Toyota win Le Mans for fifth year in a row

:Toyota won the 24 Hours of Le Mans for the fifth year in a row on Sunday with New Zealand's Brendon Hartley taking the chequered flag to become a triple champion.

Swiss driver Sebastien Buemi, now a four-times winner of the world's greatest endurance race, and Japanese first timer Ryo Hirakawa shared the overall victory in the number eight GR010 hybrid hypercar.

The number seven Toyota, crewed by last year's winners Mike Conway of Britain, Japan's Kamui Kobayashi and Argentina's Jose Maria Lopez, secured the predictable one-two finish at the Sarthe circuit.

Glickenhaus Racing's number 709 car completed the podium with Britain's Richard Westbrook, French driver Franck Mailleux and American Ryan Briscoe but they were in a different league to Toyota who had no real rivals.

Hartley won Le Mans in 2017 with Porsche and in 2020 with Toyota when he took the place of Spain's two times Formula One world champion and double Le Mans winner Fernando Alonso.

Buemi has taken all four of his wins with the Japanese manufacturer.

"Unless I change cars I'll never catch him," joked the Kiwi, who secured pole position on Thursday.

Toyota were the only major manufacturer in a field of just five hypercars, a situation that will change next year when Peugeot, Ferrari, Porsche and Cadillac step up and provide more competition.

Le Mans has a habit of biting back and choosing its winner, however, and reliability can never be taken for granted as the number seven crew discovered.

The two Toyotas had swapped the lead and were separated by only a few seconds for much of the first 16 hours until technical problems struck.

Lopez slowed at Arnage on lap 256 with the motor generator unit requiring a reset by the side of the track before he could return to the