WEC 2025 result after Round 4: 24 Hours of Le Mans

Toyota Gazoo Racing continued its FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) campaign with a determined team effort yet disappointing result in the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans. How did this halo race of the season pan out? Read on for our WEC 2025 review of round four.

Pre-race reveals

A month before the event, Toyota announced that it would commemorate 40 years of competition in the 24 Hours of Le Mans with a unique combination of livery designs (below). The #7 GR010 Hybrid of Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries would appear in a one-off livery inspired by the iconic Toyota TS020 (also known as the GT-One), while the #8 car of Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa would retain the current matt black livery that represents its present fighting spirit.

Since Toyota’s Le Mans debut in 1985 with the 85C, a total of 61 Toyota cars and 62 drivers from 16 different nationalities have competed in 26 editions of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Together they established our Le Mans heritage with five wins, 18 podiums and eight pole positions.

While past and present would figuratively meet on track during this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans, the week of the event saw Toyota announce an exciting look into the future with the unveiling of the GR LH2 Racing Concept (above). Based on the current GR010 Hybrid hypercar, this liquid hydrogen-powered concept reveals our vision of how endurance motorsport can contribute to the development of technologies that can help society achieve a carbon neutral, sustainable future.

WEC 2025: 24 Hours of Le Mans

This 93rd edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans marked the 40th anniversary since Toyota’s first appearance in the endurance racing world’s most prestigious event. The ultra-competitive grid of 21 hypercars came from eight manufacturers, and despite difficult circumstances Toyota’s two GR010 Hybrid models had scored points in each of the three previous rounds. Coming into this event, Toyota was positioned second in the manufacturers’ standings and primed for a hopeful sixth win at La Sarthe.

Test day

Fresh from scrutineering and taking part in the city’s spectacular welcoming parade (above), the team wasted no time kicking off the official test day with a comprehensive round of preparation and fine-tuning of the 2025-specification GR010 Hybrids. The task list included stints on soft and medium compound tyres, set-up comparisons, and in-session changes of suspension components.

The first three-hour session began under a rain cloud and was interrupted by a 40-minute safety car period within the first hour. Nevertheless, the team made a productive start, with the #8 car of Buemi, Hartley and Hirakawa setting the second-fastest time around the 8.45-mile loop of race track and public road.

As the temperature increased and more rubber accumulated around the racing line, the second session proved much faster. Or at least initially. Three separate red flag periods disrupted the session, the last of which ended the action a few minutes earlier than scheduled. Nevertheless, both Toyotas completed their tests without serious drama, and the #8 car ended the day fastest with a lap time of 3m 26.246s. The #7 car of Conway, Kobayashi and de Vries was just two seconds behind in 14th place.

Free practice and qualifying

There was no track action in the three days between testing and the first of two free practice sessions. The team’s mechanics used that time to rebuild the cars but also take part in the annual Pit Stop Challenge (below), where crews from every team worked against the clock to record the fastest tyre change.

The first three-hour practice session took place in an afternoon of 30-degree heat, and the team used the time to check the car balance for qualifying and compare different mechanical set-up options and control settings. Two short red flag periods interrupted the programme, as did a slow puncture for the #8 car, but both Toyotas made an encouraging start and recorded 44 laps each.

Qualifying followed in the early evening, during which 21 Hypercars battled to earn one of 15 places in the following day’s hyperpole shoot-out. The team selected de Vries (#7) and Hartley (#8) for this important session, and both banked solid first flying laps with their heavy fuel loads. New tyres helped Hartley go faster on his final flying lap, however a badly timed yellow flag incident for another car forced de Vries to abandon his intended tyre change and battle through his final attempt on rubber that was well past its prime. Despite the disappointment of setting provisional starting positions of 10th (#8) and 17th (#7), the team took heart from last year’s Le Mans when the #7 started from 23rd yet fought for victory and finished a close second.

The second practice session took place after sunset that day, with the intention of allowing drivers to experience the circuit in darkness. All drivers were required to complete five laps at night, so the Toyota crews completed this formality alongside a programme of set-up adjustments for cooler night conditions.

Free practice and hyperpole

The final day of preparations featured two free practice sessions sandwiched either side of the hyperpole shoot-out, which determined the starting positions for the top 15 hypercars. The warm, dry weather of the third practice session proved ideal for tyre comparisons, while the final session took place in darkness in the hour before midnight. Both practice sessions were completed successfully and without trouble.

However, that was not the case for the two hyperpole shoot-outs – the first to decide the top ten cars, and the second to position those within the first five rows of the starting grid. The regulations dictate that different drivers must take part in each session, so Hartley was asked to complete the first for the #8 car. Going for maximum attack on new medium compound tyres and with a low fuel load, the New Zealander set the best time so far for any GR010 Hybrid at Le Mans and progressed into sixth place.

Fellow #8 driver Buemi then took over for the second session but suffered a trip through the gravel at Mulsanne corner and was forced to nurse the car back to the pits with a puncture. Unfortunately, there was not enough time to secure further flying laps, which meant that the #8 would remain in tenth place on the grid. Before the race had even started, the two Toyotas had already endured 16 hours of track action plus a combined total of 425 laps and almost 3,600 miles of intense preparation!

WEC 2025 race: 24 Hours of Le Mans

0-6 hours

A sell-out crowd of 332,000 spectators was there for the 4:00pm start of this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans. The weather was cloudy yet warm and driver Sébastien Buemi was lined up in tenth in the #8 GR010 Hybrid, while team-mate Mike Conway was sat a little further behind in 16th in the #7 car. Both started their fightback in the opening hour, although the #7 suffered bodywork damage on the very first lap when it was hit by a fellow competitor.

Nevertheless, Conway battled hard to close in on the top ten and overtook a duo of cars from one manufacturer either side of the one-hour mark. Buemi, meanwhile, made solid progress into seventh at the end of the second hour, having maintained a strong pace even on older tyres. Early in the third hour saw the first driver changes, with Hartley taking over from Buemi in the #8 and Kobayashi from Conway in the #7. The changeover saw the cars drop a couple of places, as did a lock-up for Kobayashi coming into the Mulsanne corner – the same location that troubled Buemi in the hyperpole shoot-out. As the fourth hour approached, Kobayashi was forced to pit to replace his damaged front right tyre.

The fifth hour started with Hartley challenging for sixth, while Kobayashi was eleventh. Half an hour later, Hirakawa took over the #8 to keep up the hunt for the top six, and de Vries stepped into the #7 to continue the team’s recovery into the top ten. Maybe de Vries had been a little too eager to achieve that, as the race organisers imposed a 50-second stop-go penalty for exceeding the speed limit when leaving the pit lane. He took the penalty during a full course yellow late in the sixth hour to minimise the time damage but still ended the first quarter in 18th place.

7-16 hours

Conway returned to the #7 for the first night stint in the seventh hour, and Buemi followed suit soon after in the #8 car. At this point, the two were placed 17th and sixth respectively. Positions and gaps evolved through the night as different fuel and tyre strategies – as well as penalties – shuffled the order. Buemi drove forward thanks to his pace on soft tyres and before handing over to Hartley at the end of the ninth hour was pressuring the fourth-placed competitor. By then, Kobayashi was at the wheel of the #7 car and secured 15th early in hour ten.

A further driver change was effected early in the eleventh hour, a few minutes before an incident caused a safety car period. As rivals pitted, the GR010 Hybrids remained on track and moved up, so that when the race resumed just before half distance, Hirakawa was second in the #8 and de Vries was in 12th just 40 seconds behind the leader. With everything to race for, both cars set their fastest laps of the race. Hirakawa moved into the lead through the next round of pit stops, while de Vries moved into the top ten. Old tyres eventually dropped Hirakawa to second late in the 13th hour.

When Hirakawa pitted to change tyres early in the 14th hour, his rivals remained on track. This dropped the #8 car back down to fifth. Meanwhile, de Vries pushed hard and rose to eighth before setting a new fastest lap time. Later in that hour Buemi took over the #8 in fifth and Conway returned to the wheel of the #7 in eighth. Buemi drove hard to stay in podium contention but eventually conceded a position in the 16th hour. At this point, Hartley took over the #8 and Kobayashi the #7 car, still damaged from its first-hour conflict with another competitor.

17-24 hours

As the final quarter of the race approached, a strong team effort had established the #8 in the top six and in a close fight with two other manufacturers for an even higher finish. The #7 had recovered to eighth, but the pace at the front was ultimately too hot for the GR010 Hybrids, a feeling that was cemented at the start of the final quarter when a broken component caused the front left wheel of the #8 car to suddenly detach. After limping back to the pits on three wheels, mechanics worked together quickly to replace the front left assembly. However, 20 precious minutes had elapsed before Hirakawa was able to resume the race, in 19th place having lost seven laps.

Meanwhile, the #7 never stopped pushing and Kobayashi’s pace over the final hours brought the fifth-placed car, which at one stage had been a minute ahead, into range. Unfortunately, a late drive through penalty put paid to that charge. Kobayashi eventually took the chequered flag in sixth after completing 386 laps while the #8 crew finished 16th, seven laps behind the winner.

This year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans may not have delivered the 40th anniversary celebration that Toyota anticipated, as misfortune and a blistering pace at the front thwarted the team’s charge. But the team members could rest in the knowledge that they had taken the fight to their rivals with an effective strategy, precise driving and a fighting spirit.