
Pascal Vasselon, Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe technical director, explained that the Japanese driver who shared the second-placed GR010 HYBRID Le Mans Hypercar with Sebastien Buemi and Brendon Hartley was caught out by a rearward brake balance setting at the tight Arnage right-hander.
This had not been communicated to Hirakawa when he took over from Hartley for the run to the chequered flag and attempted to close down a gap of approximately 15s to the winning Ferrari 499P LMH driven by Antonio Giovinazzi, James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi.