Le Mans qualifying frustration for Toyota Gazoo Racing
Toyota Gazoo Racing experienced a painful qualifying session at the Circuit de la Sarthe and will now face an even greater challenge in the 92nd Le Mans 24 Hours, round four of the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC), taking place this weekend.
The reigning World Champions will start outside the top eight after missing out on the Hyperpole shoot-out during a turbulent qualifying yesterday. Nevertheless, everyone in the team is ready to respond strongly with a competitive race performance.
The No8 GR010 Hybrid of Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa suffered with traffic throughout; Hartley was one of many leading Hypercar competitors who were unable to show their true performance. The No8 will start from 11th on the grid.
Kamui Kobayashi set the fourth fastest qualifying lap in the No7 GR010 Hybrid he shares with José María López and Nyck de Vries but had all lap times deleted for causing a red flag at the end of the session and will start from 23rd, at the rear of the Hypercar field.
Either side of qualifying, two free practice sessions allowed the team to make constructive progress on their preparations for the race, when the true hierarchy at the front of the field will become clear.
Since the test day on Sunday, the team had worked intensively to rebuild and fine-tune the GR010 Hybrids while on Tuesday both pit crews took part in the traditional Pit Stop Challenge. They completed tyre changes in less than 10secs and narrowly missed defending the title won last year by the No7 crew.
Practice began in cloudy, mild conditions on Wednesday afternoon with a three-hour session, which was interrupted by two short red flags. Both cars used the session to optimise race set-ups and hone one-lap speed for qualifying. Hartley was fastest in the No8 GR010 Hybrid, with de Vries earning fifth in the No7.
With 62 cars on track, including slower LMP2 and LMGT3 competitors, traffic was always likely to be a major factor in qualifying. Kobayashi and Hartley both delayed their first flying laps, on soft tyres, and Koabayshi benefited from a clean track to briefly hold provisional pole.
As tyres reached optimum temperatures, lap times improved throughout the field and, after all Hypercars had completed their first flying laps within the first 20 minutes, Kobayashi sat third with Hartley out of the Hyperpole positions.
A stint on medium tyres followed, but Hartley again encountered traffic on his flying laps while Kobayashi did not improve. That meant Kobayashi was third and Brendon 12th when they began their final attempts, on medium tyres, inside the last 20 minutes.
Traffic continued to thwart Hartley, who also spun early in his stint and could not improve. Qualifying ended prematurely when Kobayashi spun through the gravel at Karting. The No7 was undamaged but was stripped of all its lap times for causing the red flag. Hartley was 11th in the No8 and missed Hyperpole by just 0.301secs.
The first night session of the event, second practice, brought down the curtain on the day’s action. The No7 required minor repairs as well as the removal of gravel following its qualifying incident and eventually hit the track around 25 minutes into the session. A clean session, in which lap times were markedly slower than earlier in the day, saw Buemi set the pace in the No8 while de Vries’s best lap put the No7 in ninth.
Race preparations continue today, Thursday, with four hours of practice prior to the race, which will begin on Saturday at 4pm local time.
Away from the on-track action, fans are exploring Toyota Gazoo Racing’s presence in the Hydrogen Village, where the GR H2 Racing Concept joins the latest innovations towards a hydrogen society, and the Manufacturers Village, which hosts a variety of motorsport vehicles as well as a merchandise store.
Team quotes
Kamui Kobayashi (Team Principal and driver, car No7): “Qualifying didn’t go well. In terms of performance, we were pretty good, but I went off with two minutes to go and caused a red flag. All my laps were deleted so we didn’t get to Hyperpole, and we have to start at the back of the Hypercar grid which is very challenging but it’s how it is. It’s a long race and we’ll push to get the best out of it. I feel pretty good in the car and the lap times in qualifying were competitive so I hope we will have a better experience at the weekend.”
José María López (driver, car No7): “It was a day of ups and downs, but we did some positive work in free practice. The car feels pretty good, also in the night. We had a strong car for qualifying and Kamui did a great job but unfortunately, we had the problem. Honestly, it doesn’t change much. Everyone wants to be in Hyperpole but it’s such a long race, so I am not worried or disappointed. We’re looking forward to it.”
Nyck de Vries (driver, car No7): “We had a good night session and everyone got their required night driving in. The mechanics did a very good job to get the car ready in time to run through most of our programme. It seems like we are fairly competitive. We did some comparisons of different set-ups and it feels like we’re on the right track in terms of race preparation.”
Sébastien Buemi (driver, car No8): “It is a very disappointing day because we had a good car and we didn’t make it to Hyperpole. Obviously, we will try to put that behind us and in second practice we worked hard to get the most out of the session. It was nice to be back driving at night here and we’re making progress on our race preparations.”
Brendon Hartley (driver, car No8): “I didn’t make the Hyperpole and we ended up 11th, so I am really disappointed. On my first lap I didn’t really get it together and I had a bit of traffic at the end of the lap as well. In the end, that was my best lap. After that there was traffic, there was a mistake from me with a spin. I was a bit unlucky and just couldn’t get a clean lap. But that’s racing; other drivers will have a similar story and think they should have been in Hyperpole too. Now we move on to the race and focus on that. I think we have a car that can compete so we will work on that.”
Ryo Hirakawa (driver, car No8): “It was a difficult day in some ways, but the car felt quite good, and we had a positive first night session of the week. We tried different tyre specifications and did some long runs to understand how the tyres behave. We are moving on from qualifying and focusing on getting ready for the race. Hopefully we can improve the set-up and make a perfect plan for the weekend.”
Le Mans 24 Hours – Qualifying
1 15 BMW M Team WRT (Vanthoor/Marciello/Wittmann) 3min 24.465secs 8 laps
2 3 Cadillac Racing (Bourdais/van der Zande/Dixon) +0.177secs 8 laps
3 50 Ferrari AF Corse (Fuoco/Molina/Nielsen) +0.266secs 8 laps
4 35 Alpine Endurance Team (Chatin/Habsburg/Milesi) +0.407secs 15 laps
5 2 Cadillac Racing (Bamber/Lynn/Palou) +0.528secs 13 laps
6 51 Ferrari AF Corse (Pier Guidi/Calado/Giovinazzi) +0.584secs 11 laps
11 8 TOYOTA GAZOO Racing +0.981secs 12 laps
61 7 TOYOTA GAZOO Racing No time 12 laps
ENDS
