08.06.2023With the 20th attempt, Toyota Motorsport wins 2018 with Fernando Alonso behind the wheel

Toyota Motorsport needed 20 attempts to win the long-distance classic event in Le Mans. The venture succeeded in 2018 and the winning streak of the Japanese car manufacturer began, which has continued undefeated to this day. At the wheel of the 2018 victorious Toyota TS050 Hybrid with starting number 8 were Fernando Alonso, Kazuki Nakajima and Sébastien Buemi, three current or former Formula 1 racing drivers. The sister car with starting number 7, driven by Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and José Maria López, finished second. With the same line-up and only a few years later, Conway, Kobayashi and López with starting number 7 finally won in 2021 with the Toyota GR010 Hybrid. Spark has released both cars from 2018 as a set in scale 1:43. The high-quality 2-car set is limited to 1,500 pieces and comes in a presentation box. The winning Toyota GR010 Hybrid from 2021 is also available from Spark. The model in 1:43 is made of high-quality resin. In the collection of the Le Mans winners of the past few years, the Toyota by Spark should not be missing.

Even if Toyota needed 20 attempts to win Le Mans, they did it more than superiorly in 2018. During the course of the race, it quickly became clear that one of the two Toyotas with starting number 7 or 8 would win. The Toyota TS050 Hybrids did not really have to be taken seriously against opponents and drove against their own teammates for victory. In the end, the vehicle with starting number 8 turned out to be the vehicle with the consistently better pace thanks to its strong driver line-up. After Fernando Alonso had delivered an unbelievable quadruple stint during the night, the advantage over the sister car was already 1.5 minutes. A mistake made by starting number 7 just 90 minutes before the end of the race, in which Kamui Kobayashi missed the entrance to the pits and thus had to be careful with his fuel reserves, finally made the decision at last. It was a significant win for Toyota and the end of a losing streak that peaked in 2016. At that time, the Toyota was leading on the last lap and stopped on the start-finish straight. In addition to the 18th Le Mans victory for Porsche, this event gave Kazuki Nakaijama, who was behind the wheel at the time, a place in the history books.

In 2021, the runners-up from 2018 were allowed to stand at the top of the podium. The race was anything but easy for Toyota. A fuel pump that kept clogging caused Toyota serious problems during the race. A few times the cars came into the pits every two laps to refuel and bleed the tank. To avoid the 25-minute repair that would have cost them overall victory, the team's technicians instructed the drivers to turn the fuel pumps off when braking into a corner and back on when accelerating out. With this trick, the cars crossed the finish line without being repaired. Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and José Maria López celebrated their first victory at Le Mans at the end of the 24 hours with a two-lap lead over their team-mates Sébastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima and Brendon Hartley.

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