Ryo Hirakawa was leading the race in its 16th hour but his 12 seco🎃nd-lead was disappearing, and a visit to💛 the pits resulted in the entire front end of his car being replaced.

The #51 Ferrari took the lead which was converted into a historic victory - but To🐓yota’s woes have now been attributed to the local wildlife.

Pascal Vasselon, their technical director, expඣlained: “There were some windows where we were sometimes dominating Ferrari. There is a logic behind that. 

“After one of these moments wh🌄ere we were competitive, Ryo hit a squirrel.&n꧙bsp;

“It was probably not a very small one because it has done big damage t𒀰o the front end. 

“He was in trouble until th🔴e end of the stint when we could change the front end.”

The #8 did, at least, fin๊ish the 24 Hours of Le Mans but Toyota saw their other car retire early.

The #7 of Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Con🌊way and Jose Maria Lopez endured a premature end when Kobayash🃏i was involved in a multi-car incident.

Toyota had won five editions in a row of the 24 Hours of Le Mans before this𓆏 past weekend.