place, but second. "A lot of different emotions honestly," the New Zealander said before the podium ceremony. "We gave it all. We were the underdogs today. Most of the race we were one of the slower cars. It came to us a bit at the end with the hotter track temp and the last few stints I did, it's probably the best stints I've done. I just did qualifying lap after qualifying lap. I knew if we just tried to put them under some kind of pressure, they had to pace advantage, but we did everything. We threw everything at them."

In the last stint, Hirakawa was in the car. So the Japanese spun. "We said full risk, maximum attack. We want to win the race. He had a little accident that happens and it could have happened to any of us and it happened to many guys out there today for the last 24 hours. Full support for Rio as well. The goal was to go maximum attack and that's what we did."

Hartley confessed to being 'disappointed' with the final result and that it was probably hard to stand on the second step of the podium. "I'm kind of lost for words. I'm disappointed. I'm proud of my team. Proud of everyone," the former F1 driver said.