Toyota Gazoo Racing says that it has accepted an apology from LMP2 racer Vincent Capillaire for his part in the bizarre incident that contributed to the Japanese marque losing its best chance at winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Toyota's No.7 TS050 HYBRID started last weekend's race from pole and held command during the first nine hours before being forced into retirement with a clutch failure. It later transpired that the failure was traced to a bizarre incident on pitlane, where Kamui Kobayashi was waiting to take the No.7 back onto the track during a safety car period.
Algarve Pro Racing driver Vincent Capillaire walked over to the Toyota and gave it a thumbs-up – a gesture he later said was meant in solidarity. "I wanted to show my encouragement to the leader car, stopped at a red light a few meters in front of my pit box," he wrote on his Facebook page. "It was a spontaneous encouragement mark."
Kobayashi, however, apparently mistook Capillaire's orange and black racesuit for the similarly-colored ones worn by ACO pitlane officials, and interpreted the gesture as a signal to return to the track. He began to pull away, only to be called back by the team. In the process, he made several stops in and starts with the car still in fully-electric pit mode, using a clutch that is designed to start the combustion engine when the car is already at speed, not when it is stationary. The clutch burned out, and the car, drained of power, went into limp mode shortly after returning to the track and came to a halt in the Porsche Curves.
Capillaire was later fined for the incident, and Toyota said in a statement on Thursday that it accepts that his gesture was well-intentioned:
"Toyota Gazoo Racing can confirm it has received an apology from Vincent Capillaire regarding his actions during the Le Mans 24 Hours. We have fully accepted his apology and acknowledge that his sporting gesture was never intended to cause any negative consequences for our No.7 car. We remain on good terms with Vincent and we consider the matter is now closed."