TOYOTA RACING resumes its Le Mans challenge

TOYOTA RACING took further important steps in its challenge at the 94th Le Mans 24 Hours during the opening free practice and qualifying sessions at the Circuit de la Sarthe.

As well as making progress on race set-up during five hours of free practice on Wednesday, both TR010 HYBRIDs also made it through qualifying to reach Thursday’s decisive Hyperpole 1. Sébastien Buemi was eighth in qualifying in the #8 TR010 HYBRID he drives alongside Brendon Hartley and Ryō Hirakawa, 0.656secs away from the pace-setting #35 Alpine. Mike Conway was 12th in the #7 car he shares with Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries.

Qualifying featured all 18 Hypercars, with the top 15 earning a place in Hyperpole. After initially starting on medium Michelin tyres, both cars improved their lap times on the soft compound in the closing minutes to safely progress. They will therefore take part in the grid-defining Hyperpole, which begins at 9.05pm on Thursday. The fastest 10 Hypercars from the 20-minute Hyperpole 1 will take part in the 15-minute Hyperpole 2 shoot-out.

Wednesday’s on-track action began early in the afternoon with a three-hour first practice session. This was the first opportunity for engineers and drivers to validate set-up changes made since Sunday’s test, alongside further analysis of the Michelin tyres on long stints. A productive and trouble-free session saw Brendon set the sixth fastest time in the #8 TR010 HYBRID, with Kamui’s lap putting the #7 car in 11th.

Second practice, from 10pm to midnight, brought the day to a close. As well as studying tyre and car performance in cooler, dark conditions, all six drivers completed their mandatory five night-time laps. The #7 car required repairs to the floor after an early spin across the kerbs but soon resumed and ended the session on top thanks to Kamui’s late lap. The #8 car was seventh, with Ryō setting its best lap.

Quotes:

Kamui Kobayashi (Team Principal and driver, car #7): “It was nice to have the first night session and the result looked quite nice for us. However, we still need to work on finding the right compromise in a few areas. It’s going to be a long race, so our priority is to be ready for it. We have to work on getting the most from our car. It will not be easy, but we are doing our best.”

Mike Conway (Driver, car #7): “We achieved what we wanted to do in qualifying, which was to get through today and make it into Hyperpole. I could have put together a better lap, to be honest. On my fastest lap I just touched the gravel and that cost me a little time. There were some things to improve, but I’ve not done qualifying for a while and it’s my first time to do it here at Le Mans. It was a fun experience and now it’s over to Kamui and Nyck tomorrow.”

Nyck de Vries (Driver, car #7): “It was a busy and eventful day, and we learned a lot. Mike did a good qualifying session to get us through to Hyperpole, which was the only target for qualifying. Overall, I think it was a reasonable day, but we need to work on improvements and take our opportunities tomorrow to prepare for the race.”

Sébastien Buemi (Driver, car #8): “We did our job in qualifying by getting into the top 15. Finishing eighth and six-tenths away is pretty much what we expected, so I’m quite content with that. I’m happy to get back to practice and try to fine-tune the set-up more before Hyperpole and, of course, the race. The car feels okay already, but we still want to get more from our package.”

Brendon Hartley (Driver, car #8): “We had a pretty clean day and it’s positive that Séb had a nice lap in qualifying to get us through. We went through quite a few test items in practice. I don't think we've got the answers for everything yet in terms of set-up, so we still have work to do. I had a little trip through the gravel in FP2 but hopefully that’s out of the way now and we minimise the mistakes from here.”

Ryō Hirakawa (Driver, car #8): “It’s been a busy day. We continued to work on tyre assessment and set-ups. We were able to go through our programme without any real troubles. The focus is on having a strong car in the race. We’re still learning with the tyres and set-up, now we need to continue working hard to optimise everything.”

For full results, please visit https://fiawec.alkamelsystems.com

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