Toyota Gazoo Racing suffer in São Paulo

Toyota Gazoo Racing endured a challenging 6 Hours of São Paulo to bring a frustrating week to a close at Interlagos, venue for the fifth round of the 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC).

In contrast to a dominant win in Brazil last year, the World Champions faced difficulties since opening practice, and pre-race expectations were correspondingly limited. Despite a strong team effort, consistent driving and clean pit stops, both GR010 Hybrids finished out of the top 10 due to performance and speed deficits.

Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries, driving the No7 GR010 Hybrid, took the chequered flag in 14^th. Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa – racing as a two-car crew due to Sébastien Buemi’s absence for other racing commitments – finished 15^th in their No8 GR010 Hybrid.

That disappointing result means Toyota Gazoo Racing misses out on World Championship points for the first time since the 6 Hours of Silverstone in 2018, a remarkable run of 44 consecutive points finishes in races.

The race began late on a sunny morning with Hartley and Conway starting from 10^th and 18th respectively. Both used a mix of medium and hard Michelin tyres and initially made some progress. But they lacked pace as the opening stint wore on and, at the first pit stops around the one-hour mark, both were out of the top 10.

Consistent pace on old tyres helped edge both cars slightly closer to the points prior to the first driver changes, which came after two hours and saw de Vries take over the No7 while Hirakawa took the wheel of the No8. On new medium tyres they never gave up and set their cars’ fastest laps as half distance approached.

But the challenge was proving too great and, despite overtaking the No009 Aston Martin late in the fourth hour, the top 10 was out of reach. Nevertheless, at the next driver changes early in hour five, Kamui and Brendon resumed the fight before the race was briefly interrupted for an unusual reason, when a kite had to be removed from the start-finish straight.

The last pit stops came early in the final hour and saw Kamui remain in the No7 while Hirakawa took over the No8. As the sun set, they were running just a few seconds apart in 14^th and 15^th respectively and they took the chequered flag together in that order, three laps behind the winning Cadillac.

The WEC summer break gives the team an opportunity to assess a challenging weekend and return stronger for the sixth round of the season, Lone Star Le Mans at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, on 7 September.

Team quotes

Kamui Kobayashi (Team Principal and driver, car No7): “I am disappointed with the performance and the result because finishing 14^th and 15^th is not what we expect. We tried our best to find performance but obviously we were too far behind. We didn’t have the straight-line speed of the others which meant we were unable to fight with anyone. We need to analyse this and work hard to improve the situation, then I am sure we can come back stronger at the next race. On the positive side, big congratulations to AKKODIS ASP Team for winning the LMGT3 category with the RC F LMGT3. I’m happy to see them in the middle of the podium; they really deserved this win.”

Mike Conway (driver, car No7): “It has been a pretty tough day. We didn’t have much to fight with, but we did everything possible. In the end, both cars were just running at the wrong end of the field unfortunately. Anyway, we will try to learn from this and find solutions before Austin, where we hope for a much better performance.”

Nyck de Vries (driver, car No7): “It’s a big difference compared to last year, so we’re obviously not happy after a race like that. We all want to fight at the front, but it was just not possible today. But we are a strong team, and we will work hard over the summer to return in better shape at the next race.” 

Brendon Hartley (driver, car No8): “A difficult day in the office and not the result that we were hoping for. It’s disappointing to have both cars out of the top 10 on pure pace. I hope we can fight for wins again in the next races. I know everyone will be pushing very hard to achieve that.”

Ryo Hirakawa (driver, car No8): “It was a very tough race. We optimised our package so in some way we can be satisfied with that, but we are all unhappy with the result. It’s a difficult day for everyone in the team. There have been some hard races this season, but hopefully it’s going to be better in Austin and Fuji. I think the team is doing a good job, so fingers crossed we will get the reward soon.” 

ENDS