WEC | All-Toyota front row opens up to team play

The all-Toyota front row (the 24th in its history) for the 6 Hours of Sao Paulo opens up a scenario that could further reshuffle the cards for the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship season.

The usual stratospheric Kamui Kobayashi set a time of 1’23″140 which allowed him to win the 40th Hyperpole for the Japanese manufacturer at the wheel of the #7 GR010 Hybrid that he will share with Mike Conway and Nyck De Vries, while his colleague Sébastien Buemi stopped 0″122 behind the Japanese driver in the #8 which will also be driven by Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa.

“We got the best possible result as a team. Séb and I definitely had fun, we had a fantastic car and it was fun to drive, especially because Interlagos is a beautiful track,” admits the Japanese.

“It was a challenge in terms of how we had to find speed with the tyres; qualifying was quite cold and obviously it was very difficult to get them up to temperature, but we tried to increase it as much as possible. In the Hyperpole I got the fastest time already on the first attempt, which turned out to be a success.”

“This season we have struggled a bit in qualifying because the competition is really strong, but finally we got a Pole, which is a fantastic feeling. After Le Mans, the team did a great job for this race, thanks to them and everyone at TGR.”

“What is Interlagos like? It’s a fairly small track for endurance racing, because there are a lot of cars on the track. During practice I noticed that there are a lot of us and that makes the track narrower than you would expect, especially with the dirt and the rubber debris. You can’t go too wide on the racing line.”

“I think it’s a challenge, but we’re all in the same situation. Six hours of racing is a long time for a short track like this, it’s a lot of laps in each stint. I think we’ll experience some particular situations, but I hope the race goes smoothly.”

“The temperatures? “I think they are similar for everyone. So, if we are in difficulty, I imagine everyone else is too. Not making mistakes is fundamental, because it is very difficult to overtake on this track, again because of the dirt. I see only one good trajectory, so in the race overtaking will make things difficult for everyone”.

Obviously we are only talking about a Qualifying that has nothing to do with the long 6 hours of the race, but the fact that both Japanese LMHs are in front, combined with the weather conditions that could see temperatures rise compared to Saturday (an aspect that cars like the Porsches could suffer from) puts them strategically at an advantage.

In the case of Buemi and his teammates, we are now also starting to think about a possible help for their teammates in view of the drivers’ title, since those in the #7 are better placed in the standings and in full contention against Porsche and Ferrari.

“I really enjoyed it. It was my first qualifying in a long time, so it was nice to have the chance and I’m very happy with the result,” admits the Swiss.

“It was a great team performance and a one-two in qualifying for the first time since last year. It’s just qualifying and the race is still long, but it gives us a good starting position.”

“We have several cars ahead in the championship standings and we should hope that someone has problems to be able to get back into the game, so it is possible that we will think about helping the #7 car to win the race and also get some good points for the Constructors’ Championship.”