Frustration at Fuji for Toyota Gazoo Racing 

Toyota Gazoo Racing experienced a frustrating home race yesterday (29 September) as their podium challenge was struck by misfortune during an action-packed 6 Hours of Fuji, the penultimate round of the 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC). 

In front of a 66,400-strong crowd, the team fought their way into a spectacular battle at the front. Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries, in their No7 GR010 Hybrid, led midway through the race after an intense charge through the field. An ill-timed safety car proved costly, but they fought back to finish eighth. 

Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa endured an even more difficult race in the team’s No8 car; they took the chequered flag in 16^th, two laps behind. 

Their troubles began in the opening minutes when, from eighth on the grid, Buemi was hit by the No35 Alpine. He pitted under full course yellow to change a punctured left rear tyre and dropped to 17^th. A further setback followed with a three-minute stop-go penalty for an infringement, which dropped the crew to 18^th, two laps behind. 

After starting from 14^th, Conway had a clean opening 45 minutes before de Vries took over the No7 during a virtual safety car period. He moved into the top 10 during an exciting stint, decisively passing the No6 Porsche and No36 Alpine in quick succession. 

An accident at the two-hour mark helped the No7 make further progress. De Vries was in pit lane when a virtual safety car was called, minimising time loss and elevating him to third. He brilliantly took second just after half distance and even led the race during the next pit stop window, before a safety car undid all that good work. 

Running low on energy, the No7 had to refuel when pit lane was closed which, according to the regulations, required another stop when it re-opened. The gaps across the Hypercar field were erased and the No7, with Kobayashi at the wheel, fell to 13^th. Meanwhile, the No8 crew was too far behind to make up positions from 16^th. Hartley handed over to Hirakawa for the final two hours. 

Kobayashi began a determined fightback in the fifth hour and quickly made it into the top 10. A final fuel stop with an hour to go helped him make further progress and he was eighth at the flag. Hirakawa completed a clean and uneventful stint to finish 16^th. 

The team have a final chance to earn their first podium of a difficult year when the season concludes at the 8 Hours of Bahrain on 8 November. 

Kamui Kobayashi (Team Principal and driver, car No7): “This is not what we wanted from our home race. We did our best but the safety car really hurt us. We were fighting at the front until that point. I tried to recover positions after that, and I think eighth was the best we could manage from there. As a team we did everything we could, but it wasn’t enough. We have struggled this week in terms of performance, so we need to learn from this experience. The last race of the season is next, and I want to stand on the podium. I really hope we can win to give us a positive end to this difficult year. We will do our best to achieve that.” 

Mike Conway (Driver, car No7): “It was looking good for a while, but our luck ran out when the safety car came at exactly the wrong time. A top-eight and some points are okay but ultimately, we didn’t have enough pace. There were so many Toyota Gazoo Racing fans in the grandstand, as well as lots of Toyota employees and partners with their families. It was great to have their support and we did everything to give them a good result. We’ll come back fighting next year.” 

Nyck de Vries (Driver, car No7): “We fought very hard and did our best. At one stage we were fighting for the podium, but the timing of the safety car was very unfortunate. That kind of ruined our race. It was a pity, it had been an exciting race for us up until then. Who knows what would have been possible because we were holding on well and ready for a big fight to the end.” 

Sébastien Buemi (Driver, car No8): “It was a very difficult race with no points for us. I suffered a puncture after a few laps due to the contact. We had to make an emergency pit stop and made a mistake by not taking another stop when the pits opened again, which incurred a big penalty. From there it was impossible to get back into the points, so we used the rest of the race to try to learn something for Bahrain. Hopefully we will have a bit more luck there and we can fight at the front.” 

Brendon Hartley (Driver, car No8): “It was a tough day in front of our home crowd. We really appreciate their support and we gave it everything, but it was not the result we all wanted. The penalty put us two laps down, so the race was over for us after one-and-a-half hours. I don’t think either car truly had the pace of the leading cars but car No7 looked promising at one stage before they ran into bad luck. Now we need to regroup for Bahrain.” 

Ryo Hirakawa (Driver, car No8): “It was a hard race, and a lot of things went against us. We suffered the puncture so early and this cost us any chance of a positive result. We tried to fight back but, being so far behind, it was impossible to get back to the lead lap. It’s such a pity for our home race to end like this, but I really appreciate all the support we had from everyone here this week. The last race of the season is in Bahrain, where we were strong last year. I hope we can get a good result this time too.” 

6 Hours of Fuji – race results* 

*Provisional result. Official results will be published on http://fiawec.alkamelsystems.com/ 

ENDS