Jose Maria Lopez

First of all, I’d like to say it was an honour and a pleasure to be on the team with Fernando. We got to know him as a person, not just as a driver, so we’ll miss him. Congratulations for the championship. It’s a tough race, it’s a cruel race, as history has shown. I honestly can't say what happened today. We’ll need to analyse it. We kept a new set of tyres for the end, for safety. I stopped to change the tyres. I was taking care and then I saw a message on the screen that I had a puncture. So I came in and we changed one tyre, but we still had a puncture. The pressure was very low so I couldn’t go more than 100 kph and 13 km is a long way. I tried to push as hard as I could but it was too late. Nevertheless, I’m so proud to share the car with these two guys. We’ll come back stronger than ever. There is nothing anyone can say to make us feel better. Or maybe, just maybe if they give us the Rolex!

Car #8 was pushing us to our limits but we fought with them. It’s stressful because we’re friends, but we always kept that team spirit and we had some good laughs. In the end, it didn’t come to us, but the only thing we can do is keep trying.

Mike Conway

We were looking good for a long, long time, but we got unlucky with the puncture. That’s just how this race goes, but it doesn’t make it any easier. It was a great job by everyone on the team, especially the crew who had to build a new car, so all credit to them for giving us a car able to fight at the front all day. Congrats to car #8, not just for today but for the whole championship. They’ve been formidable opponents all year and it’s been a lot of fun as well. We’ll try and keep our chin up and come back strong again.

Kamui Kobayashi

Right now, I don’t like Le Mans. To win here is hard. Sebastien tried six times before succeeding, so probably next time will be the one for me… maybe! I think the point is, never give up. I try hard to win this race, and we looked good till the 23rd hour. It’s hard to take, but that’s life and that’s racing. When you’re racing in the night, with 61 cars, it’s a jungle. We should be happy to have survived the jungle and finished the race with no injuries! We had to change the chassis after Qualifying 1, but in the end the set-up worked well. We went for a different set-up just before the race and it seemed to work somehow. Now we have this result, but I’m proud of these two guys on my team. 

PHOTO: LE MANS (SARTHE, FRANCE), CIRCUIT DES 24 HEURES DU MANS, SATURDAY 15 JUNE 2019, RACE. The #7 Toyota TS050 Hybrid (Toyota Gazoo Racing) driven by Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and José Maria Lopez.