Having won both the driver and constructor titles in the FIA World Endurance Championship, Toyota has its sights set on victory at Le Mans in June. Nissan’s new LM P1 prototype, the GT-R LM NISMO and Honda’s ARX-04b in LM P2 will be under scrutiny too.

1990 – Nissan is the first Japanese marque to take pole position at Le Mans 24 Hours, thanks to Briton Mark Blundell’s qualification time. Unfortunately he and his teammates Julian Bailey and Gianfranco Brancatelli had to withdraw from the race.

1990 – Masahiro Hasemi, Kazuyoshi Hoshino and Toshio Suzuki (Nissan R 90 CP n°23) become the first all-Japanese team to finish in the top 5 at the Le Mans 24 Hours.

1991 – With the Mazda 767 B, Bertrand Gachot, Johnny Herbert and Volker Weidler are the first to win Le Mans at the wheel of a Japanese car. To date, Mazda is the only Japanese constructor to have won Le Mans.

1994 – Toyota’s first podium place in the Le Mans 24 hours : Eddie Irvine, Jeff Krosnoff and Mauro Martini come second with the 94 CV prototype.

1999 – First pole position for Toyota thanks to Briton Martin Brundle. The 1990 winner and teammates Emmanuel Collard and Vincenzo Sospiri have to withdraw the GT-One n°1 before the end of the race.

1999 – Ukyo Katayama, Toshio Suzuki and Keiichi Tsuchiya (Toyota GT-One n°3) finish second, the best result for a Japanese team in the Le Mans 24 Hours.

2010 – Winners of LM P2 and fifth overall, Jonny Kane, Nick Leventis and Danny Watts of Strakka Racing are the first competitors in LM P2 to cover 5,000 km in the 24 hours with the Honda HPD ARX-01c.

2011 – Nissan returns to Le Mans as an engine manufacturer and wins the LM P2 category with the Zytek Z11 SN thanks to drivers Tom Kimber Smith, Olivier Lombard and Karim Ojjeh of Greaves Motorsport, who came eighth overall.

2012 – Second victory for the Honda HPD in LM P2 with Ryan Dalziel, Tom Kimber Smith and Enzo Potolicchio (seventh overall) at the wheel of the ARX-03b from American team Starworks Motorsport, who won the category in the first season of the FIA World Endurance Championship.

2014 – At the wheel of the Toyota TS040 Hybrid, Kazuki Nakajima is the first Japanese driver to clinch pole position in the 24 hours and in style too, at the wheel of a Japanese prototype. The former F1 driver with Williams and his teammates Stéphane Sarrazin and Alex Wurz were forced to withdraw having led the race for the first fifteen hours.

The 83^rd Le Mans 24 Hours will take place on Saturday 13 and Sunday 14 June 2015.

Jean-Philippe Doret / ACO                                          Translated by Emma Paulay

Photo: LE MANS (SARTHE, FRANCE), PLACE DE LA REPUBLIQUE, LE MANS 24 HOURS, SUNDAY 8 JUNE 2014, SCRUTINEERING. Kazuki Nakajima started in pole position in 2014, but will he be the first Japanese driver to win the 24 Hours in a Japanese prototype? Answer on Sunday 14 June 2015 at 15:00.