Toyota won the 24 Hours of Le Mans 2018 at Circuit de la Sarthe. The #8 Toyota TS050 Hybrid of Toyota Gazoo Racing covered 388 laps over 24 hours, a race distance of 5,287 km. The winning crew: Sébastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima and Fernando Alonso. The margin to second place was 2 laps — a clear, controlled win. The fastest manufacturer also produced the winner.
How the Lead Was Won
Across the race we counted 4 lead changes among 2 different cars in the LMP1 class. At the closest point, first and second were only 0.9 s apart. For 10 of 15 measured hours the gap stayed under 30 seconds.
That is a real head-to-head fight, not a comfortable lead.
Figure 1 shows how that gap moved over the distance.
Manufacturer Pace
We rank pace by the average of each manufacturer’s fastest lap. That measures real speed over the distance instead of one lucky lap. The order at the top: Toyota (248.0 km/h), Rebellion (245.1 km/h), BR Engineering (243.9 km/h).
Between the fastest and the slowest manufacturer in the LMP1 class lie 9.7 km/h. That is a wide spread. At this track, the concept differences show clearly.
Figure 2 sets the pace order side by side.
Reliability by Class
17 of 60 cars did not make the finish — an overall retirement rate of 28%. The heaviest toll fell on LMP1 with 50%, while LMGTE Pro came through best at 18%.
Over this distance, reliability is a result in itself. A car that stops scores nothing, no matter how fast it was.
Figure 3 compares the classes directly.
Efficiency Over the Distance
Our efficiency score multiplies average lap speed by laps completed and compares that to the class average. It rewards cars that were fast and stayed out of trouble. A value of 1.000 is exactly class average.
The top score goes to #8 Toyota with 1.463. That is the winning car — speed and durability came from the same package.
Figure 4 ranks the cars by that score.
Night Versus Day
Top-class cars averaged 243.1 km/h in daylight and 243.1 km/h at night. The difference is 0.01 km/h — faster in daylight.
In other words: no measurable night effect. Darkness costs concentration and makes traffic harder to read, but it does not slow modern prototypes down.
Figure 5 puts both phases next to each other.
The Closing Phase
In the final hour, 13% of the field held position within ±1 place (n = 60). The closing hour stayed busy, with position changes across the field. The biggest single move came from #26 Oreca, 54 places back.
Figure 6 shows how settled the finish really was.
Fastest Lap and Class Gaps
The fastest single lap of the race belongs to #8 Toyota (Toyota Gazoo Racing): 3:17.658 at 248.2 km/h. Crew: Sébastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima and Fernando Alonso.
Between LMP1 and LMP2 sits a pace gap of 8.5 s per lap. That number decides how much traffic the leaders have to work through.
Class winners — LMP1: #8 Toyota (Toyota Gazoo Racing), LMP2: #36 Alpine (Signatech Alpine Matmut), LMGTE Pro: #92 Porsche (Porsche GT Team), LMGTE Am: #77 Porsche (Dempsey - Proton Racing).
Putting the Race in Context
The winner averaged 220.2 km/h across 5,287 km. On a 13.626 km lap, that is the pace the whole strategy had to sustain.
We calculate the same metrics for every race in the archive: pace order, reliability by class, lead changes, winning margin, closing stability and efficiency. That makes this race directly comparable with every other round of the 2018-2019 season — and with the seasons before it.
All figures are derived from the full classification of every race hour and are recalculated with each build.
