Toyota have confirmed the cause of the failure which cost the Japanese manufacturer its first 24 Hours of Le Mans victory on the final lap of the race, handing the victory to Porsche.
The #5 Toyota TS050 Hybrid was just minutes away from claiming victory before driver Kazuki Nakajima reported a loss of power as he rounded the final few corners of the penultimate lap, with a one minute lead over the #2 Porsche 919.
Nakajima came to a halt on the start/finish straight, allowing the Porsche to pass for the lead. The Japanese driver finally got going again, but wasn't classified despite completing the same number of laps as the leader, as he failed to finish within 50 per cent of the leader's lap time.
The cause remained a mystery until Toyota were able to return the car to their factory and analyse it further, with Toyota finally confirming on Thursday that the cause was a "defective air line between the turbo charger and intercooler".
"Car #5 suffered a technical defect on a connector on the air line between the turbo charger and the intercooler, causing a loss of turbo charger control.
"The team attempted to modify the control settings to restore power and this was eventually achieved, allowing the car to complete the final lap. However, it was achieved too late to complete that lap within the required six minutes.
"Currently it is not clear exactly why this failure occurred as we have verified the process used to produce the part here in Cologne. Further analysis is required to determine the root cause. It is clear that the issue has no link whatsoever to the engine issues experienced at Spa earlier this season.
"Comprehensive investigations are underway at TMG to determine the precise reason for this issue with the aim of establishing countermeasures to avoid any repeat in the future."
