24h Le Mans
Sébastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima and Fernando Alonso tell us about their race and how it feels to take their second win in the Toyota Gazoo Racing #8 Toyota TS050 Hybrid.
Kazuki Nakajima
It was a tough race for everyone. We fought hard with my teammates. We know the race was decided by something else and it was nothing to do with our performance. We’ve experienced that kind of thing in the past as well. I don’t know what to say… Our goal was to win the world championship, and we did it. I’m proud, not only for myself but for the whole crew.
Fernando Alonso
Amazing, and this one was really unexpected! We didn’t have the pace for 24 hours. We weren’t as fast as car #7 and we didn’t deserve to win on track but luck was a big factor. What can you do in that case? I experienced that kind of moment myself with McLaren fighting for the world championship in 2007, with Ferrari in 2011 and 2012, when you get to the last minute and you’re not able to complete the job. The race or whatever chose us to win it. Our main goal was to be world champions. Last year was hard because I committed to both Formula One and WEC, to fight for another world championship, and today is the day that we took it. The WEC programme is not for me for next year. It's hard to commit now for next month and the next season until 2020. I want to leave things a bit more open. I will definitely come back for some WEC races and Le Mans because I love this race.
Sebastien Buemi
It was a difficult race somehow, because we entered the race knowing that we could lose the championship. I drove the entire race thinking, 'Let’s see if we have the pace to fight with car #7', and after five laps I realised it was going to be nearly impossible. Somehow in the race, we got better but they were the quickest over the whole race. I would have been really happy to finish second because over the year, they deserved more wins than they had. What happened today is really hard and I remember in 2016 with Kazuki, it was really tough too. But that’s motorsport, of course, and I will take the win, but I’m sorry for them.
PHOTO: LE MANS (SARTHE, FRANCE), CIRCUIT DES 24 HEURES DU MANS, 16 JUNE 2019. Sébastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima and Fernando Alonso on the podium.
