Installed for the final double stint of the race, Hirakawa lost his chance to challenge for the win when he spun at Arnage in the penultimate hour – damaging the front and rear of the car against the barrier and then taking time to rejoin the track before pitting for repairs.
Hartley revealed after the race that Hirakawa had been sent out with “maximum attack” orders but also explained that the car was very tricky to control under braking at that point.
“We gave it our all,” Hartley told Eurosport. “A lot different emotions, because we were the underdogs today, most of the race we were one of the slower cars.
“It came to us a bit at the end, with the hotter track temp, and the last few stints I did were the best I’ve done, I just did qualifying lap after qualifying lap. I knew if we could just put them under some kind of pressure, we knew they had the pace advantage, but we did everything, we threw everything at them.
“We put Ryo in and said ‘look, full risk, maximum attack, we want to win the race’ and he had a little accident, it happens, and it could’ve happened to any of us and it did happen to many guys out there over the 24 hours.
“Full support to Ryo, the goal was to go maximum attack and that’s what we did.”
Hartley explained how difficult the #8 GR010 HYBRID was to drive on the edge, admitting to moments of his own under braking for Arnage – the slowest corner on the track.
Source: Autosport