FILE PHOTO: Formula One F1 – Abu Dhabi Grand Prix – Yas Marina Circuit, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates – November 23, 2018 McLaren’s Fernando Alonso during practice REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed
LE MANS, France (Reuters) – Double Formula One world champion Fernando Alonso won the Le Mans 24 Hours sportscar race for the second year in a row on Sunday with Toyota team mates Kazuki Nakajima and Switzerland’s Sebastien Buemi.
The number eight car crew, who took the lead with an hour to go, were also crowned world endurance champions with Nakajima driving the final stint and becoming the first Japanese to win the title.
Toyota’s number seven TS050 hybrid car, crewed by Britain’s Mike Conway, Japan’s Kamui Kobayashi and Argentina’s Jose Maria Lopez, led most of the way but suffered two late punctures and dropped to second in a one-two finish for the Japanese manufacturer.
Belgian Stoffel Vandoorne — Alonso’s former McLaren Formula One team mate — finished third in his debut Le Mans with Russian team mates Vitaly Petrov and Mikhail Aleshin in the number 11 SMP Racing BR Engineering car.
Reporting by Alan Baldwin in London, editing by Pritha Sarkar