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The most heartbreaking defeat of the last decade

In the next feature in our series looking back on motorsport in the recently concluded 2010s, we recall Toyota's heartbreak at the Le Mans 24 Hours in 2016, just minutes before what would have been its maiden win in the famous endurance race

Gary Watkins Jan 2, 2020, 2:23 PM

Finally, the perennial unlucky loser was really about to do it. All those years of disappointment were about to be buried once and for all. Toyota was going to win the Le Mans 24 Hours. Toyota had won the Le Mans 24 Hours. As good as.

But as good as has never been enough at Le Mans, certainly not for Toyota down the years.

A manufacturer that had made a habit of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory did it again in 2016. This time it was later than ever in its danger zone of the metaphorical eleventh hour.

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Author Gary Watkins

Gary Watkins has, for reasons best known to himself, devoted all his working life to covering sportscar racing. This season is his 33rd as a motorsport journalist, during which time he has reported on major long-distance events on four continents and approaching 80 24-hour races. He reckons a degree in political philosophy makes him well qualified for covering the sometimes Machiavellian world of international sportscars.

Gary, who also writes for Motor Sport, Autocourse, RACER and others, lives in Surbiton close to the former workshops of the Cooper Formula 1 team but spends more time on the road than at home for most of the year.