Sweet win with a slightly bitter taste might describe Toyota’s win in the 24-hour Le Mans after an incorrectly wired brake sensor decided which of their team’s car came out on top.

From early on it was clear that Toyota were on course to win it with Car #7 driven by Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez clear of the other Toyota Gazoo Racing TS050 Hybrid driven by Fernando Alonso, Sebastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima. However, with Lopez leading the sister Toyota driven by Nakajima by more than two minutes the system of tyre pressure sensors indicated a right front puncture.

Because the puncture hit late in the lap, Lopez was still able to resume with a healthy lead after the wheel was changed, only for the system to continue to indicate that the same tyre was punctured.

Toyota asked its Michelin engineer to check the pressure of the tyre that had been taken off the car and that it was found to be normal. The team then changed all four tyres when Lopez made it back to the pits for the second time. The left rear was subsequently found to be the tyre that had sustained the puncture.

The second lap of the 8.48-mile Le Mans circuit with the punctured left rear took Lopez nearly six minutes and resulted in him rejoining over a minute behind the sister car that held on in the end for the win.

Toyota Motorsport GmbH technical director Pascal Vasselon said afterwards, "The reason was that the antenna was wrongly connected.
"It was wired in the wrong way and was not a sensor problem.

"It is serious, as all mistakes are."

Meanwhile, the cars driven by two Irish drivers contesting the world’s most famous motor raceeach completed more than 4500 kilometres between the start on Saturday afternoon and yesterday’s finish.

Corkman Matt Griffin finished eighth in class at the wheel of the Clearwater Racing Ferrari 488 GTE, while current Motorsport Ireland Young Racing Driver of the Year Charlie Eastwood from Belfast shared the TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage to twelfth place.