TOYOTA RACING gets busy in Belgium

TOYOTA RACING returned to action in free practice for the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, the second round of the 2026 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC).

The team arrived in Belgium as the early World Championship leader after its victory in the season-opener at Imola. It took important steps to prepare for Saturday’s race with two 90-minute free practice sessions on the legendary Spa circuit.

The #7 TR010 HYBRID of Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries was 10th fastest, 0.711secs behind the pace-setting #36 Alpine. Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryō Hirakawa were 13th in their #8 TR010 HYBRID.

Temperatures between 9°C and 13°C were cooler than at Imola three weeks ago, although the weather stayed dry. The TR010 HYBRIDs used the two sessions to test set-ups specifically for the conditions and demands of Spa. The 7.004km circuit requires a balance between top speed at the first and third sectors of the lap, and aerodynamic and mechanical grip in the second sector.

Tyre warm-up, performance, and consistency will be key factors on race day, so in second practice both cars also analysed the soft and medium compound Michelin tyres. That session saw the fastest laps of the day, with Kamui and Brendon setting the best times of the day in their respective cars.

A third and final practice session takes place on Friday morning, giving the engineers and drivers another opportunity to optimise car settings before qualifying, which begins at 3.20pm local time for Hypercars. That sets the grid for Saturday’s race, with the action starting at 2pm.

Quotes:

Kamui Kobayashi (Team Principal and driver, car #7): “We struggled a little bit, but we were lucky with the weather, so we could get through a lot of work. We have been trying to get comfortable with the car and did make some progress. Friday is an important day, and we need to maximise our performance. We are doing our best.”

Mike Conway (Driver, car #7): “We have a bit of work to do for tomorrow because we seem to be a bit behind in some areas. There are things to improve, and we’ll try to make progress overnight. The feeling in the car is okay, it’s just that we need to extract a bit more speed.”

Nyck de Vries (Driver, car #7): “It is nice to be back at Spa, and I always enjoy driving here but, to be honest, I thought we had a challenging day. We have some work to do to put ourselves in position to challenge at the front. Let’s see what progress we can make and what tomorrow brings.”

Sébastien Buemi (Driver, car #8): “It’s good to be back in Spa, which is a great circuit, and we were lucky with the weather today because it stayed dry. Performance-wise, we are not where we want to be, but we are going to work hard on that and hopefully close the gap tomorrow. We know it’s going to be a long race, and it will be important to look after the tyres, so let’s see how things develop.”

Brendon Hartley (Driver, car #8): “It was a smooth day with no major dramas. It’s obviously very competitive at the front, which is exactly what we expected. We are lacking a little bit, particularly compared to Imola. But we are also working hard to try to extract a bit more lap time out of the car.”

Ryō Hirakawa (Driver, car #8): “Today we didn’t have enough performance, so we need to analyse and understand more. It’s a different picture compared to Imola, so we need to fine-tune the car. At Imola we did a perfect job in optimising the car and we need to do the same here.”

Click here to access the 2026 TOYOTA RACING WEC press kit. Click here to download rights-free video material of the TR010 HYBRID.