Toyota City, Japan, Sept 17, 2024 - (JCN Newswire) - TOYOTA GAZOO Racing's winning run on home ground came to an end despite a valiant effort in a dramatic 6 Hours of Fuji, the penultimate round of the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC).
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An intense team effort, committed driving and bold strategy put the GR010 HYBRIDs in the fight for victory despite their revised power and weight parameters at Fuji, but TOYOTA GAZOO Racing's run of six consecutive home wins ultimately ended in frustration.
In front of 65,800 enthusiastic fans, a battling drive from Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa in their #8 GR010 HYBRID looked to have earned a podium until a late penalty dropped them down to 10th place.
The #7 GR010 HYBRID of Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries had led with two hours to go but were forced to retire due to accident damage. That effectively ends the World Championship challenge of Kamui and Nyck with one race remaining.
The team found itself on the back foot from the opening stages. Either side of a lap-two safety car, Sebastien dropped from second to fourth while Mike also lost ground from fourth on the grid, and spent the first stint in fifth, behind the #8.
Further position changes saw the second hour end with Mike still in fifth, but Sebastien now sixth, although those positions were swapped soon after when the #7 GR010 HYBRID suffered tyre degradation, causing it to pit earlier than planned. Nyck took over while Brendon replaced Sebastien soon after.
Despite the tough start, the team's fuel and tyre strategy started to pay off. After half distance, Nyck overtook the #15 BMW and the #50 Ferrari then overhauled the #6 Porsche in the pits to lead. The #8 also made progress and Brendon boldly passed two Ferraris before handing over to Ryo, who joined the podium fight.
After almost four hours of intense competition, Kamui took over for two stints to hunt down the victory, with both cars now in a stronger strategic position in terms of fuel and tyres than their rivals. But a virtual safety car early in the fifth hour took away that advantage by giving all Hypercars the chance to pit and lose less time compared to doing so under racing conditions.
A 90-minute sprint to the flag saw Ryo initially hold third before the #35 Alpine overtook. The #7 fared worse when Kamui and the #5 Porsche made contact in the battle for eighth. Damage to the rear suspension and bodywork could not be repaired in time, so the car was retired with an hour remaining.
Ryo pushed hard to bring the #8 back onto the podium in the final hour, overtaking both JOTA Porsches and then moving into a comfortable third after a penalty for the #35 Alpine. But with 16 minutes to go, the #8 incurred its own drive-through penalty, for an incident with the leading #6 Porsche, and Ryo finished 10th, 58.879secs behind the winner.
Despite the very frustrating result, the team is already focused on retaining its manufacturers' title in a showdown in Bahrain on 2 November when the fight for the World Championship will be concluded. TOYOTA GAZOO Racing is just 10 points behind leaders Porsche going into the eighth and final race of 2024.
Kamui Kobayashi (Team Principal and driver, car #7):
"It was a very tough race. The second safety car brought us into a difficult situation. After that I tried to fight with Porsche #5 for a couple of laps, but our lack of straight-line speed was clear, so he tried to overtake through the first three turns. On the inside of turn three we both committed to the corner in the same moment and could not avoid contact. Unfortunately, we then had another contact, and the damage was too heavy to repair. It definitely was not our day, and I feel sorry for our home fans who supported us so much. Hopefully we will come back strong for the last race in Bahrain."
Mike Conway (Driver, car #7):
"It's been a pretty rough day on both cars. Unfortunately for car #7 we had contact and the car was not repairable, so we didn't score any points which is bad for our drivers' championship, and as a team we didn't score well for the manufacturers' either. It's obviously frustrating and not the result we wanted for our home fans and all the partners and Toyota colleagues who support us here. But there is one round to go and it's a longer race, with more points available, so we will do our best to come back fighting."
Nyck de Vries (Driver, car #7):
"It is a tough pill to swallow for the whole team. It has been hard all weekend. We were aware that our race pace was not good enough to challenge at the front based on our speed alone and that we needed to execute the best possible race to score good points for both championships. We had a great strategy to do just that but unfortunately due to the race circumstances, we didn't pull it off. That is a real pity."
Sebastien Buemi (Driver, car #8):
"It was a bit of a disaster for us. We had a solid start, considering we were a bit slower than our rivals. I had no chance to race into turn one because the acceleration of the other cars was much better. But we came back into it, then got unlucky with the safety car. Without the drive-through penalty we would have finished on the podium which would have been an acceptable result. We'll analyse everything, regroup and come back stronger in Bahrain."
Brendon Hartley (Driver, car #8):
"We had a pretty clean race. Seb did a great job looking after the tyres which gave us a real chance based on our strategy. We didn't have the pace of our competitors, but we did our best. A big thanks to the team because everyone fought hard. It was an important race for us and in the end we came up short for many different reasons. But we will keep our heads up and fight back in Bahrain for the manufacturers' championship. Huge thanks to everyone here in Japan who has supported us this week, the Toyota colleagues, partners and all the fans."
Ryo Hirakawa (Driver, car #8):
"Obviously it is a really disappointing day. We wanted to have a good race in front of our fans and partners but it didn't turn out that way. We tried everything and at one point it looked promising, but then things went against us. There is one race remaining and hopefully we can finish on a high by winning the championship; we are going to keep fighting. Thanks to the team for their hard work all week, and special thanks to our partners and fans for all the support."
6 Hours of Fuji - Result
1st #6 Porsche Penske (Estre/Lotterer/Vanthoor) 213 laps
2nd #15 BMW M Team WRT (Vanthoor/Marciello/Wittmann) +16.601secs
3rd #36 Alpine Endurance Team (Lapierre/Schumacher/Vaxiviere) +42.321secs
4th #93 Peugeot TotalEnergies (Jensen/Muller/Vergne) +45.846secs
5th #12 Hertz Team JOTA (Stevens/Ilott/Nato) +49.689secs
6th #38 Hertz Team JOTA (Button/Hanson/Rasmussen) +51.916secs
10th #8 TOYOTA GAZOO Racing +58.879secs
DNF #7 TOYOTA GAZOO Racing
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