World’s most advanced hybrid racing cars have confronted during this year’s 24-hour Le Mans. Audi, Toyota and Nissan brought their best hybrid cars powered by KERS flywheels and fossil fuels, but through an unfortunate series of events, the Audi E-tron R18 won the race.
I’m not saying that the E-tron is a bad car, or that Audi upset me in any way, but the main reason why Toyota and Nissan with its experimental DeltaWing didn’t win was that the Toyota pilots committed basic mistakes which led to serious crashes.
Toyota brought in their TS030 and put Anthony Davidson and Kazuki Nakajima behind the wheels. Davidson flipped in mid-air for several times after landing and breaking two vertebrae fractures.
Nakajima, on the other hand, crashed into the Nissan DeltaWing. After the crash, the pilot tried to reengage in the race, but eventually his engine blew up.
It is worth mentioning that before things started to go ugly, Toyota’s team even led the race for a few short moments.
[via Cars and Trees]
