Toyota is confident that it will be able to compete in the 6 Hours of Sao Paulo with a full roster after the first Free Practice sessions held on Friday of this fifth round of the FIA World Endurance Championship.
The question mark was above all over the returning Mike Conway, who, after the injury suffered in a bicycle fall that denied him the chance to take part in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, was back behind the wheel of the #7 GR010 Hybrid for the first time.
In the morning session, shortened due to the accident involving Arnold Robin’s #78 Lexus, the Briton completed 11 laps, while in the afternoon, benefiting from more time available, he completed two long runs for a total of 20 laps, before handing over the wheel to teammates Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck De Vries.
“Obviously it was great to be back in the car. I wasn’t sure what to expect, although the feeling was positive. I felt good and that gives me confidence for the rest of the weekend,” said the Englishman at the end of the day, which suggests that there will be no problems for the rest of the weekend in the car.
“Actually, I felt a bit of pain in the first tests, but in the second ones it was better, so maybe it was just a matter of getting used to the car again. I feel a bit bruised, but that’s normal and in general I’d say I’m pretty good.”
“I think it will be good for the rest of the race weekend. Doing a two-hour stint in the race will be another good test. It looks like we have a good car too, so I’m looking forward to the next sessions.”
#7 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 – Hybrid: Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, Nyck de Vries
Photo by: Toyota Racing
In any case, Toyota could also opt not to have its standard-bearer complete double stints, which would not lead to having to replace him with substitutes if he felt unable to race, given that a 6-hour race can be tackled by just two competitors.
Friday was mainly used to understand how the cars behave on the Interlagos asphalt, which was made damp by rain in the morning and dried out in the afternoon thanks to the possibility of fitting the medium and hard compounds brought by Michelin.
The best time of the day was the 1’25″727 set by Sébastien Buemi in the #8 GR010 shared with Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa, by a handful of thousandths ahead of Kobayashi and the official Ferrari 499Ps.
“It was a good start and everything went quite well for both cars. We need to understand the track better and how it evolves, because the track surface has changed since the last time we raced here, so we need to analyse everything,” Kobayashi said after the team tested both race pace and the attack on the fastest time.
“We still have one more practice session and we will use it to prepare the car and strategies for Qualifying and the race. We will do our best and see where we are after Qualifying.”
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