After winning the Le Mans 24 Hours last month, the team faced challenging circumstances throughout the week in Brazil. A difficult qualifying meant that both cars needed to move through the field to score points, but race incidents limited their progress.
Le Mans winners Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries made up positions to finish 12th in their #7 TR010 HYBRID, one lap behind the race-winning #15 BMW. In the #8 TR010 HYBRID, Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryō Hirakawa lost several minutes due to a suspension change after being hit by a rival, and finished 17th.
Despite the disappointing result, TOYOTA RACING still leads the manufacturers’ World Championship, now by five points over BMW M Team WRT at the halfway point in the season. The #7 TR010 HYBRID crew are tied with the #20 BMW drivers in the lead of the drivers’ standings, while the #8 crew are fifth, 19 points behind.
Mike started from 17th following a grid penalty, and the #7 car’s troubles continued in the opening stages. A five-second penalty for a start infringement was followed by a drive-through for a full course yellow infraction in the second hour. Incidents and penalties elsewhere helped the #7 gain places and move closer to the top 10. However, further progress proved impossible over the remaining hours of a race which ended in fog and falling temperatures.
The #8 TR010 HYBRID took the start from 14th but gained positions – running briefly in the top 10 after the first pit stops – until its push for World Championship points was effectively ended in the second hour. Brendon was hit by another Hypercar, causing right-front suspension damage and requiring a 16-minute stop for repairs. The #8 dropped to the back of the field, but the drivers nevertheless continued pushing until the end, ready to take advantage of any problems ahead.
Following its frustrating week in Brazil, TOYOTA RACING now has an eight-week break to regroup and return stronger for the next round of the WEC season, the Lone Star Le Mans on 6 September, at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas.
Quotes:
Kamui Kobayashi (Team Principal and driver, car #7): “Obviously it was a very difficult race. It's not what we wanted before coming here, but we lacked performance all week, including in the race. We also made a couple of mistakes during the race and that doesn’t help. We need to learn from this and improve. There is still a long way to go in the World Championship fight, so we will do our homework and come back stronger for Austin.”
Mike Conway (Driver, car #7): “I’m disappointed with my race because I made a couple of mistakes, including the full course yellow penalty. It’s not the performance we wanted so we need to regroup now and bounce back in Austin.”
Nyck de Vries (Driver, car #7): “It was a very challenging weekend, and a very challenging day. Ultimately, we lacked performance since the start of the weekend. Of course, we also made some mistakes but, regardless, we were not quick enough. When you don't have the baseline speed, you have little chance to move forward.”
Sébastien Buemi (Driver, car #8): “Clearly not the result we were hoping for. We knew it would not be easy after qualifying but we were hopeful that we could score decent points, and it started quite well. But the contact basically ended our race. After that, there was nothing we could do. We just finished the race as cleanly as possible in case of any bad luck for the others, which never came.”
Brendon Hartley (Driver, car #8): “It's been a very tough day for both cars. I fought hard for the first two stints, and we were up to ninth after the first pit stop. Unfortunately, we got taken out by a car diving up the inside and locking the rears, which bent our suspension. It's one of those things. Without that, I think we could have fought for points today, but we didn't have the pace for a podium.”
Ryō Hirakawa (Driver, car #8): “It was a hard day. The contact just ruined our race, which was a pity. We didn't have the performance to fight at the front, but we had a chance to score points. We need to learn from this and come back stronger. There are still a few races to go, and we are in a big battle for the World Championship.”
6 Hours of São Paulo – Race
1st #15 BMW M Team WRT 242 laps
2nd #51 Ferrari AF Corse +2.254secs
3rd #12 Cadillac Hertz Team Jota +6.687secs
4th #38 Cadillac Hertz Team Jota +12.666secs
5th #83 AF Corse +32.351secs
6th #007 Aston Martin THOR Team +35.566secs
12th #7 TOYOTA RACING +1 lap
17th #8 TOYOTA RACING +12 laps
...
Provisional results. For full results, please visit https://fiawec.alkamelsystems.com
